(68)How to avoid turning your product into a feature factory?

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This week, a piece of news that caught everyone's attention was Apple's software release strategy for the next iOS version. The next two versions of iOS wont have any major redesign or a big killer new feature, unlike what previous versions have brought. Instead of working on new features, they are focussed on bug fixes to make iOS more stable, more reliable and faster. Here's a quote on Bloomberg:

"Instead of keeping engineers on a relentless annual schedule and cramming features into a single update, Apple will start focusing on the next two years of updates for its iPhone and iPad operating system, according to people familiar with the change. The company will continue to update its software annually, but internally engineers will have more discretion to push back features that aren't as polished to the following year."

It is such a breath of fresh air to hear this. Isn't it?

However, this goes against the grain of many organisations that battle the pressure of delivering the next 'highlight' features to retain customers and influence them to update or upgrade their products. On the other hand, to be fair, we all have to run a business after all and without new features to showcase, how can you keep your customers interested in you? - a perfect Catch-22 situation.

Here are some of my observations on how to deal with it:

1. Watch out for feature factory tendencies

If for example, you have shipped over 50 new features in a year and all of the 50 features have remained in your product then that is a sign of becoming a feature factory. Even the best product companies only are able to achieve somewhere around 40% success rates with their features.

Here's a quote from Microsoft:

2. Build a habit of pulling out non-performing features in every release cycle.

I presented my thoughts around this topic this week at work with the help of these slides:

As PMs, our high leverage contribution is to ensure that the features the product team is building meets its intended goal.

There could be many reasons for your feature not reaching its goal:

• May be your hypothesis was wrong
• May be we are solving a problem that doesnt exist
• Or a 100 other reasons

By deciding to pull the feature out, you build a habit to stay lean and not feature bloat your product with non-performing features.

By deciding to pull the feature out, you build a habit to keep your product lean and not feature bloat your product with non-performing features.

Output mindset vs Outcome mindset

Output mindset is what happens when you ship features without being deliberate about whether your features have achieved their intended goals. This results in feature factory.

Outcome mindset is when you measure the success of your features, invest time and energy in doing a lot of boring iterations and move them towards their intended goal. And if you do not succeed, take a decision to pull the feature out.

The key is to move from output mindset to outcome mindset.

As PMs, you are not responsible to release a feature, but see to it that they achieve their intended outcome.

Preventing Output Mindset through a Done Ritual

At TeamViewer, we follow a rigorous process of performing a Done ritual before we let a feature move from In the Wild(Shipped) to Done. In the Wild stage is when a feature makes first customer contact.

This prevents us from letting slip any feature that doesn't meet its intended goals and still staying in the product.

In this ritual, product managers present the state of their features in front of stakeholders answering the following questions:

1.

2.

3.

4.

The above four slides form the template for the Done ritual.

These are some of the ways we ensure, we do not turn ourselves into a feature factory.

Do let me know what practices do you follow in your organization.

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If you like this post, you may be interested in my monthly email newsletter where I share book summaries of high-impact books each month for product/business people. You can unsubscribe any time.