How to prevent Feature bloat?

When a product has too many features, and these features do not necessarily solve the core problem of customers, this is an indication that the product is likely suffering from FEATURE BLOAT.?You can point out that user feedback is a key source of those features, however, your product team also needs to consider what and what not to consider in the product backlog.?

Just like a scope creep in Traditional Project management, feature bloat can easily creep its way into the product without the product’s team's realization if the team is not coupling tightly the features with user needs and a core problem to solve. I remember ordering a cupcake, in my head, it should be a simple cupcake right? When the cupcake arrived,?I saw all these icings, fillings, and toppings and it felt really overwhelming since I was certain I did not order it for a party or birthday cake. Yes, some other people will prefer that cupcake, but for me, all that clearly indicates I am not their persona.

A lot of startups/ companies get into the trap of feature bloat for some reasons which include-?

• Competitive Pressure; desire to create the best of everything by creating unique, differentiating products that will give them an advantage over competitors.
• Keep customers satisfied and happy; In order to keep customers happy, some organizations could fall into the feature bloat trap by always adding extra features. Keeping customers happy is a great strategy, but those additional features are not validated to serve customers' niche needs, they could provide negative outcomes. ?

The downside to your product suffering from FEATURE BLOAT;?

• Feature bloat can impact your product negatively, these impacts can be devastating, can be minimal or can lead to a single point of failure for your product as customer engagement can rapidly drop and revenue affected. Feature bloats are not cheap, as they can increase opportunity cost, loss of time and effort to build and unbuild these features into the product.
• They can lead to poor customer satisfaction and poor brand value both short term and long term as they can add to the cognitive load and may lead to decision paralysis for your users.?

How do I identify when feature bloat is creeping?into my product?

• Before Launch/during development- When features request start filling your backlog, then it is time to pause and validate if these features actually tie to customer needs and the core problem your product is solving. This is common when you are still in your early-stage or building your MVP.?
• After Launch- Metrics! Metrics! Metrics! When feature bloat kicks in, customer engagement will start suffering, and metrics like DAU, and WAU count will be impacted negatively. NPS and CSAT scores will also suffer too. After any release, if any of these metrics steers south and cannot be linked to other reasons, then that is a red flag already.

Okay! How do I prevent feature bloat from creeping into my product?

First thing first… don’t panic, you have to remain calm as a pm at all times.?

When you catch potential feature bloat, the best thing to do is to validate by going back to the problem statement your product solved and validate against the user persona. Also, validate it against your well-defined customer pain points and how close it is aligned to it. Ask yourself, did this feature help to converge the core objective? If not, then you have some work?to do to correct the course and get your product back on track.?

A very useful template as outlined by @Matt Lemay puts it in very simple terms. Here are a few of them;

• Identify what the issue is— A well-defined problem gets you halfway to the problem solving and keeps your team aligned to validate the core problem without ambiguity.?
• Who reported the issue? — This helps to outline the source and the course of action to take. Different source means different strategies to validate it. For example, if the feature bloat came from senior management, versus it came from customer feedback, or from a team member, different strategies are required to tackle each of these scenarios.?
• How many users are affected? — This will help you create a cohort of users and describe a persona to them. You can validate if these cohorts are the target customers you initially meant the feature for. This is where the @mixpanel product analytics tool is very useful. The silver lining to these is that the cohorts you created can help you define another pain point that needs solving but is always validated through customer research.?
• Is Revenue directly tied to this issue? If so, how much? Responding to this question is essential and critical and should be validated early and accurately to ensure more losses are not accrued by the company.?
• What would happen if this issue were not addressed in the next two weeks? What about in the next six months? In other words, what is the impact? — these questions are very important because they can be a revenue impact which is not good for your company. This also helps to check the severity of the feature bloat and protects your team in case a directive has come from the top.?
• Lastly, who is the contact person for further resolving/discussing the issue?— this helps to identify the next steps and sets you and your team on the path of closure and retrospection for future references.?

In product management, you win some and lose some, but taking these steps can help you mitigate some risks, move on quickly and improve your product. The key is to identify Feature bloat as soon as possible.

If you found this helpful, please leave a comment or like to reach more PMS.?#productmanagement #prioritization #customerengagement?