Escape the feature hell

What is feature hell and how to escape it? Have you ever been on a project that just never seemed to get done because tons of features were planned (and added as the project went)? Well, my friend, then you’ve walked through feature hell. Feature hell is implementing features that will be rarely used, are not crucial and don’t deliver (much) customer value. Moreover these features can easy lead to overcomplication of the product, resulting in bad user experience and much worse maintainability. See the wikipedia entry for feature creep.

So how can we escape? Well, this escape starts from above, management and product owners need a paradigm shift. They need to understand that by removing unneccessary, delaying features the product will be even more of value, not less and it will even be delivered earlier. It’s a hard thing at the beginning, “letting go” of features but after a few iterations it starts to show its value.

Nice, but how do we know which features would be useful and which wouldn’t? Everyone wants their ideas implemented and delivered and they all think theirs is the most important feature ever.

Based on my experience most of the unimportant features can be weeded out by just taking an objective point of view and thinking. Yes, common sense has its proven powers. This is not always enough, measurement is also very important. Measure the usage (how many users use it, how they use it), try out scenarios, A/B test a lot, do focused surveys, involve many colleagues in brainstorming. Usually it’s not that hard. It takes a bit more time while planning, but spares a lot of resources when implementing. Also create project plan scenarios to show management the big win. Tell them that implementing with the top 20 features will take 2 weeks but if they want the other 15 unimportant (based on common sense and former measurements/surveys) features it will take a month. Let them choose. Trust me, everyone loves short and effective projects.

What is feature hell and how to escape it? Have you ever been on a project that just never seemed to get done because tons of features were planned (and added as the project went)? Well, my friend, then you've walked through feature hell. Feature hell is implementing features that will be rarely used, are not crucial and don't deliver (much) customer value. Moreover these features can easy lead to overcomplication of the product, resulting in bad user experience and much worse maintainability. See the wikipedia entry for feature creep. So how can we escape? Well, this escape starts from above, management and product owners need a paradigm shift. They need to understand that by removing unneccessary, delaying features the product will be even more of value, not less and it will even be delivered earlier. It's a hard thing at the beginning, "letting go" of features but after a few iterations it starts to show its value. Nice, but how do we know which features would be useful and which wouldn't? Everyone wants their ideas implemented and delivered and they all think theirs is the most important feature ever. Based on my experience most of the unimportant features can be weeded out by just taking an objective point of view and thinking. Yes, common sense has its proven powers. This is not always enough, measurement is also very important. Measure the usage (how many users use it, how they use it), try out scenarios, A/B test a lot, do focused surveys, involve many colleagues in brainstorming. Usually it's not that hard. It takes a bit more time while planning, but spares a lot of resources when implementing. Also create project plan scenarios to show management the big win. Tell them that implementing with the top 20 features will take 2 weeks but if they want the other 15 unimportant (based on common sense and former measurements/surveys) features it will take a month. Let them choose. Trust me, everyone loves short and effective projects.

Tagged as: feature creep, feature folly, management