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The build trap: Dangers of a feature factory mindset
- The 'feature factory' mindset in product management emphasizes quantity over impact, often leading to the build trap with bloated products and poor fit between business goals and user needs.
- Adding more features can harm product-market fit by increasing complexity, maintenance costs, diluting core value proposition, and leading to rushed, ineffective solutions.
- Signs of a feature factory include stakeholder-driven priorities, focus on outputs instead of outcomes, and measuring success by story points completed rather than real impact.
- Agile teams can fall into the feature factory trap by prioritizing feature churn over learning through iteration and adapting based on user feedback.
- Product roadmaps often fail to drive real user outcomes when they prioritize shipping over problem-solving and fail to measure success beyond launch metrics.
- Top organizations like Microsoft, Dropbox, and Slack escaped the feature factory mindset by shifting towards outcome-driven models, focusing on core user needs, and refining product offerings.
- To implement outcome-oriented roadmapping, teams should define clear success metrics, align teams around business goals, prioritize based on evidence, use OKRs, and validate learnings faster.
- Escaping the feature factory mindset requires a shift from shipping features to solving problems, from outputs to outcomes, and from feature checklists to focusing on business impact.
- Product managers should view roadmaps as strategic tools that define how products create value over time, emphasizing problem-solving and desired outcomes over simply shipping features.
- The key to success lies in shifting towards an outcome-driven approach that prioritizes solving real problems and creating meaningful business impact.
- Moving away from the feature factory mindset is essential for product success, emphasizing a focus on outcomes, aligning with business goals, and validating decisions through evidence and user feedback.
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