In the fast moving and competitive landscape of business, there’s always an eagerness and requirement to move quickly from idea to implementation. New features are often driven by requests from customers, stakeholders, or even competitive pressures. However, without asking the right questions, we run the risk of developing something that may not meet the actual needs of the users, may duplicate existing functionality, or worse, might end up unused. Therefore, it is imperative to start discovery of any feature or product by asking these questions
- Why is this feature required? What outcome are we trying to achieve?
- How will this feature be used? How many customers are expected to use this feature?
- Affect on customer experience?
- Time : Why is this feature required now?
In this article, we’ll explore why asking these critical questions early in the product development process is essential for delivering value, ensuring feature adoption, and preventing wasted resources on failed development efforts.
The problem with jumping straight into development
It’s tempting to jump straight into development when a new feature is requested, especially when stakeholders or clients express urgency without doing enough discovery. However, this rush to action often leads to poorly thought-out solutions that fail to deliver the desired outcomes.
One commonly observed phenomena is building a feature that solves a short-term problem but lacks long-term utility. For example, if a product manager or development team doesn’t ask enough questions about the purpose of a feature, they may inadvertently create something that only benefits a small group of users or doesn’t solve the core issue at hand. As a result, the feature goes underutilized, wasting time, money, and development effort.
Another potential pitfall is missing the opportunity to leverage existing features that could achieve the same result with minor tweaks. If the purpose and desired outcome aren’t fully understood, the team might end up building redundant functionality that could have been avoided altogether.
The consequences of not asking the right questions
The consequences of skipping asking these questions can be quite serious. Here are a few ways in which failing to ask about purpose, outcome, and usage can lead to failed products or underutilized features:
- Wasted development resources:
Every feature takes time, money, and talent to develop. When features are developed without a clear understanding of their purpose and how they will be used, resources are wasted on building something that may not deliver value. This can strain the development team and divert attention away from other, more critical features that could have driven more impact. - Poor user adoption:
When a feature doesn’t align with the real needs of users, they simply won’t use it. This lack of adoption can lead to financial woes for the company and make it difficult to justify future development efforts. Furthermore, poor adoption affects the overall success of the product and can lead to reputational damage if users perceive that the company doesn’t understand their needs. - Overcomplication of the product:
Adding unnecessary features makes the product more complex, harder to navigate, and more difficult to maintain. Instead of improving the user experience, you risk cluttering it, making the product harder to use and less intuitive. This can frustrate users, causing them to abandon the product in favour of simpler alternatives. - Delayed time to market:
Jumping into development without clear objectives can lead to rework, scope changes, and delays in delivering the feature to market. Teams often have to backtrack to address unforeseen issues or because the initial implementation didn’t solve the problem effectively. These delays can be costly, especially in competitive markets where timing is critical.
Why purpose, outcome, and usage questions are essential
By asking purpose, outcome, and usage questions upfront, product managers can avoid many of these pitfalls. Here’s why each of these questions is so critical:
- Purpose:
Asking, “What is the purpose of this feature?” ensures that the team understands the problem they are trying to solve. It allows the team to clarify whether the feature aligns with the overall product strategy and vision of the product. The purpose question helps in defining the “why” behind the feature, which in turn keeps the development efforts focused on delivering real value. - Outcome:
When we ask, “What outcome are we trying to achieve?” it forces us to think about the end result, rather than just the feature itself. Focusing on outcomes helps in setting clear success metrics for the feature and allows the team to measure whether it has delivered the intended value after deployment. This question is crucial for determining the feature’s impact on users, think about product ROI and ensuring that it contributes positively to the product’s overall success. - Usage:
Asking, “How will this feature be used?” helps in understanding the user journey and how the feature fits into it. It allows product managers to design the feature in a way that seamlessly integrates into the user’s workflow. Understanding usage patterns also helps in prioritizing features that will have the most significant impact on the user experience. - How much:
Asking “How many users need this?” would help us understand the impact of not building it. We may able to postpone the development if the impact is only a small percentage of users based and an alternate solution could be provided for those users.
Practical steps for asking the right questions
To ensure that your team doesn’t fall into the trap of developing underutilized features or wasting resources, consider integrating these steps into your product development process:
- Conduct Stakeholder Interviews:
Before development begins, engage with stakeholders, including customers, internal teams, and users, to gather insights about the problem. Ask specific questions to clarify their expectations and the value they see in the proposed feature. Understanding their perspective helps ensure alignment with the broader goals of the product. - Define success metrics:
Establish measurable success metrics for each feature before development starts. This will provide a clear outcome to aim for and give you a way to evaluate the feature’s performance after it is launched. Success metrics also help in prioritizing features based on their potential impact. - Map the user journey:
Understanding how a feature fits into the user journey is crucial for ensuring that it will be used effectively. Use journey mapping techniques to visualize how users will interact with the new feature and ensure that it doesn’t create unnecessary friction or complexity. - Evaluate xisting solutions:
Before jumping into development, review existing features to see if they can be adapted to achieve the same outcome. Often, small adjustments to current functionality can deliver the desired result more efficiently than building something entirely new. This can save time and reduce the complexity of your product. - Regularly reassess priorities:
Feature requests and development priorities should be reassessed regularly to ensure they still align with the product’s strategic goals. Markets and user needs can change quickly, so it’s important to remain flexible and willing to pivot when necessary.
Conclusion
In product management, it’s not just about building more features—it’s about building the right features. Asking the right questions—such as the purpose of the feature, the outcome you want to achieve, and how the feature will be used—helps ensure that every development effort is aligned with the product’s goals and delivers real value to users.
By taking the time to clarify these points upfront, product managers can avoid the common pitfalls that lead to failed development efforts. This disciplined approach ensures that resources are used efficiently, user needs are met, and the product continues to evolve in a way that drives success.
