Thread by @andybudd

I see this so much in my conversations with founders. The belief that shipping that next major feature on your roadmap will somehow magically open the floodgates to a tidal wave of new customers.

https://twitter.com/bokardo/status/598959253454336001

This often happens because potential customers have told the founders that the reason they're not buying is because the product lacks said feature. However it's often just a polite (and less awkward) way of saying they're not interested in the product.

So rather than hurt the founders feelings they'll make up some excuse why they're not ready to buy. That excuse is usually some non-essential feature that seems like a helpful idea at the time.

The problem is that sometimes the feature they request really is a blocker. This often revolves around issues of security, accessibility, or legal compliance. Or relates to their tech stack, or need for specific integrations. So being able to determine between the two is key.

Most founders will simply thank a prospective client for their feature recommendations. A good researcher will know to ask why this feature is a potential blocker for them, and do a more critical job of evaluating their answer.

I'll also add that these "killer features" are usually targeted at closing sales with highly demanding "power users", who are essentially going around every platform "feature shopping".

The features that really drive growth are the features that turn new and casual users into regular committed users. These tend to be fairly simple features around messaging and updates, rather than power features you may only use once a month.