4 ms·

Build a product. Not Features.

14 points by whoisvince 15y ago

ctdonath 15y ago
This morning I was mulling over the notion "when the product is good enough, specs don't matter; if specs matter, the product isn't good enough." Consider Apple's "retina display": users don't care what the resolution is, because it's beyond anything they can reasonably perceive. Ditto iOS device memory size, processor speed, etc.: nobody (on the whole) cares, because it's enough to do the job. While other tablets are touting their long list of specs & compatibilities, the iPad triumphs because it "just works". Likewise most audio products, good enough that few users notice. Likewise the reason DVDs still dominate the HDTV media market: upsampled to a decent display, they look fine. You get the idea, insert your analogy here. This is relevant to the article insofar as a list of features amounts to a list of backhanded excuses for why the user should buy this product after all: it's not so good that it "just works" and 'nuff said, marketers have to dazzle the audience with nifty verbiage which amounts to "it's good enough despite the limitations". This entails the bait-and-switch / smoke-and-mirrors of distracting customers with either great-sounding stuff they won't actually use, or presenting the sad facts in a cheerful way (akin to pharmaceutical ads depicting happy people dancing thru fields while a pleasant voice notes "may cause kidney failure", which the audience registers as a good thing). Convincing the audience "it's adequate" means it isn't. Make something which just works. Lists of features is pleading a case which shouldn't be necessary.
- whoisvince 15y ago
  Great comment @ctdonath.. and exactly. Even if it's unintended too this 'issue' still happens, and slowly creeps up on companies. Palm mentioned at how they wanted to build the pre and then slowly kept adding wow-features and tricks to the list, until they realized that's what was wrong with their products already. Granted, I'm not a huge fan of the Palm Pre, I believe they did an excellent job in comparison to their past product releases where they solely focused on tech. specs & things the average consumer really didn't care about. It's not guaranteed success either way, but making a product that "just works" in the your users eyes will give an advantage.
cek 15y ago
Amen. One of my favorite truisms is "The best product development teams are as good at saying 'No' as they are at saying 'Yes'." Also: "Do a few things, and do them really, really well." Which goes along with: "As a leader 90% of the decisions you make are unimportant. Focus on the other 10%."
ebiester 15y ago
Caveat: This works in B2C and some B2B. In some B2B, RFPs are reduced to checklist / price, no matter if they need those features, think they need those features, or have no interest in those features. As always, know your market.

14 points by whoisvince 15y ago

This morning I was mulling over the notion "when the product is good enough, specs don't matter; if specs matter, the product isn't good enough." Consider Apple's "retina display": users don't care what the resolution is, because it's beyond anything they can reasonably perceive. Ditto iOS device memory size, processor speed, etc.: nobody (on the whole) cares, because it's enough to do the job. While other tablets are touting their long list of specs & compatibilities, the iPad triumphs because it "just works". Likewise most audio products, good enough that few users notice. Likewise the reason DVDs still dominate the HDTV media market: upsampled to a decent display, they look fine. You get the idea, insert your analogy here. This is relevant to the article insofar as a list of features amounts to a list of backhanded excuses for why the user should buy this product after all: it's not so good that it "just works" and 'nuff said, marketers have to dazzle the audience with nifty verbiage which amounts to "it's good enough despite the limitations". This entails the bait-and-switch / smoke-and-mirrors of distracting customers with either great-sounding stuff they won't actually use, or presenting the sad facts in a cheerful way (akin to pharmaceutical ads depicting happy people dancing thru fields while a pleasant voice notes "may cause kidney failure", which the audience registers as a good thing). Convincing the audience "it's adequate" means it isn't. Make something which just works. Lists of features is pleading a case which shouldn't be necessary.

whoisvince 15y ago
Great comment @ctdonath.. and exactly. Even if it's unintended too this 'issue' still happens, and slowly creeps up on companies. Palm mentioned at how they wanted to build the pre and then slowly kept adding wow-features and tricks to the list, until they realized that's what was wrong with their products already. Granted, I'm not a huge fan of the Palm Pre, I believe they did an excellent job in comparison to their past product releases where they solely focused on tech. specs & things the average consumer really didn't care about. It's not guaranteed success either way, but making a product that "just works" in the your users eyes will give an advantage.

cek 15y ago

Amen. One of my favorite truisms is "The best product development teams are as good at saying 'No' as they are at saying 'Yes'." Also: "Do a few things, and do them really, really well." Which goes along with: "As a leader 90% of the decisions you make are unimportant. Focus on the other 10%."

ebiester 15y ago

Caveat: This works in B2C and some B2B. In some B2B, RFPs are reduced to checklist / price, no matter if they need those features, think they need those features, or have no interest in those features. As always, know your market.