I felt the same way about Google Reader -- I stopped relying on new Google products after it was sunsetted. But Reader has also come up in discussion as a cauti

I felt the same way about Google Reader -- I stopped relying on new Google products after it was sunsetted. But Reader has also come up in discussion as a cautionary tale. Because if we do build niche but well-loved capabilities and later determine that we can't afford to maintain them then we run the risk of the kind of backlash that Google got for Reader. Besides the argument that power users can become evangelists, the other argument I've used in feature prioritization meetings is that power users can provide significant utility to the whole user ecosystem by sharing the customizations and extensions they've developed with average users. Having said that, these kinds of features rarely make the cut, and even when they do they're often not as obviously successful as I would have hoped. With respect to the benefit of power-user "evangelism" that's hard to measure. It's hard to measure whether $400k for a few power-user features or $400k in average-user features ends up resulting in more paying users.