Totally agree - I always try to focus on requirements, not features. It is really hard for some people to speak in requirements, and the only way you can get th

Totally agree - I always try to focus on requirements, not features. It is really hard for some people to speak in requirements, and the only way you can get them out often is with frank discussions. Second guessing can work if you know your customer really well, but asking people to talk with you works amazingly IF you can help translate for them. A while back I was rebuilding a larger kids site and in a meeting I was told the site needed a 'big red button on the homepage, that makes a funny noise when you press it' - everyone in the room agreed it was a great idea, and the editorial team tried to push it onto my requirements list. I explained that it was a feature not a requirement (to which they stated that 'well I require it to be on the homepage, so it's a requirement') but I explained what I meant and after a bit of talking we came up with a whole requirement set that we were then able to set off and build to. The original 'feature' became: As a user I want to be excited As a user I want to be surprised As a user I want to feel I need to see what happens next As a user I want to never know what might happen As a user I want to have some thing 'physical' to play with As a user I want to feel like I've done something to affect the site (and many many more) We ended up with a fun widget on the home screen, and could well have even made a big red button, if that was what would have best met the requirements (it didn't btw). It ended up user testing really well, kids now love it and it enhances 'accidental' journeys across the site (triggering it now fires you off to a randomly selected page from a list of the 20 coolest pages). But any time you can successfully translate 'features' into 'requirements' you are on to a winner. (Widget is here [lower right corner of the screen], and kids still love it!: http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/ )