A feature factory, a term coined by John Cutler, is a common pitfall for product teams where they keep building new features without measuring their impact. This can lead to a false sense of success, as the team focuses on shipping new features rather than ensuring that they are actually useful for customers. As a result, the team may end up creating more features with little iteration for existing ones.

Picture a team that realises it has fallen into this trap and decides to act. It writes a checklist to avoid becoming a feature factory while building a SaaS product, iterates on that checklist over time, and uses it to stay focused on solving customer problems rather than just shipping features. The checklist below is that thought experiment made concrete.

7 Point Checklist to Avoid Being a Feature Factory#

To avoid being a feature factory, product teams must take a methodical approach to feature development. Here is a 7-point checklist that can help teams avoid becoming a feature factory:

1. Assessing Impact#

Before starting to develop a new feature, teams must assess its impact on the business goals. It is important to measure the impact of the feature and ensure that the measurements are agreed upon by all the teams in the company, such as customer success, business, engineering, etc. This helps ensure that the feature aligns with the overall business goals.

2. Defining Success Metrics#

Every feature needs success metrics, or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), agreed before development starts. The KPIs must align with the larger business goal and mission. For instance, if the feature is designed to help product managers make better decisions, the KPIs must be designed to measure the impact of the feature on the decision-making process.

3. Identifying Customer Needs#

Start from the customer need the feature is designed to address. Teams must determine how the feature request came about and whether it was prompted by customer feedback. This helps ensure that the feature is designed to meet the needs of the customers.

4. Planning Ahead#

Good feature work is planned two steps ahead. This includes creating a roadmap for the next two iterations of the feature and ensuring that the feature is designed to accommodate future iterations. Using ChatGPT for product research and analysis is one way to build that roadmap.

5. Sharing Metrics with Engineering#

Share the metrics dashboard with the entire team of engineers. This helps them understand the impact they are creating with the customers and triggers ideas for them to build upon in the future.

6. Facilitating Feature Onboarding and Education#

Shipping is only half the job: onboarding and education finish it. This includes incorporating onboarding workflows and providing proper content copy to help users understand the feature. This helps users understand how the feature works, eventually increasing adoption.

7. Prioritizing Outcomes#

Outcomes come before output. Teams must focus firmly on the outcomes they aim to achieve through feature development. This perspective allows them to work towards tangible results, rather than simply moving tasks to the “done” column.

By following this 7-point checklist, product teams can avoid becoming a feature factory and ensure that they are building features that meet the needs of the customers and align with the overall business goals.