When building a product it is very easy to make a list of features to build. One could brainstorm to create an initial list, copy features from a similar product or ask others (including potential users or customers ) via a feature wish list.
However which feature to prioritize and what to build first? is one of the most burning question for startup founders and early employees.
There will always be more features to build and add than there is the capacity or bandwidth to build.The additional challenge is even after building it is not clear if it was the right decision.
These decisions typically happen based on what one thinks is cool to build or someone has asked to build first. For lack of a better framework to use to decide that is how things move forward but time runs out, product builder stand clueless what should have gone in the first place.
LeanStartup principles offer a framework for thinking about this. BUILD gets complemented by MEASURE & LEARN and which further loops.
At the beginning of an idea building an MVP is good step forward (which as we previously is tool for learning & may not be any feature of the product) to learn a little bit more.
With learning from MVP additional features can be decided upon. List each feature in terms in terms of the learning that they should yield along with a defined metric.
At various stage of a startup different metrics matter and come into play. For instance in the very beginning along with the MVP – validation of problem & solution is the important metric. Once that is established metrics relevant user acquisition, retention, referrals become important.
The first step to decide before periodization is to decide the metric for startup to focus on. Once the metric identified picking the feature become easy.
For instance for a product the problem/validation is established the next important stage is to acquire users really fast then to prioritize a feature ask the question “Does feature X allow to acquire users more by Y%”. Pick the feature first that will have the higher score for this. If development time comparison for the feature is steep then factor it in the trade-off.
In essence the question “Which features to prioritize to first” is to be really framed as “Which learning to prioritize first ?”