Product Envy... The Startup Killer
Having worked as a consultant and architect on numerous software development projects over the past 20 years, I've seen one consistent threat that plagues and often dooms great ideas before they even get off the ground -- I call it product envy.
It usually starts with a great idea, but often ends in disaster.
We have a fantastic idea, we have vetted it with our friends, colleagues and trusted advisors and colleagues, we have done our research, we have put together a budget, a solid roadmap, and have kicked off development. In fact, we are just a few months away from launch...
Suddenly we read somewhere that a similar product just raised a couple million. We dig under the covers, and think to ourselves "hey - this product seems pretty good - and it has a number of great features that we never even thought about. In fact I think i heard something about this venture, but I wasn't really fond of the idea... maybe I was wrong."
What next - we question our vision. Is it good enough? Can we compete with this "other" product? Should we revisit our roadmap?
Next we answer questions in a semi state of panic.
Well, that other venture must be solid, after all it has been vetted and funded. In fact it sounds like a great idea. In fact, there's no way we can compete with our current feature set. We only have a month until launch, but we've got to make some significant changes otherwise we are just wasting our time.
Product Envy...
Knee jerk reaction, "scrap the plan and shift gears". Usually, this is when everything falls apart. Some projects can survive this path once, but seldom twice. Even if the product is finished on time, such an abrupt shift often leads to the launch of inferior product that looks nothing like the original vision, contains a bunch of features that simply don't work well, and fails to solve the problem that it was built for in the first place.
At this stage, you are likely out of money, have burned out and alienated your programmers, and have lost the trust of the friends and family that helped you bootstrap. Now you've got to raise some real cash or scrap the project. Even worse, you don't feel comfortable showing the product to anyone in its current state.
Product envy can creep up unexpectedly.
Always keep an eye out for the symptoms.
- Are you regularly making significant changes to requirements after your development team is halfway through completion?
- Are the productivity and performance of your once stellar developers deteriorating rapidly?
- Is there an increased level of frustration and stress between you and your partners ?
- Do you avoid talking about the project with those who helped you come up with the cash to kick it off?
- Are you regularly adding and tweaking new features that were never part of your original roadmap?
- Are defects increasing at an alarming rate?
- Are you chasing similar product? (the most obvious symptom)
When product envy arises, there a series of questions question I ask myself and my clients specifically around prioritization of any features that weren't part of the original vetted plan:
- Would I really use any of these "new" features on a regular basis? or are they simply nice to have?
- Are any of the features really necessary to solve the problem that we set out to solve?
- What is the "real" cost of not adding these features to the first release, second release, ever?
- What is the "real" cost of derailing the project to squeeze these features in?
- Are the competitors we are chasing really competitors or does your product actually serve a different niche?
Common sense. But often under the stress of a new venture we forget to use it.
If the answers to the above questions indicate a real need and truly contribute to your value proposition then by all means adjust and re-prioritize, but do it without the panic, and with a full understanding of the real costs and benefits. Just remember to solve the problem that you set out to solve. It is also good practice to test new features with a control group or through a limited alpha before adding all the bells and whistles.
In summary...
- STAY FOCUSED
- QUESTION THE NEED FOR EVERY FEATURE
- GET REAL USER FEEDBACK AND REVIEW IT OBJECTIVELY
- REMEMBER YOUR VISION
- DON'T PANIC
Today our world is cluttered with useless apps, and services -- good ideas gone bad. Stick to your vision and build something that is truly useful.
And by all means, build something that you would actually use yourself.
Kevin Williams, President, Sidusa Systems, Inc.