Recently I heard an entrepreneur exclaim how much he liked a certain product by saying “they thought of everything.” That saying wouldn’t leave my mind until it hit me later in the day — the startup didn’t think of everything, rather, they collected ideas from customers, partners, employees, and competitors. The ideas were then filtered and (hopefully) a product team with an opinionated vision made a decision on what to include, and more importantly, what to exclude (most things).
Entrepreneurs need to be vigilant about what does and doesn’t go into the product. Here are some things to think about when it comes to product management:
- Most feature requests should receive a “no”
- Don’t be all things to all people
- Develop an opinionated vision and stick with it
- Solicit input from all stakeholders and continually communicate with them
The next time you hear the phrase “they thought of everything” you should think to yourself “they filtered the noise to build a product that’s great for me.”
What else? What are your thoughts on product management and the phrase “they thought of everything?”
David Cummings on Startups 
Great article David. Thanks.
Reminds me of that stupid Toshiba TV commercial where the “executive looking” guy says “NO – put WiFi in that TV”, irrespective of what the full experience should be. Product decisions are certainly about conviction, taste, vision, synthesis of various needs, and understanding of constraints.