David Cummings on Startups

Feature Rich vs Feature Niche

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David Cummings

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When building a software product, there’s a human tendency to go broad and add every feature a customer requests. Yet, some of the most successful products do a limited number of things well and eschew the bloat found in most applications.

I call this the feature rich vs feature niche conundrum.

Feature rich products have dozens of modules and hundreds of functions. Feature niche products have a select number of modules with only the most valuable functions.

Pardot is very much a feature rich product with dozens of B2B marketing modules. Calendly is very much a feature niche product doing beautiful, simple scheduling.

Entrepreneurs need to be intentional about their product strategy and consider the feature rich vs feature niche trade-offs.

What else? What are some more thoughts on feature rich vs feature niche?

Comments

One response to “Feature Rich vs Feature Niche”

  1. Jesse Phillips Avatar
    Jesse Phillips

    I read the 21 Laws of Marketing years ago. They said that businesses that focus intensely on doing one thing well become like a nail in the mind of customers. I think their examples were Starbucks (this book is at least 10 years old), and others who focus on one thing and do it well. They said “Have you ever heard of a famous deli?” (their argument being: delis are trying to do everything. Of course there are some famous delis, but the argument is that if you try to tackle a bunch of things and be the best at them, even if you are really good, you won’t stand out to customers). The way our human brains work, we use short-hand and rules of thumb to remember things and make sense of our world. Thus, when we find the app that does the best at X, we remember that as the go-to place for X.

    Therefore, depending on your market, it might make more sense to focus, rather than to be general. And if you want to expand your offering, maybe create a new brand, rather than expand the existing brand. Sorry for the ramble. Food for thought.

    Reply

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