To balance innovation with buyer resistance, product managers (PMs) must focus on the actual value delivered to customers, not just their perception of it. PMs must gather feedback from customers on new features to validate whether or not they are providing 10x value. This can be done through prototyping, as outlined in Product Management in Practice by Matt Lemay, interviews, pricing alignment experiments (to avoid the 9x problem). Furthermore, when developing new features, PMs should clearly define and validate the problem or need they are addressing and what the ideal outcome(s) look like. As Lemay states in his book, ‘teams that are hyper focused on output are often…working towards the…least specific outcomes,’ (pg. 245 LeMay). Focusing on creating “a” solution can be a trap, leading to ineffective problem-solving, whereas focusing on an outcome like ‘users receiving their Amazon packages earlier’ in the case of Amazon Prime, allows for more flexibility in crafting effective solutions. By thinking in terms of outcomes, PMs can also mitigate behavior changes and lessen friction by analyzing which solutions lead to those outcomes yet still minimize behavior change.
Loss aversion, the concept that losses impact people more than similarly sized gains, comes into play when analyzing the value of the new product/feature a PM is developing. Does their new feature completely beat incumbents, and does it offer so much value, it renders the endowment effect null? PMs should know their ideal outcome: are they aiming for an easy sell, a smash hit, or a long haul? Potential customers will not widely adopt something that they do not understand as a paradigm shift i.e. smash hits, and so PMs must gauge customer sentiment: ‘do they feel like they are losing more by using our new feature than gaining?’ in order to figure out where on the ‘Capturing Value from Innovations’ matrix the new feature/product falls. Taking into account loss aversion can shape product outcomes and launch expectations.
Feature creep, the concept of adding features to a product (usually one that has already found product-market-fit (PMF)), negatively impacts that product by introducing unnecessary complexity, thereby undermining its original utility. To avoid feature creep, PMs must avoid post-hoc justifications for adding features (pg. 60 LeMay), especially if the product has found PMF. Aligning new features with customer complaints/pain-points is critical to protecting the integrity of the product while accurately iterating the product. Sometimes, new features are not necessary; issues might be borne by poor communication between company and customer or user-product interaction issues. When it comes to meeting these ‘eager sellers’ demands,’ PMs should first educate stakeholders on what complexities meeting those demands would introduce, what can be expected, and most importantly, PMs should figure out if this is a case of ‘misaligned incentives’ (pg. 113 LeMay): does the customer need this new feature? Will the company lose major business if they do not develop it? As Lemay points out, PMs can utilize liaisons like account managers to better figure out these ‘sellers’ needs’ and see if feature development is necessary (pg. 113).
LeMay, Matthew. Product Management in Practice: A Practical, Tactical Guide for Your First Day and Every Day After. O’Reilly Media, Inc, 2022.
