Product managers can balance innovating and introducing new features while addressing buyer resistance by employing various strategies the reading outlines. 1) They could make behaviorally compatible products to reduce the psychological barrier to change. 2) They could seek out the unendowed (or customers that already don’t really use the current product). These users are ideal because they’re less likely to resist changes and allow the product managers to introduce these new features. 3) They could find believers, or people who are already more inclined towards innovation. These users could demonstrate the value of these new features to hesitant buyers, resulting in a broader adoption. 4) They could strive for 10x improvement to make the benefits outweigh the losses or discomfort associated with switching.
The last point touches on another concept the reading talks about, “loss aversion,” the phenomenon of buyers preferring to avoid losses over acquiring equivalent gains. This then results in the buyer to be more resistant to change because they don’t want to give up the familiar product (which they have bias towards). Product managers can leverage this knowledge to facilitate the adoption of new features by implementing the 10x improvement strategy. Other than making a product have much more gains that existing ones, they could offer trial periods or money-back guarantees to minimize the risk of “loss.”
Feature creep is the concept of gradually adding features to a product to address eager sellers’ demands. However, this can have negative impacts such as: overwhelming the user by potentially making the product to difficult to use with all of the different features; diluting the value proposition by diluting the core value of the product; and increase development costs since they’re continuously adding to the product. Product managers can avoid falling into this trap while addressing eager sellers’ demands by setting a clear product vision. This vision can guide feature development and prevent these feature creeps. The product manager could deter these additions by asking “does this feature align with our core value proposition?” Another way they could avoid falling into this trap is by conducting regular usability testing during the product development process to ensure that every new feature is easy to use and delivers value.
