"Our users are going to LOVE this."
Famous last words.
Six months and $80K later, the feature launches. Usage: 3%. The feature your users didn't ask for turned out to be the feature they don't need.
I see this pattern constantly.
Clients request features because they THINK users want them. But they haven't actually asked. They're making assumptions based on gut feeling, not data.
Or they're copying a competitor's feature without understanding WHY it exists. Maybe that competitor built it for enterprise clients with 10,000 users. You have 200.
The most expensive features are the ones nobody uses.
Validate Before Building
Talk to 10 users. Actually talk to them. Not a survey. A conversation.
→ Show them a mockup → Describe the problem it solves → Ask what they'd pay for it → Watch their reaction
Look at your analytics. What are users ACTUALLY doing in your app? Where do they spend time? Where do they drop off?
Run a smoke test. Add a "Coming Soon" button. See how many people click it. If nobody clicks, nobody wants it.
If users aren't asking for it organically, don't build it.
This is exactly what our discovery phase catches. We interview actual users. We analyze behavior. We challenge assumptions BEFORE writing code.
I've saved clients hundreds of thousands of dollars by killing features in discovery that would have flopped in production.
The best feature is often the one you DON'T build.
What's a feature you built that nobody used? What did you learn?
#ProductDevelopment #UserResearch #SoftwareDevelopment #ProductStrategy #FeaturePrioritization
→ scopeforged.com
Philip Rehberger Founder, ScopeForged scopeforged.com
