"Just Ship More Features!"

When I launched Fantastic Forms a few months ago, it came with the basic features you would expect from a form builder.

But I didn’t want to just be another form builder. I wanted to be the best.

And how do you become the best?

By offering the most!

And so...every few days, I would build, release and announce a new feature that I assumed users would want. In turn, they would become and stay loyal customers, right?

In reality, it was just me staying in my comfort zone and coding new things without wanting/needing to speak to anybody or do any marketing.

I liked the idea of outbuilding my competitors and becoming the “obvious choice” of the industry. Just keep this pace and you’ll be #1 in a few more months.

I could see the path before me.

In fact, every time I released a new feature, I would get a little excited.

Not because I was going to use it myself, or that it would fulfill a users request…but because I thought it could be the much-needed trigger that would spark virality and spike revenue overnight.

In other words, it was like buying a lottery ticket every time I shipped a new feature. And I was in control of how many lottery tickets I could get.

So, why not just keep building new features?

Well, because new features:

• Don’t actually sell the product for you
• Are not a substitute for marketing
• Should be a user request, not a personal guess
• Can (at some point) work against you

If you have too many features, you can become slow, bloated and undermine the technical edge you once had in the market. You could introduce complexity and confusion to users who were never going to use 99% of your fancy widgets or settings anyway…hindering potential signups in the process.

There are competing products with less features making 1000x what I am.

Therefore, I can acknowledge how counter-intuitive it can be to focus on features alone. Success takes time, promotion, branding and a sprinkle of luck.

Just keep going, and don’t fall for the feature trap.

(I’m mainly speaking to myself here, but if you can resonate, that goes for you, too.)

— Sebastian