Products start small and focused.

They do one thing really well — and that’s the primary reason they become successful.

A few years later, the team behind the product comes to the conclusion it has to do more. Features are added, new use cases are covered, and functionality becomes more sophisticated. That happens for the following reasons:

A percentage of users start asking for those additional features — either spontaneously (e.g. app store reviews) or, most of the times, when prompted via research and surveys.

those additional features — either spontaneously (e.g. app store reviews) or, most of the times, when prompted via research and surveys. We (as in “the product team”) identify a strong business opportunity around adding those new features, which will expand our product into other categories and steal market share from our competitors.

around adding those new features, which will expand our product into other categories and steal market share from our competitors. We assume that more lines in the water necessarily means growth. “You know, if I add this little feature, I’ll be more competitive and more likely to get new customers”.

The product scope grows.

Its navigation system has to be reimagined to accommodate all the new stuff.

We are constantly adding new features to it, but we rarely take features out.

To the point our product tries to do so many different things, that its value proposition starts to dilute amongst the plethora of features we have created.