What is a feature bloat?

Feature bloat is a term used to denote what happens when a product has too many features and functionalities.

Typically, this term refers to products that have been overburdened with “bells and whistles” features and are no longer capable of performing their primary job due to these extra features.

This can detract from the product’s original purpose and cause users to become dissatisfied with it.

The Benefits of a Feature Bloat

Businesses want their products to stand out in a crowded market, and one method to do so is to incorporate unique elements into their designs and manufacturing processes.

Even when features are implemented to improve the user experience, the opposite can frequently occur. Users may become perplexed by the increased complexity of additional parts or decide not to utilize them since they are superfluous.

Feature bloat may occur in various items, ranging from smartphones and apps to automobiles and home appliances — and, to a certain extent, it is understandable how it appears. As a result of the pursuit of competitive advantage, more and more features are added to the product until it deviates too far from its unique selling point (USP) or the item’s overall performance is compromised.

Furthermore, Customers may be eager for manufacturers to differentiate themselves from their competition by providing what they consider an additional value. Keep in mind that Bloating can occur when you least expect it and is caused by lousy coding habits or a lack of vigilance when it comes to monitoring the performance of your software.

How can businesses avoid becoming overburdened with features?

Estimate the long term costs

The first stage is to think about the ongoing costs and labor required throughout the product’s lifecycle. When it comes to the concept stage, adding features may be a good idea, but how much will it cost to design and implement them? In addition, what about the possible expenses associated with future updates or problem-solving efforts?

Effective planning and prioritization

Before introducing a feature into a product, it is critical to consider the following considerations. Effective planning and prioritization are required to ensure that this analysis is performed regularly within a product team.

A further important step in avoiding feature bloat is conducting in-depth customer research. For example, here are some questions you need to ask yourself:

●     Which characteristics satisfy a consumer need?

●     Which of the current ones is the source of the most dissatisfaction?

●     Does the absence or inclusion indicate that the customer will turn to a competitor?

Feature elimination

Finally, businesses must be willing to eliminate undesirable characteristics. Continuously improving unpopular or dysfunctional features can make the user experience more complex than it needs to be, increasing the risk of losing essential clients.

Even though eliminating a feature can be difficult when your team has put months of effort and money into it, you should take action if you believe it is genuinely in the best interests of the product or its users.

Keep in mind: deleting functionality comes at a cost. The need for additional expenses may be difficult to justify unless clients are enraged by a product’s lack of room or diminished performance. There is also the possibility of offending consumers who do utilize features that others think excessive and the possibility of negatively compromising the performance of added functions.

Product teams that do not regularly solicit user feedback may not even be aware that product bloat has crept into their product development process.

Conclusion

As discussed previously, Feature bloat can emerge when businesses add new features to their products through software updates or product upgrades, maybe in response to client feedback. But for various reasons, these same businesses may fail to eliminate existing features to make room for the addition of new features.

 

As a manager, you and the rest of your company should address feature bloat constantly throughout a product’s lifecycle.

A critical method of accomplishing this is to conduct regular consumer research to assess whether or not your target users will benefit from a particular feature being available. If you have any uncertainties, consult with users to determine the impact of problematic elements.

Be willing to act on the results if doing so would result in superior product output, even if it means cutting back on other aspects of the project.