More Features Or Better Usability? The Product Manager’s Dilemma
We are product managers and motivated people. We desire the product we offer to rank the best in its market. This means that whenever our customers are shopping they should examine our product and realize that it’s the product they are looking for and no other product can come as close! To get to the level we’d like to be, we need to continue making improvements to our product development process and the main question we have to answer is what kind of improvements our customers actually need?
More Features!
Our product may not be the only option available – but if you’re able to get it, congratulations, your company has a market monopoly on your hands. What is this to you as a product director is that you must keep the eye on your competitors. What is their strategy? What is their strategy? What are the features and capabilities they emphasizing in their marketing and in their documentation?
There is of course another aspect to all this talk about features. What are your customers actually are interested in? When you meet with them, do you have an array of features they want? Does your product has these features, or at the very least, a means to achieve what they’d like in these features? Chances are you’ll get something you can add to your resume as a product manager. One of the most powerful software tools that are currently available is Photoshop. The image editing program looks like it could accomplish everything a skilled graphic artist would want it to accomplish.
The issue with Photoshop (from my perspective) is that it is able to do more than it needs to! It’s got features that are on top of the capabilities. I’ve attempted to figure out how to operate this complicated piece of software a few times, and every time I’ve had to give up because it was too much to remember. Yes, adding more features can improve the appearance of your product relative to other options on the market however, you must ensure that potential clients don’t suffer from an experience of “feature overloaded”.
Improved Usability!
Product usability implies that when people make use of your product, they will have a more enjoyable experience. The challenge in improving the usability of your product is that the people who are focused on our ability are the exact team that is normally trying to add new features. That means there’s going to be some cost involved in improving the usability of your product.
When you add a brand new aspect to your service, you’ll boast to your potential and existing customers. This isn’t the situation when working on usability. Enhancing the usability of your product is more subtle. If you’re doing it right the existing customers will be happy and their lives will be made better. But, the prospective customers won’t have any evidence that you’ve made improvements to your product.
The power behind boosting the user-friendliness of your product lies in the positive word-of-mouth it will result in. Customers who are already customers will speak with prospective customers, and if the right story about usability They’ll boast about how simple it is for them to utilize your product in order to complete the task they’re trying to accomplish. This is a powerful statement that can help make your product one of the ones that are selected when it’s the moment to take a buying decision. The problem for you as an executive in charge of your product is that it is difficult to quantify the impact your usability features have on the success of your product.
What does this mean What Does This Mean For What Does This Mean For
Product managers constantly try to ensure that their product is the one that’s most attractive to prospective customers. This is the main goal of our job description. To accomplish this they can choose between two options when making modifications to their product. They may add new features or enhance the user-friendliness of the product.
Making new features available to your product is a simple option to take. If you introduce a new feature and suddenly your product performs something could be one of your competitors doesn’t accomplish. Making the product more user-friendly is more subtle. Your current customers will be benefited immediately, however, your prospective customers are likely not to notice the difference.
The best option for the product manager is to make sure that you balance both kinds of changes. Yes, you should add new features so that you be able to boast about them to prospective customers. But, at the same as you make improvements to usability as well so that the product is always improving and getting better for your current customers. Make sure this is the right mix and your product can take over the market!
