Here’s how the story goes: You have a narrow list of features and a clear project timeline, just like all the experts recommend. But, a week into development, an investor campaigns to add a new feature, and you oblige. After all, she’s backing your product, and you need to keep her happy. A couple of weeks later, your team gets word that a competitor launched a feature your product doesn’t have. In a panic, you tack on a similar feature to the project. After a few more additions, you suddenly find yourself weeks past your target deadline and over budget on a tragically complex product.
What happened? Feature creep.
This all-too-common SaaS development problem costs companies thousands—potentially hundreds of thousands—of dollars in product costs, lost users, and reduced quality. Though feature creep plagues many projects, it’s not inevitable. Keep reading to learn how to avoid it. Feature creep, also known as feature bloat or scope creep, is the gradual addition of unnecessary features, often at the expense of time, budget, and user experience.
What is Feature Creep?
In software development, feature creep (also known as scope creep or feature bloat), is the gradual addition of unnecessary features, often at the expense of time, budget, and user experience. While the intention might be to create a more comprehensive solution, the result is often a bloated, complex product that fails to meet its core objectives.
Causes of Feature Creep
As the term suggests, feature creep often sneaks up, progressing incrementally. Understanding the primary causes of this phenomenon can help you prevent it altogether. Most feature creep occurs due to one of these reasons.
- Poor prioritization or unclear goals. Without a well-defined vision and clear priorities, it's easy to get sidetracked by "nice-to-have" features that don't contribute to the core value proposition.
- Overreaction to stakeholder or user requests. While feedback is essential, not every request warrants a new feature. It's crucial to distinguish between valuable suggestions and those that might lead to scope creep.
- Lack of a defined scope or roadmap. A clear roadmap with defined milestones and budget constraints is essential to prevent scope creep. Without it, projects can easily spiral out of control.
- Pressure from competitors. The desire to keep up with competitors can lead to adding features that aren't aligned with your product's core purpose.
- Internal politics and ego. Sometimes, feature creep stems from internal pressures or the desire to add "pet features" that don't serve the user's needs.
Feature Creep in SaaS Development
Feature creep can take several different forms in SaaS development. Often, it starts with the minimum viable product (MVP). While plenty of evidence demonstrates the importance of an MVP, committing to this crucial first step in the agile development process requires more discipline than many teams realize. Often, feature creep looks like adding too many secondary features to an MVP.
Another common symptom of feature creep in SaaS development is a bloated, hard-to-navigate user interface. Simple, consistent UX designs are hard to pull off when feature creep happens. Adobe Illustrator® is a classic example of a feature-rich software that bogs down users with a cluttered, overly complex interface. While experienced users benefit from the product’s many capabilities, its abundance of features makes the interface unintuitive and hard to master for new users.
Why Feature Creep is a Problem for SaaS Teams
About half of projects experience scope creep, according to a 2018 report by the Project Management Institute (PMI). Though feature creep is common, it can have devastating consequences for SaaS teams. A product falling victim to feature bloat can cost you in several ways.
- Increased development costs and missed deadlines. Time is money when it comes to software development. Tackling too many product features stretches your timeline and adds complexity, ultimately delaying your project and making it more expensive.
- Poor user experience due to complexity. Feature bloat often comes from a good place — even a perceived focus on users, but in fact, it downgrades user experience. Complexity inhibits a seamless, intuitive user experience, jeopardizing your ability to attract and keep users.
- Straying from the product’s core value proposition. Sometimes, feature creep happens when teams start chasing shiny new objects—say AI or speech recognition features—even though they don’t align with the product’s stated goal. In this way, feature creep can keep your product from doing what it promises to do for users.
When it comes to feature creep, good intentions aren’t enough. Feature creep often happens in the name of giving the user more, but its impacts can still be detrimental to the user—and the company.
How to Avoid Feature Creep
Knowing that feature creep is a problem is the first step. To avoid it, however, you must take an active approach. Follow these six steps to bypass the impacts of feature creep and keep your project on task.
1. Set Clear Goals
It’s easy to dive into creating and building mode without taking the time to set a trajectory. Set your product up for success by clearly defining its core purpose and using that lens to filter and prioritize features.
2. Use a Prioritization Framework
It’s natural for certain features to become a personal crusade. Instead of defaulting to the loudest voice in the room, leverage more objective tools like the Impact vs. Effort Matrix or RICE scoring to focus on high-value features.
Learn More: How to Use a Prioritization Matrix for SaaS: Faster, Smarter Roadmapping
3. Establish a Strong Roadmap
A roadmap has two important functions in product development. It serves both as a blueprint for your project and as a contract for your team. Before you write a single line of code, ensure your team is aligned on a roadmap with specific milestones and a clear MVP scope.
4. Gather Targeted Feedback
Instead of reacting to every individual piece of feedback, focus on themes and patterns in user feedback. This approach will help you validate a need for a new feature and keep you from adding on to your product too quickly. Hone your development process to identify issues rather than prescribed solutions.
5. Implement Change Control Processes
Develop a process for responding to change requests. Your change controls should require justification for scope changes and assess their impact. In this way, you feel confident that feature additions will deliver value rather than clutter your product.
6. Keep the End User in Mind
It’s easy to let your own opinions of what your product needs cloud your judgment around new features. Always evaluate whether a new feature adds tangible value to the user. Consider whether your changes will make users’ experience with your product more effortless, delightful, and useful.
Case Studies: Avoiding Feature Creep with a Strong MVP
AskIris
Feature creep is often symptomatic of healthcare development, where bulky, legacy systems are the status quo. AskIris, however, diverged from the industry norm, instead choosing to hone in on core features and save bells and whistles until user feedback justified it. As part of our SolutionLab, this innovative hospital supply closet organization app was able to define and keep true to its goal—to help nurses and other medical professionals find inventory reliably when the patient needs it—in a beautifully designed, fully functional MVP.
Virtuosity
For two professional educators who specialize in leadership development, Virtuosity was a way to equip more people with practical skills to become great leaders. Even though the founders weren’t developers, they recognized the value of starting with an MVP. They leaned on the Designli team and our proprietary SolutionLab process to help them avoid feature creep and identify the core features that mattered most.
Stay Focused to Succeed
Change is inevitable. In fact, most digital products will add or subtract key features throughout their lifespan. Strategic changes, informed by user feedback, make a product stronger. It’s feature creep, the tendency to add superfluous features that get in the way of software goals, that can get you into trouble quickly.
Feature creep can be a silent killer for software projects. By staying focused on your core goals, prioritizing features strategically, and implementing effective change control processes, you can avoid the costly pitfalls of feature creep and deliver a successful product that delights your users and achieves your business objectives.
Don’t Let Feature Creep Derail Your Project: Get Expert Guidance
Designli specializes in helping businesses build focused, user-centric software solutions. Our experienced team can guide you through the entire development process, from ideation to launch, ensuring your product stays on track and delivers exceptional results. Schedule a free consultation to learn more.
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