Feature Ideas without Product Debt

How do you manage feature ideas if you want to avoid product debt?

A way to highlight feature ideas as such is to have a roadmap with four sections: Now, Next, Later, and Maybe. The first three can be shared with customers, but the last one is for internal purposes only. A feature can move from Maybe to Next or Later if and only if it goes through all five stages:

1. A feature idea contains a high-level description.
2. A feature idea contains a customer value statement and rough estimation of the effort required.
3. A feature idea contains a product hypothesis.
4. A feature idea contains an outline of how to validate the hypothesis, what metrics to use, and goals.
5. A feature idea’s hypothesis is either validated with (customer) data, so it can be added to the roadmap and prioritized, or it is dropped entirely.

The stages, inspired by Leah Tharin’s ideation process at Jua, ensure that feature ideas go progressively from vague suggestions to features ready to be prioritized and built. Before coming up with a product hypothesis and experiment with targets, it is important to think through the customer value and engineering effort. If the value and effort are not commensurate, do not waste time trying to work through all the details. It also places customers in the centre: if they do not benefit, why bother?!

Anyone on the product team can add feature ideas. Just make sure you review the items in each stage regularly. If there is an item that has not moved forward since the last review, kill it with fire. If no one feels inclined to push an idea forward, it probably was not worth it anyway. That way, the Maybe pile does not become a graveyard of obsolete ideas.