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3 Comments

New strategy - Recurring feature request: Just do it!

I have a long list of feature enhancements that I want to add to Blind Valet, and some of them have been on there a LONG time. They just never seem to bubble up to the top of the priority list.

Since the beginning of March I have tried implementing a new strategy. If a user requests a feature that has been on my list for a long time, and especially if it is relatively quick to implement, I just do it. It immediately becomes the most important thing. I have even made a game of it where I try and deliver the feature before the user wakes up the next day. Since I am in Europe and a lot of my requests come from North America, I usually have 6-8 working hours to deliver on requests that come in overnight. Then I answer their request with, "This is a great idea, so we just went ahead and built it. Try it out now..."

This creates a major WOW factor with the user, and it is rewarding and motivating for me. Knocking items off your list that have been hanging around for months and months feels great, even if it is a small change.

It seems to be paying off as I had a great month of March.

#fyi

  1. 1

    Thanks for sharing, this is interesting!

    The one limit I see here is to lose focus on your roadmap and to make the product too complex by building nice-to-have features rather than must-have ones.

    Previously, did you log feature requests and follow-up with your users individually when released?

  2. 1

    Seems like the important part here is that they have been on your todo list for a while. Do you sometimes do new requests too, or just stick with items that are on your list?

    1. 1

      It depends on the request. There are a lot of requests that I reject as they don't fit into the vision I have for the product. But there are some that I have done that weren't on the list. They were quick wins that fell into the "I can't believe I didn't think of that- category.

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