The Features I Killed Before They Even Got Built
Hey Indie Hackers đź‘‹
I’m Julien, founder of Linkeme, an AI tool that automates social media content — from idea to visual to publishing.
Like many builders, I have a Notion full of ideas.
Features. Prompts. “Wouldn’t it be cool if…”
But the more we grow, the more I realize:
A good product isn’t what you add — it’s what you leave out.
So here are a few things I almost built… and deliberately didn’t 👇
❌ A real-time “content calendar” view
Sounds great.
But 80% of users want automation — not to manage a calendar manually.
I’d be solving my anxiety, not theirs.
❌ Auto-reposting best-performing posts
Looked smart on paper.
But felt too robotic in practice — and a bit risky in terms of brand tone drift.
Also: harder to track performance when posts repeat.
❌ Full brand kit customization (fonts, logos, aspect ratios)
Some early users asked for it.
But it would have made onboarding heavier for the 90% who just want to post and move on.
I focused on speed, not “design completeness.”
❌ Daily AI “content suggestions” by email
Too noisy. Too many ideas. Too much pressure.
Users need calm automation — not one more inbox firehose.
Each of these ideas looked like “value.”
But when I asked:
Will this increase clarity?
Will it reduce friction?
Will it help non-experts take action?
The answer was no.
What I’m learning:
Good UX is subtraction.
And every “nice-to-have” can quietly erode simplicity.
What I’d love to hear:
What feature did you decide NOT to build — and never regretted?
Let’s trade stories of things we didn’t do (and are glad we didn’t).
Julien
you show real product maturity by killing features that sounded cool but added clutter, proving you care more about user simplicity than flashy bloat. Highlighting how you filtered ideas through “clarity, friction, action” is gold — more makers should think that way. Only tweak: maybe tighten a couple examples so it reads faster, but overall it’s damn solid.
Sometimes it's HARD to kill features.
I killed the full gamification feature.
I killed the reminders.
I killed the AI chat integration
Will I eventually integrate them? Yes, they weren't features that were needed immediately as we work to find product market fit.
I'm someone who's naturally good at finding options — but I’ve learned to work hard to reduce the options I present to users.
As an idea person (and an engineer who can bring ideas to life), I used to think offering more choices meant offering more freedom. It felt like I was empowering the user.
But I realized that too many options can actually create anxiety and hesitation.
Now, I try to protect users from complexity — even if it means holding back some of my "clever" ideas.
I really resonate with your points about avoiding features that solve our anxiety rather than the users'. Great insights, Julien!
Sometime it's the most difficult part !