How to Prioritize and Launch Product Features for Success

Many startups and existing businesses struggle with deciding which product features to build and when to prioritize them. The right way to decide is to align your features with your customers’ needs and expectations. You need to have a deep understanding of your customers. What are their preferences? What are their pain points? When you provide answers to these questions, you can start building your product features.

Collecting customer feedback, e.g., feature requests can help you build the right feature. A feature request is a suggestion from a customer to improve your product features or add a new one. It is key to understanding customers’ needs and improving the product’s features.

To know which feature requests to prioritize, you have first to organize them. Once you have properly organized the feature requests, you will be able to identify their specific needs.

Why Is Feature Prioritization Important?

Feature prioritization is the process of determining the order in which a product’s features or functionalities should be developed, improved, and released to users.

Feature prioritization is not an easy task, especially when there are many features to prioritize. However, it is something that must be decided on because of its importance.

Feature prioritization is important based on the following:

• It helps product managers, teams and stakeholders make data-driven decisions about which feature to prioritize.

• Feature prioritization leads to increased customer satisfaction since their needs are met.

• It allows you to prioritize features that need to be immediately improved.

• Prioritizing features leads to time and resource optimization.

• It boosts long-term engagement and success.

Determining Which Features To Build and Prioritize

Product features are characteristics of your product. They are the building blocks that determine product delivery. So, you have to prioritize them. Consider the following to effectively decide on what feature to build and when to prioritize it:

1. Decide Your Target Users

Your target users are people who have fully embraced your product for use. They have adopted your product and implemented it in their daily routine. These sets of users play a crucial role in the success of your product.

Focus on them and prioritize their feature requests. You need to know that not all requests should be built on. Similar feature requests should be classified into one category. This will give you rich insights into which feature to choose.

Then, create a roadmap to know whether the feature fits into the broader product strategy. This will help everyone remain aligned and focused on the long-term vision of the product.

2. Define Your Goal

It is important to define what you want to achieve with the feature before proceeding to feature prioritization. Define your goal on what to build. Will the feature satisfy existing user needs? Do you want to onboard new users? Is it for improving the feature? Do you want to update platform performance?

Aligning your goal with the feature helps you know which feature to prioritize. It will also guide your team in the development phase, thus enabling resource and time optimization.

3. Categorize Important Feature Requests

Validate feature requests that are collected from various channels. Only relevant feature requests should be organized. Ensure that it is what your customer truly needs.

After you have organized them, the next thing is to prioritize. Make sure you consider only features that will increase your customers’ satisfaction and make a lasting impact on your business success.

4. Identify The Feature To Spend Your Engineering Effort On

When you already know the feature to prioritize, do not rush to build it. Be sure of the specific goal for building the product before taking it to your development teams.

Deciding how to develop the feature can be a difficult decision to make. It is also time-consuming. Consolidate with the customers who requested the feature before involving your development teams.

You can consider these questions: What are the exact needs of the customers? Why do they need these features? Will the feature solve their problems? Does this feature meet other user needs? Ensure you come up with definite answers.

5. Discuss The Feature With The Entire Team

In product development, there is something called affinity grouping. It is when product managers meet with the entire team to prioritize the features they want to build for their users.

Always prioritize group affinity. It is important for everyone to understand users’ needs to build the right feature. Have a profound discussion and ensure that everyone is on the same page.

Best Frameworks for Feature Prioritization

There are different frameworks and methods that can help you prioritize your features. These frameworks help assess the impact of different features. Here are frameworks that will guide you on what to build next.

RICE Scoring

This framework helps you prioritize your feature based on four factors. These factors include Reach, Impact, Confidence, and Effort.

Reach is the number of users who will be impacted by the feature within a specified period of time.

Impact is the potential effect the feature will have on users’ satisfaction or key business metrics.

Confidence is the assurance that the projected reach and impact will be actualized.

Effort is the total amount of work needed to implement the feature.

To calculate this model, the formula is (Reach x Impact x Confidence) / Effort.

A higher RICE score indicates that you can prioritize the feature.

Kano Model

The Kano model is another framework that helps you know which features will satisfy customers and meet their needs. Kano proposes a standardized questionnaire to measure participants’ opinions implicitly.

FAQs

Why Is Feature Prioritization Important?

Feature prioritization is very important in product development. It has significantly helped product managers, teams, stakeholders, and executives to make informed and better decisions. It does not just end there. Time and resources are optimized when you focus on the most important features.

Prioritizing features also helps you understand your customers better, thereby developing customer-centric features that drive engagement.

What Feature Prioritization Framework Can I Use?

There are many frameworks to use. However, ensure that you choose the right one. They include RICE Scoring (Reach, Impact, Confidence, and Effort), the Kano Model, and so on.