Plot twist: I'm the problem user.
What Xbox cloud gaming taught me about feature blindness.
I apologize in advance - we’re going to dip into a little nerd-dom here. The good news is that it all ties into this wonderful world of product…so don’t click out just yet.
This week we’re giving another angle to a previous post of ours - “Why users ignore your best features”
For years, I dismissed Xbox cloud gaming entirely. I was so locked into my old school “consoles are the way” mindset that I completely overlooked what was happening right in my pocket.
Then one afternoon, armed with a Backbone controller and my phone, I discovered I could seamlessly play the same games anywhere. The capability had been there all along - I just couldn't see past my established patterns.
This realization hit differently because it wasn't just about gaming; it was about something a little more profound.
As someone who spends their days thinking about feature adoption, I'd become a textbook example of the very user behavior I analyze professionally.
I was the user who ignored 80% of the available features.
The mirror we don't want to look into.
Here's the uncomfortable truth for those of us building products: research shows that 80% of features in the average software product go largely unused.
When Pendo analyzed 615 software subscriptions, they found that companies collectively invested $29.5 billion in developing underutilized features.
However, what makes this personal is that we're not just building products to address this problem. We're living it.
Think about your daily toolkit: Slack, Figma, Linear, Notion, whatever analytics platform you're drowning in. How much of their full capability are you actually accessing?
My honest answer was maybe 20%, and I'm supposed to understand user behavior for a living.
We spend our days obsessing over feature discovery rates while walking past solutions to our own friction points. It's like being a chef who only uses salt and pepper while complaining about bland food.
When the product manager becomes the user.
My Xbox cloud gaming breakthrough wasn't just about discovering a feature. It was about experiencing firsthand why good products fail to reach their potential. The technology was flawless, the use case was obvious, but my mental model was wrong.
Sound familiar? How many times have you shipped something brilliant only to watch adoption crawl because users couldn't connect your solution to their actual problems?
Last month, I watched this play out with someone on my team and Microsoft Copilot. Our organization had been heavily encouraging everyone to try it, sending tutorials, hosting demos, the whole adoption playbook. This person remained skeptical.
Then one afternoon, they finally caved. Wanting to boil down some complex ideas from one call we had, they copied the meeting transcript into Copilot and asked it to create a summary with action items. Fifteen minutes later, they had the cleanest meeting notes they'd ever produced.
The feature wasn't hidden or hard to find. They couldn't connect "AI writing assistant" to "meeting notes are a pain" until friction forced them to experiment.
A two-sided problem and a framework to help.
This creates a fascinating dual challenge for ambitious product people:
As users, we're leaving productivity gains on the table because we don't explore tools we've already adopted. We optimize our workflows to 60% effectiveness and call it good enough.
As builders, we're shipping features into an environment where 80% of our work will be ignored, not because it's bad, but because discovery is harder than we think.
Both sides of this equation deserve our attention.
I've started treating my own tool usage like a product audit. Every couple of weeks, I pick one tool I use regularly and ask: "What am I not seeing here?"
The Friction Hunt. When I catch myself saying "I wish this tool could..." I pause and actually investigate before building a workaround. That frustrated moment is often the exact state of mind needed for genuine discovery.
The Peer Interview. I'll exchange messages with someone who uses the same tools and ask how they handle specific workflows. These conversations consistently reveal approaches I'd never considered - using capabilities I had access to but never explored.
The Feature Archaeology. Once a month, I spend 15 minutes exploring one underused area of a familiar tool. The key is choosing tools where I'm already comfortable, so curiosity can flourish without the cognitive load of learning something entirely new.
What does this mean for your products?
Understanding your own feature blindness makes you a better product person. When you've experienced the gap between "this feature exists" and "this feature is discoverable," you build differently.
You start asking harder questions: Is our onboarding showing capability or just functionality? Are we assuming users will connect dots they might not even see? How might someone's existing mental model prevent them from recognizing our solution?
My cloud gaming experience taught me that the best features often feel invisible until the moment they become obvious. The challenge isn't building better features - it's building better bridges between user problems and existing solutions.
The discovery dividend.
When we do unlock these hidden capabilities, the impact often exceeds what we'd get from switching to something entirely new. My team member didn't just save time with Copilot - they gained confidence in their ability to find solutions and started approaching other challenges differently. Now they're the one showing other teammates how to use it for different workflows.
The same principle applies to the products we build. Users who discover features through genuine need rather than forced education become your strongest advocates. They experience ownership over the solution because they found it themselves.
Key insights for Product People:
Personal feature blindness mirrors the user behavior we try to solve professionally
Hidden capabilities in familiar tools often outperform entirely new solutions
Feature discovery requires intentional exploration, not passive exposure
Understanding your own usage patterns makes you a better product builder
Remember: You can't solve feature adoption challenges for your users if you haven't solved them for yourself. The most powerful optimization isn't always acquiring new tools. It's discovering the full potential of what you already own.
Invitation to Reflect: This week, choose one tool in your daily rotation and spend 15 minutes exploring features you've never tried. Then ask yourself: if you're missing obvious capabilities in tools you use every day, how might your users be experiencing the same blindness with features you've built?
Until next week,
Mike @ Product Party
Want to connect? Send me a message LinkedIn or Bluesky.
References:
Pendo. Feature Adoption Report: Analysis of 615 software subscriptions. [Link to study]
PS I've recently started exploring partnerships with services my readers might find valuable. Privacy tools like Optery are essential in today's data-hungry world for removing personal info from broker sites. Check out my referral link to take control of your online presence: Link to Optery
Really enjoyed this one, especially the “friction hunt” idea! I’ve caught myself blaming tools when the real issue was not taking time to explore them fully. Definitely inspired to dig deeper before declaring, “this doesn’t work.” Great post.