You should join the Feature Diet Club.
Trimming the product fat for leaner, more valuable digital experiences.
Walking into a new product role several years ago, I inherited a backlog so dense it practically needed its own zip code. Hundreds of feature requests, enhancements, and half-started initiatives competed for attention - some thriving, many withering, and a few that had been there so long they deserved historical landmark status.
My approach was methodical but revealing. I spent three weeks reviewing everything, categorizing value objectively, and then validating my findings with stakeholders.
The most valuable outcome wasn't just clarity on what to build next - it was the liberating realization of what we could confidently abandon.
Simplicity Most Product Teams Miss
Many organizations find themselves in an awkward dance with feature bloat - continually adding capabilities while user satisfaction plateaus or declines.
It's rather like trying to improve a restaurant by perpetually expanding the menu, then wondering why diners take longer to order and leave less satisfied.
The numbers paint a sobering picture. 64% of features are rarely or never used according to the Standish Group, while Pendo reports that only a small fraction of users use 80% of features.
Beyond mere utilization statistics, feature bloat leads to increased development and maintenance costs, straining resources and diverting attention from strategic priorities.
Each zombie feature lingering in your product isn't just harmless digital furniture - it actively costs you money, focus, and development velocity.
Organizations spend an average of $1,370 per employee annually on SaaS applications, yet up to 25% of licenses go unused, highlighting just how much waste accumulates in our digital toolboxes.
Feature Sunset Scorecard: Turning Gut Feelings into Strategic Decisions
After years of watching product teams agonize over feature removal decisions - complete with all five stages of grief and occasional interpretive dance - I developed the Feature Sunset Scorecard. This framework transforms those uncomfortable "should we kill it" conversations into refreshingly objective discussions.
It breaks down into five critical dimensions:
1. Usage Frequency
This dimension goes beyond raw numbers, which can be as misleading as corporate wellness program participation statistics. A feature showing "15% usage" might actually represent 14% accidental clicks followed by immediate exits and 1% genuine value.
The central question is: would user feedback arrive via polite inquiry or flaming pitchfork if this feature disappeared tomorrow?
2. User Impact
Some rarely-used features function like fire extinguishers - seldom needed but critically important when the situation arises. That obscure calendar export button might see minimal clicks, but it stands essential for the enterprise clients who generate 40% of your revenue.
We must examine whether this feature solves a genuine user problem, or if we're emotionally attached to it like that college sweatshirt that hasn't fit since sophomore year.
3. Maintenance Cost
Every feature carries invisible debt - bugs, documentation, testing requirements, support inquiries, and the cognitive load it adds to every new team member's onboarding experience.
The hard truth is that maintaining unused features increases QA complexity, technical debt, and collaboration costs for engineering teams. Consider how many developer hours get sacrificed monthly to maintain something fewer people use than your office water cooler.
4. Strategic Alignment
Products evolve, markets shift, and yesterday's strategic initiatives often become today's strategic distractions. I once watched a team maintain an elaborate integration with a platform that had declined in relevance faster than floppy disks at a tech conference.
Features that misalign with product strategy dilute value. Only 8% of B2B organizations deliver highly personalized experiences, but those that do report a significantly growing market share. The honest assessment needs to be as follows: If we were building this product from scratch today, would this feature make it past the initial whiteboard session?
5. Opportunity Cost
Perhaps the most powerful dimension centers on what you could build instead. Every hour spent maintaining legacy features represents an hour not invested in innovations that could meaningfully move your metrics.
Removing outdated or irrelevant features allows teams to focus on innovations that drive measurable ROI. We need to identify which high-impact initiatives gather dust while we perfect features that barely register in user feedback.
The Art of the Graceful Goodbye
Removing features without proper communication resembles serving divorce papers at a birthday party - technically efficient but unnecessarily traumatic for everyone involved.
When Slack sunset their "Stories" feature - proving that even communication platform specialists occasionally misread the room - they transformed potential backlash into customer appreciation through three key approaches:
Frame removal as improvement. They openly shared usage data and explained how removing Stories would simplify the interface and improve performance. Their message wasn't about taking something away but giving users a cleaner, faster product.
Redirect attention to what's next. They highlighted how this removal created resources to dramatically improve Threads - a feature their users actually valued, rather than one they theoretically might appreciate.
Turn announcements into conversations. They invited feedback and demonstrated genuine listening, transforming what might have seemed an arbitrary decision into a collaborative evolution of the product.
The outcome proved revealing. Engagement in Threads significantly increased, and Slack reinforced its reputation for clarity and usability. Users didn't mourn Stories - they celebrated the improved focus.
Google's infamous "Graveyard" offers another instructive example, highlighting dozens of products killed due to low usage. Rather than seeing this as failure, Google views it as portfolio simplification that allows them to focus engineering talent on core offerings with greater impact.
Proper offboarding prevents backlash. While Google Reader failed at this (creating lasting resentment), Slack succeeded by framing removal as an improvement and engaging users in the transition process. Post-sunset reviews using surveys or feedback tools can further refine future transitions while maintaining engagement.
Your Challenge: Find One Thing to Remove
This week, identify one questionable feature in your product and apply the Feature Sunset Scorecard. Start small - perhaps with something internal - before tackling more visible features. Companies that strategically remove underperforming features report a 15-25% boost in core engagement metrics (Harvard Business Review). Simplified interfaces lead to higher adoption rates and improved productivity, while overly complex products often result in user drop-off.
The moment your team starts saying, "Maybe we shouldn't build this new feature until we sunset something else," you've shifted your product and your culture. You've graduated from the "more is more" philosophy to the more sophisticated understanding that, in product management as in poetry, mastery manifests not in what you add, but in what you dare to remove.
Until next week,
Mike @ Product Party
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