New features aren’t really innovations. They’re only new features. New features are like the toppings that get added to an ice cream sundae. Fun at times, but when you have too many you loose that simple bowl of ice cream.

Don’t ask can we, ask should we?

There comes a point in any product’s life cycle when small or “slightly better” improvements stop being meaningful to your customers. This point is called overshooting. When you overshoot you start adding clutter and confusion to your application and it quickly becomes frustrating to use and your customers start looking for something simpler. Think Microsoft Word.

Customers will almost always accept improved products or services, but when overshooting sets in, they won’t pay for improvements that used to be valuable to them.Scott Anthony – Harvard Business Review

Instead of bloating your website or application with a bunch of new features first ask yourself if any of them are solving a real problem your customers have. Are the features useful? Will your customs see the value in adding them? If the answers are no then you need to question why you are adding the features in the first place.

Sometimes removing features is the best innovation of all.

If you would like help on understanding how innovation makes sense for your business website or application email me or give me a call at 330.648.FARM.