“My Product Isn’t As Good As It Used To Be”

Half of the Chief Product Officers that I talk to, worry that their most successful product “isn’t as good as it used to be”

They are concerned that,

• Their star product will not deliver the same / better impact than before
• The users are not using the product or experience, growth has stalled or (worse) shrinking.
• More users are complaining than ever before.

So what happened? Why is their best product not as good as it used to be?

This Usually Comes Down To Three Main Causes.

1. Bloated Features:

More features does not always mean more value.

It is natural for popular products to add new features as they grow. But the problem arises when these new features start to diminish the original value proposition.

Peoplesoft started off as a popular HR management system (HRMS). Users loved it. It was easy to use and got the job done. However, over time it added Financial, Supply Chain, Customer Relationship, Manufacturing, University, and Government management solutions.

Which, on the surface sounds good because it helped expand the market. Unfortunately, in reality, it ended up impacting the original HRMS workflows. Users now had to execute more steps, learn new rules, and navigate through clutter. As a result users got annoyed and many ended up leaving.

So if you are worried about the future performance of your product, take a look at the impact of your new features to the original value proposition. The new features may cause more harm than good.

2. Outdated User Experience:

Outdated user experience hurts the brand.

It provides the wrong impression, erodes confidence, and signals to the user that the product is old and no one cares.

Which is what happened to MySpace.

In 2009, MySpace was the largest social networking site in the world. Users loved the updated look, clean interface, customization ability etc.

However, after the News Corp. acquisition. The company decided to invest heavily on monetization instead of user experience. In some cases, taking funding away from UX.

Eventually, the lack of UX priority caught up. The user experience suffered. The site looked old. It was hard to navigate around the ads. And the customization interface grew cluttered.

So users decided to migrate to a new entrant – Facebook. Which offered (at that time at least) a clean ad free experience.

User experience, like fashion, needs to be periodically updated. If not it eventually ends up hurting the product. And users start to look for other alternatives.

3. Not Solving The Most Important Problem:

Great products identify a big need and solve it really well.

But what happens when the need changes?

Vine became popular because they filled the need for creators to tell their stories through short form (6 second) video loops. In the first year alone, they have over 200 million users.

But when the user’s needs changed from short to long format, Vine hesitated. They were not sure if the need was real or temporary.

By the time they realized that the need was real and began to roll out a long form option. They had already lost it’s users to Instagram.

Dont let that happen to you.

Make sure that your product continues to address the user’s most important need. Anything less and the product you worked so hard to make successful will decline.

We live in a world, where the alternatives are just a click away.

So What Is The Secret To Stopping Your Product From Declining?

It comes down to the following leading best practices,

1. To Avoid Bloat Regularly Kill Features

It is almost impossible to control feature growth. Even if you have a world class approval process, features have a habit of growing like weeds.

So consider putting in an end of life review process as well. Where features are killed if they dont live up to their expectation. This is why companies like Google, Microsoft, Facebook and others have such extensive graveyards.

2. Update User Experience Little At A Time

Make updating the user experience as part of your annual maintenance budget.

Just like you would paint your home / rental property every few years so that it maintains it’s curb appeal. The same philosophy applies to your products’ look and feel.

And like painting, UX upgrades – if done little at a time – can be relatively inexpensive.

3. Invest In Continuous First Hand User Research

As for always solving the user’s most pressing problem. The best solution is to continue to invest in user research.

In fact, understanding the user’s need is even more critical with a mature product.

It will highlight not just areas where the product is falling short – i.e what problem is the product not solving that it should be solving. But it will also provide insights into how the user is using the current product.

Which, in turn, will help with also controlling feature bloat and addressing outdated UX challenges.

Happy Building!!