The most important product decision is what you don't build
4 hours ago
- Criticism of document hubs and notification centres in financial apps as lazy solutions that burden users and developers.
- These features often evolve into complex, unnecessary platforms (e.g., Google Drive clones, Gmail clones) due to stakeholder demands.
- Emphasis on highlighting long-term maintenance costs, not just build costs, to counter stakeholder resistance to removal.
- Advocacy for evaluating each use case individually and using simple or existing solutions when possible, rather than building one-size-fits-all systems.
- The cultural challenge: removal and maintenance are undervalued, despite evidence (e.g., Gerry McGovern's work, academic research) that subtracting content improves outcomes.
- Using agents or technology for judicious removal and maintenance as a strategic alternative to constant addition.
- The Steve Jobs 1997 product matrix as a lesson in focusing on key priorities (e.g., 'one thing at a time') to succeed, rather than spreading resources thin.
- Overall advice: be selective about what to add and militant about deleting unnecessary features, aligning with the principle of 'does it make the boat go faster?'.