Is It good to Have Chain Of Adding Features

 How sometime chain of adding features can go wrong? I believe that adding features upon features to a product is probably endangering a brands & customer relationship. When your customer start using the multi feature products, they starts suffering feature fatigue, they become overwhelmed  by the product complexity and annoyed by features they realize they don’t want or need .

So how to avoid feature fatigue on your customers??

• Assess Complexity’s Costs

Take a hard look at at the level of complexity in your company’s offering and the difficulties it creates for you and your Customer.

Example: Mercedes Benz had packed its cars with electronics features causing many malfunctions and making testing the electronics system more expensive.

• Balance Initial Sales Against Ease Of Use.

Use analytical tools to identify the optimum number of features to capture initial sales and aim for middle ground that balances the sales benefit of adding features against the customer equity costs of feature fatigue.

Example: Mercedes –Benz decided to remove 600 elecronics functiones from its car.

• Build Simpler Product

A company should offer a wider assortment of simpler products and hence targeting to narrow customer segment.

Example: Philips Electronics whose brand promise is sense and simplicity.

• Design Products That Do one thing very well

Products that perform exceptionally well for what it is mean always captures owner heart and they feel super satisfied to believe in the brand.

Example: Apple IPod, the music player that sounds so good and work so well and hence astoundingly successful.

• Use Prototypes and Product in use Research

When market researchers ask consumer to evaluate products they haven’t actually used , consumers base their assessments only on product features, without considering whether a product is easy to use. So to help customers one should give the exact information such a s product weight interface design that lets them experiment with product design.

Idea: HBR Defeating Feature Fatigue
Write Up by Amit Sekhar