One main factor to watch out during Product development.

Watch out for Product features handed over to you

There are many ways Product feature lists are handed over to the product team to develop. These features come from various stakeholders. Many a time, you will be given a feature from top-down to get developed.

Stakeholders who cry the loudest, get their features prioritized most. This is one of the reasons, why we have many features in the product which is least used.

As a product owner, it is better to have a healthy conversation around the features that are requested. I wish to emphasize the conversation needs to be healthy. Stakeholders who forward the features for development are high up in the organization chain. They defend it with all their might, even though, their features are ill-logical or a drain of resources effort.

Challenge the features in the right way, non-threatening way. Try to understand the context, why this feature is needed, in what way it will help the product. Try to have a meaningful conversation, ask questions that can unlock the potential of the features.

Whenever a feature is given to you, start with an open-ended question. subsequent questions will unearth the soundness of the features. It will make people think about points that they would not have thought through.

Keep an open-minded approach, start with the mindset that features that are given has value and need to be thoroughly investigated and brought to a logical conclusion. In my experience, I have seen some features that are introduced are completely rewritten and it is morphed into a new feature. Please use the axiom

“No Idea is a bad idea”