Every founder I've ever worked with has had the same disease: feature-itis. The uncontrollable urge to add "just one more thing" before launch.
It's the number one killer of MVPs. And it's completely preventable.
The Math of Feature Creep
Let's do some quick math. Say you're planning a 60-day MVP build with 5 core features.
You add "just one small feature" every two weeks. That's 4 extra features by launch day.
Each feature adds 5-10 days of development, plus testing, plus bug fixes. Suddenly your 60-day project is a 120-day project.
Your runway just got cut in half. Your market window might have closed. Your competitors shipped while you were polishing.
“The best product isn't the one with the most features. It's the one that solves one problem exceptionally well.”
The Feature Prison
Here's what nobody tells you: every feature you add is a feature you have to maintain forever.
- More code = more bugs
- More features = more support tickets
- More complexity = slower iteration speed
- More surface area = more security vulnerabilities
That "quick feature" you added in week 3? You'll be fixing bugs in it for the next 3 years.
The "What Can We Remove?" Meeting
At Algobeat, we have a rule: before every sprint planning, we ask "what can we remove?" before we ask "what should we add?"
It sounds counterintuitive, but the best products are defined as much by what they don't do as by what they do.
The 3-Feature MVP
I challenge you to define your MVP with exactly 3 features. Not 5. Not 10. Three.
- The core value proposition - the one thing that makes your product worth using
- User authentication - because you need to know who's using it
- Analytics - because you need to know what they're doing
Everything else is a "nice to have" that can wait until you've validated that anyone actually wants your core offering.
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