<< We divided our customers into cohorts, looking at the new customers who joined each day as a distinct group. Then we could ask, “How did today’s customers compare to yesterday’s?” And, much to our frustration, the conversion rates were almost exactly the same. It was easy to get conspiratorial. It felt like each group had set up a conference call with the previous group. “How many of you bought the product? One out of a hundred? OK, good, we’ll do that, too.” >>
This is so true. I've seen similar user behavior at almost every website I've worked on or built.
The good news is that it's hard to screw up your own website with new features. Also that despite how hard it is, many competing websites will add so many new (bad) features that eventually they will succeed in screwing up their website.
Sometimes I wonder if this is why Craigslist has "won" for so many years. Not in spite of having so many competitors adding new features, but because they have had so many competitors adding so many new (bad) features.
Never ignore the meta-features, the basic characteristics of your product. Performance, usability, robustness, security, etc. Consider how many real-world products are differentiated entirely on such features, the same is true in every domain, including software. An Audi does not typically have any stand out special gimmick at getting from point-A to point-B better than a Kia, but it differentiates itself through performance, luxury, reliability, image, etc.
Or consider an even simpler product: chef's knives. Does a higher end chef's knife have more features? Does it have a bottle opener, a pair of scissors, a little pocket for a foldable cutting board to fit in, or a tiny countdown clock to tell you when you should get your knife resharpened? No, it's just a hunk of metal attached to a handle and shaped correctly. And yet there is still such an enormous variety of designs, styles, and methods of construction as knife makers pursue perfection and try to compete against each other.
Knowing where to draw the line between a basic value proposition and extended features is crucial to success. I have this same dilemma. Users have been requesting features to one of my websites, but I am unsure if adding these features won't detract from the simplicity of the experience. Currently users do 10 pages a visit, which to me, tells me they understand the flow of using the website.
Another core insight is to differentiate your "users" into specific user types, or personas.
To really drive value, it helps to identify a specific user-type or persona that drive a lot of value for your site. For Dropbox, one persona might be a photographer who is using Dropbox to share huge photos with clients. To better serve that persona, maybe Dropbox could create a Gallery feature so that images in a Photos folder are automatically turned into a gallery that anyone can view without having to log into Dropbox. This is actually something that they did:
http://www.dropbox.com/help/18
By differentiating from general discussions of "users" into specific personas, you can really focus your customer development on superserving a specific user focus. That's a huge element of driving value creation through the lean methdology.
I wonder how many people use it. I didnt know it existed. They have built a platform with zero discoverability. Maybe they could dropbox sync a new features file into a folder sometimes...
This is so true. I've seen similar user behavior at almost every website I've worked on or built.
The good news is that it's hard to screw up your own website with new features. Also that despite how hard it is, many competing websites will add so many new (bad) features that eventually they will succeed in screwing up their website.
Sometimes I wonder if this is why Craigslist has "won" for so many years. Not in spite of having so many competitors adding new features, but because they have had so many competitors adding so many new (bad) features.