Stop me if you’ve heard this before:

It’s just a feature, not a product.

It is a popular refrain from skeptics who want to sound intelligent about a new innovation, product or company. On the surface it sounds insightful because it draws a line between a product that stands on its own (“product”) and something that solves a small problem and cannot stand on its own (“feature”). It is hard to refute as it is a subjective statement and easy to justify.

It is also meaningless.

Dismissing something new as a “feature” ignores the fact that every product starts by solving a small problem. When you are starting from scratch, you don’t have the time or the resources to build a perfect product that solves a big problem so you carve out a small part of that problem to solve. Whether you follow the Lean methodology and build a Minimum Viable Product or simply suffer from the resource scarcity that follows starting a company, your initial product will be simple and basic. That is a good thing.

Many successful companies follow a common progression during their growth:

Feature -> Product -> Platform

If your business has potential (see Are You Solving a Problem), you should be able to prove it by starting with a feature. From that feature you can build a complete product which, if also successful, will form the basis for a platform on which additional products can be built. Companies like Facebook, Google and Sony have all been built this way.

So if you find a skeptic that dismisses your idea as a feature instead of a product, don’t let that get you down. Instead, explain to that person the bigger problem you are tackling. If they still don’t understand, then I suggest ignoring their opinion. Life is too short.

Illustration made available via Public Domain.