When Your Star Product Is "Good Enough"

The counterintuitive strategy of embracing "good enough" to strategically fuel your company's next wave of breakthroughs.

Alright, innovators and visionaries! In our last chat (perhaps you caught the piece, "Escape the Feature Factory: Crafting a Product Vision That Ignites Initial Innovation"?), we addressed that all-too-common grind of endlessly churning out features. We dove into how crafting a truly compelling Product Vision – that bright North Star – can be your ticket out, transforming your team from a reactive factory into an engine of genuine, purposeful innovation. That vision helps you ignite the initial spark, especially when launching something new or trying to breathe new life into a product that has lost its way.

Now, let's delve into the next intriguing chapter of this journey. What happens after your team, guided by the North Star, executes brilliantly and you actually build that amazing, successful product? You've escaped the early feature factory, your product is shining brightly, users are on board... and then, a new, perhaps even more subtle and complex, set of strategic questions begins to surface, marking a new chapter in your product development journey.

This is where our conversation picks up today. We're stepping into territory that might feel a little counterintuitive, perhaps even a tad heretical, after all that intense effort to build something great. We're going to talk about the profound strategic wisdom, and indeed the art, of knowing when your star product, your current masterpiece, is… well, good enough. And why recognizing that 'good enough' point isn't about settling but about setting the stage for your next wave of true innovation. This next wave of innovation holds the potential to transform your product and excite your users.

It sounds a bit like a plot twist, doesn't it? You've poured heart, soul, and countless late nights into crafting a product that users love. It's successful, it's robust, it solves real problems. So why on earth would you deliberately slow down innovation on it?

Recently, the tech world buzzed about The Browser Company's decision with their much-admired Arc browser. They announced that Arc, a product celebrated for its fresh take on web Browse, was essentially entering a phase of active maintenance – not dying, not being abandoned, but no longer the primary focus of their most ambitious innovative efforts. Instead, they're pouring that energy into a new venture, something they call an "internet computer" with a project codenamed DIA.

To some, this might seem odd. Arc is popular, and there are always more features one could add, right? However, to those who have navigated the complex currents of long-term product strategy, this move wasn't just understandable; it was a masterclass. It hinted at a truth many of us in the product world grapple with: the art of knowing when to declare a masterpiece "complete enough" so you can start sketching the next one.

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The Uncomfortable Truth About Your Star Product

Here's the thing about success: it's seductive. When you have a hit product, the temptation is to continually refine it, add to it, and iterate on it endlessly. After all, it's working! The metrics are good, customers are (mostly) happy, and your team knows this product inside and out. It feels safe and predictable.

But beneath this comforting hum of ongoing improvement, a subtle shift often occurs – the law of diminishing returns kicks in with a vengeance. Each new feature, each incremental enhancement, starts to deliver less and less marginal value, both to the user and to your business, while often costing just as much (if not more) to develop as earlier, more impactful features.