Customers don't want features. They want fewer problems

Nobody has ever asked me for a feature.

They've asked me for hundreds. But none of them was really asking for a feature.

They were asking for one less headache.

The list is not the problem

When a client sends a list of requests, it's tempting to read it like a shopping list. Item one, item two, item three. Tick, tick, tick.

That's how you end up with software that does everything and that nobody quite knows how to use.

A request is a client's guess at a solution. A reasonable guess, usually. But underneath it there's a problem, and the problem is the part that matters. Two clubs can ask for two completely different buttons and want exactly the same thing: to stop chasing people for money.

A feature is what the client asks for. A problem is what they'll pay to stop having.

Where PagoCRM came from

PagoCRM didn't start as an idea on a napkin. I don't think I've ever had a good idea on a napkin. My napkins are mostly coffee.

It started because clubs kept running into the same wall. Collecting fees. Who has paid, who hasn't, who said they'd pay on Friday three Fridays ago. Back in 2020 we were already setting up the first payment collections for clubs, inside our agency work. Same problem, different club, again and again.

At some point the repetition becomes obvious. When you keep solving the same problem by hand, you're no longer doing projects. You're doing a product, badly.

That's the only kind of product I trust. The one a problem forces you to build.

Less, but it has to work

Here's what I've come to believe about product, especially when nobody funds you.

Every feature you add is a feature you maintain. Forever. Each one needs support, testing, explaining. A startup with investors can afford to build ten things and see which one sticks. We can't. Every hour on PagoCRM is paid for by an hour of service to a client.

So the question I try to ask isn't "is this a good feature?" Almost everything is a good feature if you squint.

The question is: how many clubs have this problem, and does solving it make their week easier?

If the answer is "one club" and "a little", it can wait. If the answer is "lots of them" and "a lot", it goes to the front.

That sounds cold. I think it's the opposite. Saying yes to everything is how you make a product worse for everyone, including the client who asked.

What clients actually notice

Clients don't notice features. They notice problems that disappear.

The fee that got collected without anyone sending three reminders. The receipt they didn't have to make by hand. The Sunday evening they didn't spend on a spreadsheet.

None of that looks like a feature. It looks like nothing happened. Which, as I've said before about maintenance, is the hardest thing in the world to sell, and the only thing worth selling.

Nobody has ever asked me for a feature.

They ask for fewer problems. The features are just how I pay for that.

P.S. If you ever see a "do everything" button in PagoCRM, I've been hacked.