Upsides to Unshipping: The Art of Removing Features and Products

Upsides to Unshipping: The Art of Removing Features and Products

摘要

Teams are praised whenever they release a new feature (or product) to their customers. Imagine the internal 'pat on the backs' and recognition that occurred when Gmail fully launched dark mode for the mobile app, Figma released multi-account to switch between personal and work design spaces, or Apple announced their M1 chip. Employees on these teams likely felt proud to share something new with the world and maybe even posted their accomplishment on LinkedIn to spread the word and celebrate.

Now, what if teams were honored just as much — or even more — when they successfully deprecated features and products? Arguably, killing portions of a product is one of the most challenging aspects of leadership. Our biases, and several other reasons, encourage us to keep things. Even the most experienced product managers have little to no experience and craft in reverting decisions after a feature has already made it live into production.