All I want is One Sticky Feature
This morning I got hooked to a new band. I’ve heard the band before and I’ve had others praise the band. It was only this morning, when I stumbled upon a particular song by the band and started enjoying it. After that I went and explore the whole album and other albums. Its been 8 hours and I’ve been tripping on their music.
To think about it, software is kind of same. Usually its one sticky (killer) feature that gets people hooked to a new software. Once they experience that feature, without much push, they discover all kinds of interesting features and innovative ways to use them.
As someone building a new product how do you figure out what that feature would be?
I’m aware of 2 approaches that have worked in the past:
- Agile/Lean-start-up philosophy: Build sketches (quick and dirty versions) of a few features, put it in the hands of real users and see what might click.
- Open Source/Eat your own dog food philosophy: Build something that addresses your personal itch and see if others have the same itch.
What other approaches have you seen work?