Removing Features is One of the Best Things a Product Manager Can Do

As product managers, we tend to prioritize and add new features to a digital product to build user engagement and gain more sales. We would like to believe that the more, the merrier, right? Unfortunately, this is not true as studies have shown that only 20% of complex product features are used. This signifies that we should always include a reevaluation of launched features in our product roadmap to ensure that they remain valuable to our product users. The question one may ask is: how do we know it is the right time to remove a feature? Here is a list of factors to consider for the sunset of a product feature:

• Misalignment with our product vision and/or organizational strategy: The main goal for a product manager is to ensure that the features are aligned to the organizational strategy or product vision so they are successful. However, at times, the organization may make major shifts in its value proposition, thus impacting the product. Hence a product manager needs to revisit the current product features to see if they still align with these new changes. 
• Following latest trending feature or a feature that our competitor launched that doesn't apply: Sometimes, our executives get excited about the latest trends (e.g. artificial intelligence, integration with wearables) in digital products that the product managers are forced to think of ways to include them in the product roadmap to impress the investors. Or we may want to add a feature that our competitors have recently launched that their users are raving about. Once we have developed this trend or competitor's feature into our product, we may realize that they are not touched by our users or seen as irrelevant to other stakeholders. We have to keep in mind that our product is addressing a slightly different target market from our competitors or that trend just does not apply. Hence why it is important for product managers to constantly touch base with their users during the product discovery phase prior to development to validate if these trends should be added to the product.
• High costs to maintain: At some point in our career, we are told that there are extremely high costs to operate a feature. There are multiple factors such as rising development costs, ongoing legal cases, unforeseen privacy or security issues, etc. We need to determine if these features are still worth it for its organization and its users to keep in the product. If there are minimal returns of investments for these features, then strongly consider retiring them in the upcoming product release.
• Causing problems in the user journey: After analyzing the data and reviewing the users' complaint lodge, we noticed that a feature is buggy or negative in the user journey. For example, the user is frustrated when an advertisement is announced mid-way during a meditation session, leading to a poor user experience and reduced usage of the core feature. In these types of cases, the product managers should focus on improving the user experience so that user retention is increased. 

We should regularly validate if a shipped feature needs to be kept or removed. One of the main purposes of a product manager is to oversee that the best product is developed to solve the target market's needs. If launched features are not adding value, then we should not be reluctant to delete them. Once we plan to remove them, then the users should have a sufficient notification about this and be aware of any alternative options if applicable. In this process of feature deprecation, we are truly creating a more focused product that provides a much better experience for its users.