Mike HeapMike is an experienced Product Manager who focuses on all the “non-development” areas of My AskAI, from finance and customer success to product design, copywriting, testing and more.
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Jul 15, 2024 11:44 AM
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Mar 12, 2024
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mastering-nice-to-have-features-a-monthly-polish-strategy
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As a Product Manager and now as a Founder, one thing I have always struggled with is how to deal with 'nice-to-have' features.
The Challenge
You know the ones - the little tweaks and flourishes that make a product look 'polished'.
- Adding consistency to UI elements
- Rounding some CTAs
- Adding in a little 'easter egg' you know your users will love
Prioritization in a Startup
But when you are working on a startup you also have to be ruthless with your prioritization to ensure you are working on the things that actually make an impact.
- Big new features
- New marketing efforts
- Outreach
So all those bits of polish fall by the wayside.
The Daily Struggle
But each day those little bits eat away at you, especially when you are using your own product day-to-day.
Inspiration from Loops
After seeing a post by @frantzfries a while for what they do at Loops we were inspired and now think we have cracked it.
The Solution: Monthly Polish
We have 1 ticket in our backlog called "Monthly Polish" (I think Loops' is even more frequent from what I remember).
- Adding to the List: As we go through the month, when we spot something we want to change or tweak we add it to this list.
- These are things that, if we didn't get to in the month or even the next month, it wouldn't be an issue.
- Nothing in the list can take more than 30 minutes to implement individually.
- We add things in an approximate priority order (but it's very rough and ready).
- Polish Day: Then one day in that month we have a 'polish' day, where it is a challenge for @RaineyAllDay to clear off as many of these items as possible going from top to bottom in the list.
- Wherever he gets to in the day is then the start of the list for the next month.
The Outcome
It has now become one of the best days of the month because you get to see all these little changes go live at once so it looks like a bigger update has been made to the product.
Recommendation
I highly recommend trying it out to satisfy the inner perfectionist in you.
