Essay · 6 min read

The Build Trap

Melissa Perri Free Intermediate

This names the failure mode you are trying to avoid: shipping feature after feature and mistaking motion for progress. Perri shifts the question from what did you deliver to what did you learn about the customer, which is the test a request should pass. Short and sharp, good for a gut check before you say yes to keep someone happy.

  • Shipping features is easy, deciding what to build is the hard part
  • Measure outcomes and learning, not the count of features shipped
  • More features do not automatically make a product more valuable
Open on melissaperri.com ↗

The question it answers

  1. How do I say no to feature requests without losing customers?

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