Essay

This is the Product Death Cycle

Andrew Chen · andrewchen.com Free Intermediate

This is the warning label for treating every customer request as a build order. Chen shows how a team can keep shipping requested features, keep honouring the letter of promises, and still slowly die because none of it moves the business. It sharpens the short answer's point that exciting or requested does not equal important.

  • Building every requested feature can still lead nowhere
  • Ask why behind a request before you commit to building it
  • Honouring promises literally is not the same as growing

It answers 2 questions

  1. What is a sane way to prioritise between fixing bugs, paying customer promises, and building the exciting new thing?
  2. When is it right to stop iterating on a feature and just kill it?

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