The temptation, of course, is to add as many features as possible, because the competition is certainly already adding them as fast as possible. And this puts us back into the situation where “featuritis” or feature creep threatens to bloat and overcomplicate a product — something that good product managers are careful to avoid.
Coding unleashed
The problem is made worse by the fact that developers can add features so quickly that they can — and probably will — bypass normal processes and just add the feature without anyone stopping to ask if the feature is valuable, desirable, or even useful. Those processes — which take into account security issues, legal factors, and market forces — exist for a reason. Bypassing them can have serious ramifications. The challenge shifts from not having enough time to build what you want to not having the time to decide what not to build.
This will require a cultural shift in organizations. Product managers will have to shift from trying to convince their organization to squeeze one more feature into a product cycle to trying to keep superfluous features out. Instead of being pressured by upper management to add more features, forces will start to muster to limit the ability of teams to add features just to keep things under control.