# Product or feature
- URL: https://www.petrikajander.com/product-or-feature/
- Author: Petri Kajander
- Date: 2020-06-15
- Language: en
- Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/1018a6478/podcast/play/98857293/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-1-22%2F395326724-22050-1-834e12fa53e55b6f.mp3
- Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mHTxuB9wv8

A feature is something that is nice to have. It can be an essential component. But it’s a technical thing – a functional solution to something.

When you’re building a new business it’s good to stop and think what you’re doing. Is it so crucial and critical that customers have a hard time living without your solution?

If they can manage without you then you might have a feature that is nice to have but it’s not a must. You need to solve a real pain point.

Another dimension to the product vs. feature conundrum can be considered by looking at it from the competition perspective. If your competitors or some incumbents with deep pockets decide to step into your turf how vulnerable are you?

Features are easy to copy and implement. They become commodities over time. You are in a never-ending race to add more superior capabilities.

Sakari Pihlava mentioned this in our discussion the other day. He said that it’s hard to be the best but it’s easier to be different. If your solution cannot be easily compared to other options in the market and it is more than the sum of its features then it sounds like you have a product.

Products can have features but features are not products. New technologies are usually first novelty products but then they become implemented widely and they become just part of regular solutions.

If you’re excited about the possibilities of a new technology or widget X then you might have a feature issue at hand. AI has been a hot topic for many years. Yet, its underlying capabilities are not exactly new. They have been improved over the decades but now we have enough computing power and data to act upon it.

AI is a similar theme as mobile was some years back. It was novel to do things with your mobile phone instead of your desktop computer. Now, you’re wondering why you cannot do everything with your mobile.

Being different, at least ten times better than others and solving a real pain point are building blocks for a growth company.

Are you building products or features?

[Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNFImiCaifg)

## Transcript (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mHTxuB9wv8, YouTube's automatic captions)

[0:02] Feature a feature is something that is nice to have it can be an essential component but it's a technical thing a functional solution to something when you're building a new business it's good to stop and think what you're doing is it so crucial and critical that customers have a hard time Living Without Your solution if they can manage without you then you might have a feature that is nice to have but it's not a must you need to solve a real pain Point another dimension to the product versus feature conundrum can be considered by looking at it from the competition perspective if your competitors or some incumbents with Deep Pockets decide to step into your Turf how vulnerable are you features are easy to copy and Implement they become Commodities over time you are in a NeverEnding race to add more Superior capabilities Sakari pava mentioned this in our discussion the other day he said that it's hard to be the best but it's.

[1:06] Easier to be different if your solution cannot be easily compared to other options in the market and it is more than the sum of its features then it sounds like you have a product products can have features but features are not products new technologies are usually first novelty products but then they become implemented widely and they become just part of regular Solutions if you're excited about the possibilities of a new technology or widget X then you might have a feature issue at hand air has been a hot topic for many years yet its underlying capabilities are not exactly new they have been improved over the decades but now we have enough computing power and data to act upon it a is a similar theme as mobile was some years back it was novel to do things with your mobile phone instead of your desktop computer now you're wondering why you cannot do everything with your mobile being different at least 10 times better than.

[2:10] Others and solving a real pain pointer building blocks for a Growth Company are you building products or features.

## Transcript (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNFImiCaifg)

[0:00] Do you know what is the difference between a product and a feature? This is what we're going to talk about in this video. And it might be rather crucial for your success as an entrepreneur. So let's get started. If you would ask from your customer, how sorry would they be if your product would not be available anymore, would it be a total  catastrophe for them? So they are really dependent on you or would it be like, oh well, that happens, we can a little bit out to you? If you're not in the first category, if they are not like a disaster to the max worried about you leaving them, that's one sign that you actually may not have a product.

[0:58] You might be something which is just nice to have. It's not a real pain point and this can be a problem. It's very hard to actually be best. In the podcast episode I recorded with Sakari Pihlava, he was talking about this. He said it's way easier to differentiate yourself from the competition than to be the best in anything. And this is a really important point. How you can differentiate yourself from the other players becomes more important when the big guys, the big players, the incumbents are coming in and they wanna come and take your business.

[1:56] Because if you become successful, it depends on your luck and industry, how successful you need to be for them to pay attention to you. But eventually, that will happen. So if you're differentiating yourself from the others, they may not come in and take your position so easily. Well, how can you differentiate yourself from the others? One of them is to think about, for example, how do you charge your customers? What is your business model? How do you make your money? That could be completely different. So you could take another angle completely how you provide your services. Let's take an example from history, not too far away, not going back to the T-Ford.

[2:51] We are just going back a few decades. Salesforce was pretty much the first one who started to do cloud services in a sense that you could do sales and not have a software. So they even actually used in their marketing slogan, no software. They were targeting the change that you don't need to install. You don't need to have your own servers. You don't need any of those things in order to get the product we'll be providing you for. So it's so convenient, easy and quick to get started. And imagine if you've been selling your software services and you package them as licenses, and you need to install the servers and do all those things for each and every client.

[3:44] And now there's a new player who doesn't play along. Who doesn't have that type of model says, no, I don't need those installation costs. No, there's no annual licenses. There's only a monthly fee. So it's a bit harder to compare these two products. And this is something to think about. Getting back to that product or feature aspect. Features are something that is relatively easy to include to the existing products. They are something which you can put in. And, it's just another feature in the bundle.

[4:36] But if you have a product, it means that  it cannot be just copied. Let's take another example, TikTok and Facebook, Instagram. Facebook is copying others like any other big company who becomes into their radar and start to become successful. TikTok is a big company already but how they do things it's different how Instagram does those. You can copy the feed, the for your page. But the way it works underneath is it's more difficult to copy. And that's something with the current setup, how Instagram works and how they monetise their content, and what's the relationship between the users is not exactly the same model anymore.

[5:38] TikTok is more about the content. You want to have something entertaining. You didn't really get that much about who is the provider of that content. You just like the videos and just swipe up or down and go on and move on. You only want to get the best content available. Instagram is more about the people. It's more about who you're following and then comes the content. But there's a difference and this is a different way of approaching the market, a different service as well. So it's not exactly as easy to copy just the features from TikTok or even the algorithm that provide the content because you already have something else in place with different revenue models and business logic underneath it.

[6:34] So this is my message today. Think about whether you actually have a product or is it just a feature which other players can easily copy and you cannot differentiate yourself and be crucial for the success of your customers so that they have really hard time living without you. Till next time! Features are something which are relatively easy to put to other products. They become commodities, if you will, along the way. In technologies, let's take an example.

[7:21] For example, we're talking about AI, we're talking about machine learning. We're talking about these fancy new ways of doing things at this point. They are special things now but wait for a few years, then everybody has those. You just need to use them. There's no special advantage, you'll get by using them.