There are 4 kinds of problems which prohibits the usage of a feature/product.

  • Discovery/Awareness problem: User does not even know the feature exists. Or it is not top in mind of the user for its category.
    • How to measure:
      • Check ratio of users using the feature/ users who land on the screen.
      • Customer interviews.
      • Surveys
  • Use case problem: User has not learned what to use this feature for.
    • How to measure:
      • Check ratio of users using the feature/ users who are familiar with the feature.
      • Customer interviews.
      • Surveys
  • Feature inferiority problem: The feature is far inferior to the alternatives and hence people are not using it. Or it is not actually helping the user with the job it hired the product for. This can be validated through UTs.
    • How to measure:
      • Customer feedback collected through support tickets
      • Customer interviews
      • Surveys
      • Customer satisfaction scores
  • Product lacking features: Users would probably use your product and it has X features. But another competitor has X + Y and hence people use your competitor more or have not found the need to switch to your product yet. You don’t have any game changer features.
    • How to measure:
      • Customer interviews

All 4 problems are important to solve.

But the hierarchy is: Solve for discovery > Nudge your users towards using your product more, educate them about the other jobs they can use it for > Make sure your core product does not suck > Build Y.

P.S This was part of an earlier blogpost: Is there a discovery problem with UberEats?