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Start with features, not apps

OpenSource on May 13, 2024

Quick one: Ever thought we've been designing apps all wrong? Yup, that's right. We're like those people who build the roof before the walls. Here'...
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Bert Grantges

I would go higher - focus on the outcome you want to achieve for your audience, that will inform what requirements (or features) you actually need.

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Mike Pearson

I would go higher - focus on the 2nd law of thermodynamics, that will inform what entropy channels (or requirements) are inevitable in the grand scheme of things.

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Tech Tobé

Ah, so good! I wish I could repost thisss! I truly believe my community could benefit from reading this ⭐

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Alex

It’s not features that propelled these two examples but offering a solution to problems. For google it can be summarized as finding information you need. For ChatGPT it’s not so obvious since it can solve a whole bunch of problems, but I’d say that the core one is how to interact with an LLM in a simple way (in this case through a chat bot).

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OpenSource

Agree!! "Features that solve problems", not any feature, like a button or something.

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Smit Shah

this could be my this week's goal. build a feature first app. :)

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Ashish

I have tried to his and it has worked everytime as a designer once features are established it's better to Design it with form & functionalities, nice Post:)

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Thabiso Pheko

I am currently building a lot of YAGNI features

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OpenSource

Thank you a lot for the reference, by the way. It's here for everyone:

Wikipedia YAGNI

Martin Fowler YAGNI

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OpenSource

I had to search it:

"You aren't gonna need it" (YAGNI) is a principle which arose from extreme programming (XP) that states a programmer should not add functionality until deemed necessary.

Yeah, resist adding it!!

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OpenSource

Curious... Is it because someone put them on the sprint? Sometimes it's outside our control indeed... but I hope they'll listen you!

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Offirmo

I'm also building a lot of YAGNI but

  • it's for personal projects
  • I accepted that I'll never finish my projects, it's a hobby that's giving me pleasure, that's ok
  • hmm YAGNI is the best for relaxing ;)
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pamilerin

Good perspective..

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Richard Garcia

Good perspective..

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Abhishek Sachan • Edited

It depends on the approach, if you want to just test your idea you start with a flashy homepage and don't start building features.

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Arbythecoder

I love the perspective... Designs should be secondary but at least, let the app do the major work you said it will do.✌

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Ricardo Esteves

Well, valid point!

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Monteiro Steil

Really good perspective!

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Stephen Amedi Imbira

This should be a revolution. #startwithfeatures. Haha
Anyway, thanks for this change in perspective. Let me try it out

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Qyrus

This. So simple, yet so true. Thanks for the reminder, and cheers to a full night's sleep!

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