In my line of business, we often get customers who say, “If your product only had this great feature [that I need] it would really sell. You’d make a million dollars!”
Such enthusiasm prompts us to run off and produce the requested feature as soon as possible. And when we do… Nothing happens. Nobody’s there to heap praise on us and pay the big bucks. The product doesn’t sell any better than before, and no such millions are made. It begs the question: do new features make money?
Certainly from a short-sighted standpoint, the answer is no. There are no crowds of new customers clamoring for the new feature. In fact, most evaluators simply take the new additions for granted, and only stop to comment when something they want is missing. No praise is given for products with great new features. But lots of crap is shoveled out when something isn’t there. That’s just normal human nature.
But over the long term, a constant flow of new features that solve customer problems is a good thing. It builds your customer base and takes the heat off sales and support staff. View it as a long-term investment that will eventually pay.
— newshirt