Product features are discrete regions https://www.taurist.com/ of new and upgraded functionality that deliver cost in your clients. You can suppose of those as little items. Broadly, functions can discuss with capabilities, additives, person interface (UI) layout, and overall performance upgrades.
Product managers own the product roadmap and what will in the end be constructed. Evaluating, defining, and prioritizing capabilities is a large part of the position. Features might also comprise other info, including timing, reputation, and assignees — however typically you need to have an understanding of every of those elements for any given function:
Description: The project or motion the consumer wishes to perform and how the characteristic serves them
User task: The ache factor or mission skilled by the consumer that the characteristic solves for
Benefit: The gain or value furnished to the consumer
Goal: The broader product dreams or measurable goals that the function ties to
Initiative: The excessive-level effort or subject of work that the feature aligns to
It is critical to have a steady, repeatable technique for defining and describing features so that you can tie each one lower back to a key enterprise goal. Otherwise, you could become with a hodgepodge assortment of recent functionality and improvements that are not delivering price.
Plan and prioritize your product functions →
What is the distinction among a feature and a benefit?
A product function is a specific piece of functionality that has a corresponding gain or set of benefits for the person. Benefits are the fee that users advantage from using that capability. Skilled product managers can articulate advantages — why the characteristic ultimately subjects to the customer.
The table below shows example products and services with sample features and the corresponding benefit:
Product/Service
Feature
Benefit
Automobile
Reverse automated braking
Enhanced safety
Toy robot
Built-in rechargeable battery
Convenience, ease of use
Financial reporting software
Custom analytics file
Flexibility, configurability
Online training portal
Search and filter options
Time-savings, interactivity
Articulating the advantage allows you to evaluate how each function supports fundamental areas of funding, or tasks, as defined to your product approach. Further aligning capabilities to patron needs and commercial enterprise goals allows you join the “why” to the “what” of what you build.
How do functions range from user memories, requirements, and epics?
Along with capabilities, product teams additionally leverage consumer tales, requirements, and epics to describe what you may construct. The table underneath details the maximum commonplace utilization for these terms. Depending on the improvement methodology your crew uses, the terms may additionally have slightly unique meanings.
Epic
A organization of related functions or consumer stories that percentage common enterprise objectives. As larger bundles of labor, epics tend to span multiple releases.
Feature
A slice of capability that describes a product’s look, additives, and/or skills.
User story
A product characteristic defined from the angle of the give up-person. The person tale format is useful in concerning capabilities to advantages. As a [type of user], I want to [action] in order that [benefit].
Requirement
A defined functionality that desires to be finished with a view to deliver a function. A single characteristic might also have more than one necessities.
How do functions, person stories, requirements, and epics paintings collectively? Let’s take a look at an instance from a fictitious biking software. In the screenshot underneath, our epic is related to “Rider reporting” — this is a group of abilities in order to decorate the rider’s capacity to document on their overall performance. This is a wide scope of work that wishes to be broken down into more than one functions or person memories, like “Bike mileage tracking” proven here. This single characteristic then carries a couple of requirements, consisting of the layout of the mileage report and integrating with an present analytics engine.
Use the functions board to outline and prioritize what to build.
Requirements, capabilities, person st