Matt Mayfield's Blog on Business

When launching a product (especially when you are a small startup), there is a common mistake that most everyone makes the first time around: benefit inflation.  The problem arrises when someone thinks of a small change that could be made to the product that might appeal to a particular group of users.  As they add more and more features/benefits, the hope is that the product will appeal to a larger and larger audience and better justify its price point.  The reality is that additional features/benefits do the opposite: they restrict your market and reduce the perceived value of an otherwise good product.  To explain how this happens and how to avoid it, we will make a few mind experiments: Read more…