When engineers engineer products, they naturally pack in as many features as possible. Why? Because engineers, um, calculate that prospects desire a wide array of features.
Proposal managers and product marketers know the truth. Some prospects find too many features to be undesirable.
But first, a quote
This quote from my Biometric Update guest post is pertinent. These are three of my recommendations to biometric vendors (and other identity vendors) to ensure responsible data use.
“Collect only the minimum necessary personal information. If you don’t need certain data, don’t collect it. If it’s never collected, fraudster hackers can never steal it.
“Store only the minimum necessary personal information. If you don’t need to keep certain data, don’t store it. I’m sure our decentralized identity friends will agree with this.
“Comply with all privacy laws and regulations. This should be a given, but sometimes vendors are lax in this area. If your firm violates the law, and you are caught, you will literally pay the price.”
Two of these three recommendations came into play shortly after I wrote those words.
When “feature-rich” is undesirable
I recently fulfilled two roles for a Bredemarket client: first a proposal manager, and rhen a requirements manager. And as my role shifted, my focus shifted also.
Bredemarket the proposal manager
Some time ago I helped a Bredemarket client manage and write a proposal for a prospect. I can’t identify the client or the prospect, but I will just say that the proposal was for a product that collected personally identifiable information (PII).
The proposal not only presented the features of my client’s product, but also the benefits. And it presented several alternative configurations to the prospect, including an array of value-added options.
Bredemarket the requirements manager
Fast forward after proposal submission, and after my Biometric Update guest post was published.
The prospect wanted to hold further discussions with Bredemarket’s client, and Bredemarket shifted from consulting proposal manager to consulting requirements manager.
The prospect’s first request?
Remove ALL the proposal’s value-added options from the final deliverable.
Not because of cost, but because these value-added features would make the prospect’s life MORE difficult.
While the prospect had no issue with the data that the supercharged value-added configured product collected, it had other concerns:
- Some of the storage features of the value-added product ended up storing things the prospect didn’t need or want to store.
- In addition, the value-added product caused privacy issues with the prospect’s own end customers.
An added benefit to removing these features: the slimmed-down product would be easier for the prospect to manage.
Sometimes less is more, as a sculpture artist will tell you. A huge hunk of marble is less desirable than a sculpture in which much of the marble was taken away.
If you need Bredemarket to help shape your proposals, requirements, or other content or analysis, let’s talk.
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