How Do I Prioritize Features? Part 1 of 2

If you're a startup founder or a product leader, chances are you don't have a hard time dreaming big. Your vision board is probably overflowing with features that would revolutionize your industry, delight your users, and make your competitors weep. But you keep running into the same two pesky constraints when building the dream product to rule your industry: time and money.

Every feature request feels urgent. Every customer feedback session reveals another "must-have" capability. Every competitor launch makes you question your roadmap. So how do you decide what to build first?

Building your product in phases has several benefits. It forces you to prioritize what's truly important, allows you to adapt based on customer feedback, and helps you get to market faster. But how do you decide what goes in phase one versus phase two?

Remember Who You're Building For

Before you can prioritize features effectively, you need to understand who you're building for. This means going beyond generic user personas and understanding the specific needs, pain points, and goals of your target audience. Are you building for enterprise customers who need robust security and compliance features? Or are you targeting small businesses that need simplicity and quick setup?

Understanding your target audience helps you make better decisions about which features matter most. A feature that's critical for one user segment might be irrelevant for another. The more specific you can be about who you're building for, the easier it becomes to prioritize.

Gathering customer insights involves multiple approaches. User interviews help you understand motivations and context. Usability testing reveals where users struggle. Support tickets highlight recurring frustrations. Product analytics show you what people actually do, not just what they say they do.

Look for patterns across these data sources. If multiple customers mention the same problem, that's a signal. If analytics show users consistently struggling with a particular workflow, that's a signal. If support tickets cluster around a specific issue, that's a signal.

If it's Broke, Fix it?

Usability issues can significantly impact user satisfaction and retention. If users can't complete core tasks, or if they're frustrated by confusing interfaces, those problems should rise to the top of your priority list. But not all usability issues are created equal.

Consider the severity and frequency of each issue. A critical bug that prevents users from completing a purchase is more urgent than a minor UI inconsistency. A usability problem that affects 80% of your users is more important than one that affects 5%. Design audits and severity scales can help you systematically identify and prioritize these issues.

What's Going to Sell?

For many products, especially B2B SaaS, certain features are essential for closing deals. These are the features that prospects ask about during sales calls, the capabilities that differentiate you from competitors, and the functionality that justifies your pricing.

Understanding which features drive sales requires talking to your sales team, analyzing win/loss data, and listening to what prospects actually say during demos. What features do they get excited about? What capabilities do they ask for? What concerns do they raise that cause them to walk away?

It's important to distinguish between what prospects say they want and what they actually need. People often ask for features based on what they've seen in other products, not necessarily what would solve their specific problems. Rely on past behavior data—what features do your current customers actually use? What workflows do they follow? What problems do they solve with your product?

Next steps: Apply Constraints

Understanding customer needs, usability issues, and sales drivers is just the first step. In part two of this series, we'll explore how to balance these customer-centered priorities with real-world constraints: technical limitations, business requirements, and resource availability. Because even the most important features need to be feasible to build.