I’ve been deep in positioning this week, thinking about a client’s new product.

You know that feeling when a product team has 37 features they’re absolutely certain users need from day one?

“But what if someone wants to [obscure edge case]? We need a feature for that!”

I call this “featuritis” — the compulsion to solve every potential use case before launch.

It’s the opposite of what actually works.

This team gets it. The app has a ton of feature potential, the vast majority of which we’re shoving down the road on our product roadmap. I’ve even been guilty of thinking up great new things it might someday do. Featuritis can be that contagious.

And instead of building a Minimum Viable Product, I’m working with them toward what we call a Minimum WOW Product. Bare minimal features still, but targeting the most dramatic impact.

A solution so focused that new users instantly get it, love it, and share it.

This approach feels counterintuitive to many founders. It seems like you’re leaving value on the table. But history tells us otherwise:

The first version of Instagram did exactly ONE thing — apply filters to square photos. No videos, no stories, no reels, no shopping. Just filters that made your crappy phone photos look artistic. That laser focus drove their growth to 1 million users in just 2 months.

Slack began as an internal communication tool for a gaming company, with nothing but basic messaging functionality. When they pivoted to focus solely on team chat, they deliberately withheld DOZENS of features their developers wanted to add. That discipline helped them reach a $1 billion valuation faster than any other startup at the time.

The original Spotify launched with streaming music — hard stop. No podcasts, no videos, no lyrics, no social features. Nuddin’ but reliable, easy music streaming, when every competitor was killing themselves building all-in-one media platforms.

In each case, the stripped-down focus allowed users to understand the core value proposition instantly. Their dog brains didn’t have to work to “get it” — and that’s PRECISELY what made these products spread like wildfire.

Product Payoff: Dropbox very deliberately avoided the bloated feature sets of competing storage solutions. Their MVP did just ONE thing: sync files between devices through a simple folder. This ruthless simplicity helped them grow from 100,000 to 4 million users in just 15 months, despite literally dozens of better-funded competitors.

Action for today: Look at your product’s feature list and play “kill your darlings.” (A thing writers do to eliminate parts we may love, but don’t add enough to the story.) Which features could you eliminate entirely without compromising the core value? Challenge yourself to find THREE that could be cut or postponed to make the product more immediately understandable.

Want to discuss how to identify your product’s “wow” factor? Tap that reply arrow and let’s talk about finding that perfect balance between simplicity and value. Or reach out to my team of product positioning specialists at Graphos Product.