Managing a product’s development lifecycle is like constantly walking a balance beam. Fall off the beam, and on one side you get eaten by customers and prospects desiring new features and functionality; the other side your oh-so-precious resources to get it all done and the associated costs.

In a fast paced software company, it can be easy sometimes to get caught-up in customer requests, cool new ideas and the excitement of potential revenue from new-far-off markets. However, it’s critical that before any major decisions are made about your product that you step out of the tornado and evaluate what’s going to keep you propped-up on that balance beam.

Here are a few things to consider when adding new features to your product’s development roadmap:

Impact to customer loyalty and user adoption- New features, especially customer requested ones, usually translate to happier customers and more people using your product. This leads to increased Customer Lifetime Value and more long term revenue from your existing base.

User Interface changes can be a double edge sword. New technologies like AJAX may afford you the ability to do new things in your product different ways, but it can wreck havoc on your existing base if they’re fans of the current interface and aren’t big fans of change. Always, always do a customer “pulse check” and solicit feedback from your current users before making any major overhauls. They’re never shy to give direct input for improvements.

New Revenue from New Features - One of the first questions I ask my Business Development team when we’re discussing new requests is “can we charge for it?”. Whether that be as a separate module or an increase in base price of the product because we’re bringing more value to the table. The sister questions to these are: “Will it win us more deals? Or are we loosing potential customers because we don’t have it and someone else does?” This is almost always where the revenue comes from to help offset the cost of developing the new functionality.

How much is it going to cost, how long will it take, and what are the impacts to other parts of the product?- These are probably the numero uno questions to answer. If a new feature will devour resources to develop and yield no new revenue, don’t do it. Period.

One of the most often overlooked gotchas is the impact of the new functionality to other aspects of the software. If adding Widget A is going to break Widget B or change how users interact with Widget C then you need to do a full impact analysis and include this in your cost and timetable scope.

It’s also a good idea to get representation from all sides of the business in a room together with a white board. Sometimes a developer hearing direct feedback from your sales & marketing team can nip resistance to product changes (hint, developers take a lot pride in their products and often times have difficulty seeing how the product works in real-life for the end user. Stick them with customers and other team members for a few days; they’ll get it). On the converse, it’s good for your Business Development folks to hear the effort and costs tied to developing new functions directly from the people that do it. At times the balance beam just downright becomes a tightrope. Asking these tough questions will help guide you down the path.