Does it Spark Wow? #

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James Kennedy develops magical features for his purchase order management software by asking a bold question: “Does this feature spark wow?”

There are many “proper” prioritisation frameworks with fancy acronyms like RICE and ICE. But that’s not to say you need to use them.

Just take James Kennedy, founder of ProcurementExpress.com, a purchase order management platform.

James and his team have adopted what I call a “Marie Kondo approach” to feature prioritisation. They look at their list of feature ideas—including customer requests on their Feature Upvote feedback board—and consider which could make customers say “Wow”.

Or, as Marie Kondo might say: “Does it spark wow?”

This approach to feature prioritisation definitely sparks wow in me. It’s unique, it’s bold and it’s 100% customer-centric.

Here’s how James came to use it.

Build it and they will buy — but at what cost? #

Like with most new software products, few people wanted to buy James’ product when it first launched. It was missing too many basic features.

To get each sale, James began adding every feature prospective customers asked for.

“People were like, ‘I want to order two things,’ and we’re like, ‘Oh, we’ve never thought of that.’ So, we’d go and build it,” he shares.

“Then, they’d say, ‘I want to figure out if there’s a budget for doing something,’ and then we’d add the budget feature.”

But prioritising features this way was a constant battle. James found himself being sales-led, where they’d just build whichever feature would get them the next customer.

Over time, the product started to resemble the overpriced “monstrosity” of a car that Homer Simpson designs in one episode of “The Simpsons”—having many bells and whistles, stuck on anywhere there is room, resulting in a completely impractical car.

Image credit: Fox Broadcasting Company

“After a while, you run out of road on this strategy. You have to call it between what enough people are going to want versus what this person in front of you wants,” says James, who acknowledges that some features they’ve built are used by only a few customers.

A new plan: make customers go “Wow” #

With James facing stiff competition from hundreds of similar products, he needed a way of differentiation.

The solution he and his team hit upon? Making the product magical, as their homepage boldly proclaims.

Specifically, they were going to release a magical new feature every quarter.

This focus on magic was inspired by science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke’s third law: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

“No one tries to make a magical purchase order system, I can tell you that much,” shares James. “So, we decided magic was going to be our thing.”

James considers a feature magical if customers say “Wow” when interacting with it. That’s because good software makes you smile—and you might even say “Wow”.

A magical feature doesn’t need to be a revolutionary new product like the iPhone. Delivering a smoother user experience or helping users get things done quicker also counts.

“If approving purchase orders is your world and you’re doing it all day long, and suddenly we make it more magical where something that used to take 10 minutes now takes 30 seconds, that’ll make you say ‘Wow’,” explains James.

“All decisions are emotional. Even the hard-nosed decisions to buy boring B2B solutions are emotional decisions at the end of the day. So we navigate towards making our product magical.”

But what will wow customers? #

James assembles three-person teams comprising a product manager, engineer and product designer to work on magical features. This trio then spends six weeks to a quarter talking to customers and bringing the feature to life.

Once they’ve achieved their goal, the team disbands and another is formed to tackle a different feature.

Everyone loves the idea of working on magical features. However, getting customers to say “Wow” is “pretty bloody difficult”, shares James.

“We’re selling to accountants here, right? Finance people are not known for their exuberance.”

To develop features that have the best chance of wowing customers, James needs to know them well.

“We try to book a call with every customer every quarter to check in and help them,” he says. “This face time is sometimes where you’ll find those ‘wow’ opportunities.”

James’ Feature Upvote board also comes in handy. It gives customers a platform to submit feature requests and vote on those they want to see implemented. As customers share their feedback, James learns their unspoken needs—the features that customers wouldn’t complain about if they were missing, but would be happier if they were present. His team can then prioritise building them.“Just the fact that we have all that feedback on what people are looking for helps us a lot,” adds James.

Staying motivated to deliver magic #

The 90-day deadline for releasing magical features makes development challenging. In truth, the deadline is rarely met.

Sometimes, the team scopes the feature incorrectly. A feature that was estimated to be delivered in a quarter is still a work in progress after a year. Discouragement starts to set in.

“There’s an enthusiasm curve in every project where you’re initially enthusiastic, and then you realise: ‘Oh, this isn’t as easy as I thought it was,’” says James.

The key to staying the course, he reveals, is “getting the pom-poms out and keeping everyone enthusiastic” so that the team pushes through and sees the magical feature to fruition.

For instance, the team records customers’ interactions with new features to let non-customer-facing colleagues hear their voices.

“When I say ‘voice’, I mean the timbre and intonation and type of person they are,” explains James.

“It helps with motivation as well, because as an engineer, you’re just tackling problem after problem […] but then when you get to see the human reaction to what you’ve done, it’s just way more fun, way more motivating.”

One time, customers got excited about being able to see their remaining amount in a budget when assigning a purchase order to it.

This feature sounds ordinary, but customers would exclaim: “You mean I can see what my budget is when I’m ordering and don’t have to check it or ask others? That’s fantastic!”

James’ team records at least 10 to 15 customer interaction videos every week.

James’ advice: Start small, iterate often #

James is working towards releasing one magical feature every six weeks instead of every quarter.

He says his business previously made “huge mistakes” spending three months just talking with customers and figuring out which feature to build.

“Time gets wasted. If you have just five serious conversations with customers and use something like Feature Upvote, you’ll probably have a good idea of what to start on.”

James advises that new product managers stick to the same six-week time frame by scoping features that can be completed in one to two weeks. Then, since the initial iteration will “inevitably” be wrong, plan for three or four more after that.

“Iteration is a real thing. If you’re doing anything that’s longer than six weeks, you’ll run out of energy,” he shares.

“The bad news is you need to be lucky when picking your features. The good news is you can roll the dice as many times as you want.

There’s no correlation between the amount of time something takes to build and the impact it has. So, prioritise the stuff where you can deliver the most impact in the shortest time.”

This case study is based on our interview with James Kennedy in August 2024.