Feature factories aren’t always bad

Unpopular opinion: feature factories aren’t always bad.

If you’ve been a product manager or developer for a while, there’s no doubt you haven’t heard some variation of the saying “don’t become a feature factory.”

But looking back on my own experience and that of dozens of PMs and developers in tech, both in big tech and in start-ups, feature factories are not automatically bad.

If you’re constantly delivering features that add value to your customer base, your factory is a force of good.

If you’re constantly delivering features to prove your worth to the tune of “we can do more things” or “look how much can accomplish,” your factory’s probably weighing you down and adding a metric ton of technical debt.

If you’re constantly adding and removing features based on what actually matters to the business and your end users, your factory is fine-tuned and a well-oiled asset.

If you don’t have an exit strategy for your solutions, your factory will one day collapse onto itself and hurt everyone in and around it.

Agree, disagree, or agree to disagree; I firmly believe that feature factories can be a good thing for your product and company. The deciding factor is whether or not they’re rooted sustainable value and growth.