#41 The Feature Race to Nowhere

“Did you see? Our competitor just launched this new feature. We need something similar, and we need it fast!”

It happened again. A few weeks ago, I was in a meeting with a client in the health space, and there it was, the same reflex. The feature race. You’d think we’d be past this by now, but some businesses are still stuck in it. A competitor adds something new, and the reflex kicks in: We need that too.

But… We don’t know why they built it, who it’s for, or if it solves anything real. But it’s live. And now, somehow, it’s urgent.

It’s remarkable how often teams chase features they barely understand, building things they never intended to, for reasons they can’t quite explain. All of it done to “keep up” with competitors who might not even be headed in the same direction.

This is how strategy turns reactive. This is how products become fragmented and harder to use. All for what? To avoid falling behind?

But behind what, exactly?

Real product progress doesn’t come from matching feature lists. It comes from knowing who you’re building for and why. From having a strategy and sticking to it. From saying no to things that don’t fit, even when someone else ships them first.

Admittedly, this gets trickier in industries like the public sector, where formal procurement drives decisions. There, the leap from “our competitor launched this” to “this is now a must-have requirement” can happen fast. Not because the feature is good, useful, or widely adopted, but simply because it exists.

So yes, stay aware of what competitors are adding. But don’t let that awareness dictate your priorities. Just because something could become a requirement doesn’t mean it will. If you’ve done the work, and your solution is grounded in genuine user needs and real outcomes, then you don’t need to copy others to win. You can lead with substance and confidence.

The teams that thrive are the ones that know what their product is trying to be great at. That clarity gives you direction, and a foundation to stand on when the feature-chasing starts. Orient your roadmap around real needs and long-term vision, not speculative requirements. That’s how you stay relevant, even as the market shifts.

Most teams don’t suffer from a lack of ideas. They suffer from a lack of strategy, research, and clarity. So they mimic. They hedge their bets. They react. And over time, everything starts to look the same, and everybody loses.

The companies building the products never break free or pull ahead. The teams get disillusioned, burned out from chasing someone else’s roadmap. The customers have to settle for outcomes that could’ve been better. And the users? They’re left with cluttered, bloated, second-rate products.

It’s a race to nowhere. And nobody wins.