BoSEU25 | Steve McLeod | How Bootstrapped Teams Really Choose What Feature to Build Next
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Choosing the right features to build is one of the most important things we do as founders. But it’s also really hard. Steve is currently co-writing a book on this topic. For research, he’s been talking to bootstrapped, stable, well-run, mature, profitable software companies of about 20-50 people, asking them how they go about feature prioritisation – how they did this in the early days, how that changed over time, and what they do now. Steve shares 5 unique and interesting approaches he’s discovered so far.
BoSEU25 | Steve McLeod | How Bootstrapped Teams Really Choose What Feature to Build Next
- 1. Kill the HiPPO How do bootstrapped teams really choose what feature to build next?
- 2. But there’s so much already written about this!
- 3. • Bootstrapped • Stable • Well-run • Mature • Pro fi table • ~ 20 to 50 employees Stories from software companies that are:
- 5. WOW? 1. Does it spark WOW? James Kennedy - ProcurementExpress.com
- 6. You can delight users of any software - even procurement software 1. Does it spark WOW?
- 7. 2. Building for “Simon from Canada” YouCanBookMe - Bridget Harris
- 8. Make your software perfect for 1 person - if they are the right person 2. Building for “Simon from Canada”
- 9. 3. “A Season for Everything” Balsamiq - Peldi & Liz Green
- 10. Each class of backlog item deserves a chance to be considered 3. “A Season for Everything”
- 11. 4. Cupholders or CarPlay? Less Annoying CRM - Tyler King
- 12. 4. Cupholders or CarPlay? Don’t get caught up in endlessly perfecting the cupholders
- 13. 5. Adopt and adapt DNSimple - Anthony Eden
- 14. No approach is perfect for every team - but sometimes a couple of tweaks is enough 5. Adopt and adapt
- 15. Steve McLeod, April 2025 Read more at killthehippo.com I want to hear your story! steve@featureupvote.com