

Less is more, more or less - finding the minimum features is hard - erikstarck
http://steveblank.com/2010/09/27/less-is-more-more-or-less/

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onefortwo
This post is a little reflection on this anecdote: But each time we met she
politely told me I was an idiot and my engineering department was even dumber.
It took two meetings before we understood that our database schema didn’t
include “householding” and without this feature was she could never buy our
system. (Householding means recognizing that two or more people at the same
physical address live together). That's all folks.

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wccrawford
Wait, so you mean you have to actually understand your customers' needs to
know what the minimum feature set is?

Shocking!

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Robin_Message
Yes, but one good point here is that showing them _something_ is very useful.
By making them answer the question, "what problem do you have that this
_doesn't_ solve" they found the minimum they needed to add.

Conversation goes best when it is two-way—of course you need to listen and
understand your customers' needs, but often they don't know them themselves
and need you to suggest things so they can realise what they actually need.

Or, to quote Justice Stewart, "I know it when I see it."

