When we first meet a new customer at Drorsoft, they usually arrive with a big dream — a vision of what they want us to help them build. They explain the general idea and send over a document packed with features, eager to begin development.

What we typically receive, however, is a long list of under-specified and over-specified features.

An under-specified feature might be something like: "I also want a chatbot." A chatbot can be a million different things and behave in countless ways, yet none of that is defined.

An over-specified feature is the opposite. The next item might describe, in great detail, the behavior of a calendar component — including a specific JavaScript library, database table structures, and edge-case handling for leap-second years. This level of detail is not only unnecessary at this stage, it is often incorrect and can even be harmful to the project.

So what do we do with the endless list?

We could simply implement exactly what the customer asked for and bill accordingly. But while that approach may increase the invoice, it costs the customer something far more valuable: time.

Time to market suffers. Competitors move faster. Customers wait longer to receive what they actually need. Fast delivery is critical, and bloated feature lists undermine it.

That's why the first thing we do with every feature list is help our customers reduce it to the bare minimum: an MVP — Minimum Viable Product. Once we have a short, focused list, we take each feature and:

• fill in missing details,
• remove unnecessary technical constraints,
• design the technical approach, and
• uncover unknowns and risks.

Only after the customer clearly understands what will be built do we start coding.

Advice for non-technical entrepreneurs

• Don't dive into technical details unless you truly must — that's the development team's responsibility.
• Ruthlessly prioritize your features and strictly limit the top-priority list.
• Design experiments: what is the smallest thing you can build that will validate your business idea?

Have a business idea you need help building? We're here to help.