[stevoski]

I have a chapter in my book Kill the HiPPO titled “Cupholders vs CarPlay”.

The premise of the chapter is that some features in software are like CarPlay when looking for a new car - they become an important must-have for the buying decision - as opposed to “cupholder” features, those features which are a mere minor improvement for existing users.

https://killthehippo.com/

[senordevnyc]

Congrats on writing a book, big accomplishment!

I'm confused about the cupholder example though: I'd MUCH rather skip CarPlay (which I love) than cupholders in a car, but I wouldn't shop for a car based on whether it has cupholders because surely they all do, right? It seems like shopping based on whether the car has A/C or something.

[stevoski]

> Congrats on writing a book, big accomplishment!

Thank you!

The point is that you must make sure your product has the “CarPlay” type of features in order to get new customers for whom those features are must-haves.

Beware of spending your time only on adding new “cupholder” style features, which make existing customers slightly happier but don’t attract new customers.

Especially be aware that when you launched your product X years ago, some of today’s “CarPlay”-style features didn’t even exist. Your current customers are not asking for them, because they are mostly happy with your product as it is.

If you only listen to what existing customers are asking for, you might not even realise that these new “CarPlay” features are stopping you from getting certain new customers.