Developing and releasing sophisticated products with all the bells and whistles imaginable might seem like a great idea. After all, you want your newly released software to be as good as it gets when it’s finally launched, right?<\/p>\n
Not quite. Overengineered products are difficult to use, filled with bugs, and instead of improving your users\u2019 lives, they make them unnecessarily complicated.<\/p>\n
But worry not! In this article, we look at different ways for product managers<\/a> to avoid falling into the overengineering trap.<\/p>\n Overengineering is building a product that is more complex than necessary.<\/p>\n This could be through features that nobody needs, overwhelming UI<\/a>, overcomplicated architecture, or complex technologies, like AI when simple solutions would do the job.<\/p>\n There are some tell-tale signs that your product may be over-engineered.<\/p>\n One of the first symptoms would be low feature adoption.<\/a><\/p>\n There could be three reasons for that:<\/p>\n Apart from that, look out for performance issues, like excessive downtime, and a large volume of bug reports.<\/p>\n Lack of experience and excessive reliance on coursebook design patterns could be one of the causes of excessively complex code. Too much confidence in their skills and wanting to show them off could be another.<\/p>\n However, blaming developers for overengineering isn’t fair. Building amazing products is a combined effort of teams from across the organization. It’s often product managers<\/a> that are responsible for poor practices leading to it.<\/p>\n What are the greatest PM sins?<\/p>\n You’ve probably got an idea by now that overengineering isn\u2019t exactly optimal for your product. Let’s look at some of the more serious consequences of excessive engineering that can plague your product far into the future.<\/p>\n Developing unwanted features delays the product launch<\/a> or the update release<\/a>. And it’s not only the extra time needed for writing code but also testing <\/a>and quality assurance.<\/p>\n This means:<\/p>\n The longer the development takes, the more it costs. Developer and QA salaries, software licenses, tools, infrastructure, facilities… all that will increase the overall expenditure on the product and cut into your profit margins.<\/p>\n And don’t forget about higher ongoing maintenance costs. The upkeep of complex infrastructure will require more effort and resources.<\/p>\n And while you’re dealing with all that, you may be missing out on opportunities to add true value to your product.<\/a><\/p>\n Overengineering is like building a house with all the best fittings and furnishings but no solid foundation. Without such a foundation, the house will be shaky and won’t last very long.<\/p>\n Your product may wow users with its fancy features to start with. However, such a system will gradually be less resilient to technical issues, and more challenging to scale or upgrade – until you reach the point when a complete rewrite is necessary.<\/p>\n Not many companies can pull it off without taking a significant hit in user numbers and revenue. In fact, some companies never recover from that at all.<\/p>\n Overengineering often delays the moment companies reach product-market fit.<\/a><\/p>\n Why?<\/p>\n First, it delays the product launch. This means a lot of product development happens without customer validation. Without this, you can’t really tell whether there’s enough demand for the solution to make it a viable commercial product.<\/p>\n And the longer it takes for you to find your PMF<\/a>, the higher the risk you run out of cash to finance your development. And even the most optimistic VCs will turn off the tap if they don’t see evidence that your product is heading in the right direction.<\/p>\n This eventually leads to product failure,<\/a> and in the case of smaller startups – business failure.<\/p>\nWhat is overengineering?<\/h2>\n
How to identify an overengineered solution?<\/h2>\n
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Why do developers overengineer software products?<\/h2>\n
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What are the negative consequences of excessive engineering?<\/h2>\n
Longer development cycles<\/h3>\n
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Increased development and maintenance costs<\/h3>\n
Greater technical debt<\/h3>\n
Failure to reach product-market fit<\/h3>\n