Most people trying to get their first web project underway usually request every feature they can think of. This way their website has all the bells and whistles right from the start, and believing the assumption more options will ensure them success. What they fail to realize is that many of those features are unnecessary for the first release. If you try to include everything not only will you be wasting money but extending your release date as well. Even if your whole project is replicating another website out there, and you just want to one-up them by having more features than the competition, this is a bad strategy. You want to build according to demand.
You want to avoid this mentality, it results in wasted money, time, and energy. The website should prove the assumption that your solution will solve a problem that’s actually something that requires solving. You should tackle one problem at a time, and master your craft. So request less features, less complexities, options, and get your basic product out and build up from there. As a developer I recommend all my clients to minimize to a core set of features, even though that results in less revenue for me in the short term, but both of us win in the long run. I’ve seen many web projects fail due to their large scope, so I like to recommend rapid-prototyping with a minimization on features. This way they save money and time and actually test their business model out. So in the end, go through your feature list and ask yourself, “Do I really need these now?”
