The Pitfalls of Low-Hanging Fruits in Software Development
Software Development without a product vision leads to chaos. How can you evaluate the purpose of a feature if you don’t even know where the journey is headed? This isn’t about having a perfectly detailed plan from the start. However, for every step, it must be clear what you aim to achieve to enhance the core idea of the solution.
In this state of helplessness, where progress must be made, people often resort to Low-Hanging Fruits (LHF). These are simple tasks that seem to quickly enhance the product. But what are the real consequences of this approach when you force continuous results with minimal effort?
I see LHFs as a significant distraction, and they must therefore be scrutinized thoroughly. Just because something is easy to implement doesn’t mean it serves the product. Without an overarching vision, you might even work against your goals. Impressed in the short term by speed and feature volume, but disappointed in the medium term as the real value falls short.
Pursuing a goal might mean you can’t present a new feature every week. Some tasks are too extensive or fundamental. Here, patience and focus are truly needed. Bridging this time with simple features distracts and unnecessarily bloats the project. Even these LHFs must prove they contribute to the vision. Only then do they earn their right to exist.
Filling your project continuously with these pseudo-advancements leads to stagnation. Any success will likely be short-lived. Either you continue this pattern, creating a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none product, or you clutter your otherwise clear and clean product with unnecessary gimmicks. Ultimately, this overshadows the core value.
Why is very old software still in use today, even though it’s dusty and outdated? Because it solves real problems. It shines through functionality, not superficial polish. The most modern software is useless to users if it makes their actual tasks more cumbersome, time-consuming, or incomplete. Therefore, it’s crucial to clearly say no to distractions.
If you take your product seriously and only use LHFs to fill gaps in release cycles, it inevitably leads to increasing technical debt. LHFs often have the habit of being implemented quickly, possibly even disregarding standards and best practices. Yet, an unnecessary feature adds complexity, which usually results in maintenance overhead.
LHFs are not a strategy for a sustainable solution. A product doesn’t need to follow trends or chase every feature. It needs a clear guiding principle. A unique selling point. Not necessarily uniqueness, but consistency. A clear definition of its domain without gimmicks. In the medium and long term, such a solution will retain users.
Know your vision and follow this North Star relentlessly. Don’t lose yourself in distractions or settle for easy solutions. Create something sustainable and focused.
Were your last LHFs just cosmetic, or did they solve a real problem?