Against Must-Haves (Part One)

Someone is using "Must-haves" incorrectly. Maybe this article would apply to a new product that has not yet hit MVP, but once you get past that point, the purpose of must-haves changes.

After your product exists, at all, must-haves are not about the engineering to-do list. They are about strategic decision-making to understand what markets you can play in. Or, what personas will use your product, if you prefer that phrasing.

Different personas/markets/stakeholders will have different must-haves. As a product leader, you can look for common ground to understand what features sets will move the most personas from "wont-use-this-product" to "will-use-this-product". You can understand collections of features that open new markets, and which "must-haves" are actually just a tiny handful of sales leads wanting something that nobody else does.

It is your job to choose which markets will get their wishes, and which will not. Synthesizing different sets of must-haves lets you make a customer roadmap, which in turn can drive a product roadmap.

As far as the article's idea that some people over-use the "must-have" category... fine. let them. All they are doing is making sure that they are the hardest people to satisfy, and therefore the last people to get their wishes met.