How to Stop Building Everything and Start Building the Right Thing
The Feature FOMO Trap: Why Your Users Want a Flying Car When They Really Need a Bicycle 🚴♂️
Paras Borad
29 Oct 2025 • 2 min read

The Universal Startup Founder Experience
Picture this -> You’re a founder. You wake up at 3 AM with THE feature idea. You know, the one that’s going to change everything. You can already see it — users crying tears of joy, investors throwing money at you like Leonardo DiCaprio in Wolf of Wall Street.
But then your rational brain kicks in (damn you, rational brain). “I should validate this with users first,” you think. So you do the responsible thing — you ask potential users what they want.
User #1: “Oh, that’s cool! But can it also do [completely unrelated thing]?”
User #2: “Love it! Would be perfect if it also had [feature that would take 6 months to build].”
User #3: “Great idea! You know what would make it better? If it could [basically rebuild Facebook].”
Welcome to what I call The Feature FOMO Death Spiral — where good MVPs go to die.
The Harsh Truth Nobody Tells You (But I Will, Because I’m That Guy)
Here’s the thing about asking users what features they want: It’s like asking a 5-year-old what they want for dinner.
They’ll say ice cream, pizza, chocolate cake, and maybe a unicorn. Does that mean you should serve them sugar-coated diabetes on a plate? No. (Though a unicorn would be cool.)
When Henry Ford (allegedly) said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses,” he wasn’t being arrogant. He was highlighting a fundamental truth:
Users are EXCELLENT at identifying problems. Users are TERRIBLE at designing solutions.
Think about it. When users say they want a “dark mode with AI-powered theme switching based on ambient light and mood detection,” what they’re really saying is “bright screens hurt my eyes at night.”

The Validation Paradox: When Everyone’s Right, Everyone’s Wrong
Here’s where it gets spicy. The validation paradox works like this:
You ask 10 users what they want
You get 47 different feature requests (yes, the math doesn’t add up, welcome to startups)
You try to build everything (because you’re a people pleaser)
You end up with a Frankenstein’s monster that does everything poorly and nothing well
Users complain it’s “too complicated” (THE AUDACITY!)
Remember: If you try to build for everyone, you’ll build for no one.
Or as I like to call it, the “Swiss Army Knife Syndrome” — sure, it has 47 tools, but have you ever tried to actually cut something with that tiny knife? It’s like bringing a spork to a steakhouse.
The ACTUAL Framework You Need (No BS, Just Science… Sort Of)
Step 1: The Problem Safari 🦁
Stop asking “What features do you want?” Start asking:
“What’s the most frustrating part of [specific task]?”
“Show me how you currently do [thing]”
“What would you pay money to never have to do again?”
Pro tip: Watch what they DO, not what they SAY. Users will tell you they want healthy features but their usage data shows they’re clicking on the digital equivalent of donuts.
Step 2: The MoSCoW Method (But Make It Fun)
Categorize every feature idea into:
MUST have (Without this, the product is literally useless)
Example: A messaging app MUST send messages (revolutionary, I know)
SHOULD have (Important but won’t kill you if missing in v1)
Example: Read receipts (so you can stress about being left on read)
COULD have (Nice to have if you have extra time, which you don’t)
Example: Custom emoji reactions
WON’T have (Not now, Satan)
Example: Blockchain integration (unless you’re actually building a blockchain product, then… maybe?)
Step 3: The 80/20 Rule (Pareto’s Greatest Hit)
80% of your users will use 20% of your features. Find that 20% and nail it.
How to find your 20%:
List all proposed features
Ask: “If we could only build ONE, which would make users go ‘SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!’?”
That’s your core feature
Repeat for features 2–3
Stop. SERIOUSLY, STOP.
No. There isn’t more. That’s the point.
Step 4: The Mom Test (Not Kidding, This Is Real)
Would you explain this feature to your mom in under 10 seconds? If not, it’s too complicated.
Bad: “It’s a blockchain-powered, AI-driven, synergistic platform for optimizing cross-functional paradigms.”
Good: “It’s Uber for dog walking.”
If your mom gets it, your users will get it. If your mom doesn’t get it, you’re probably overthinking it.
The Decision Matrix That Actually Works
For every feature, score it on these criteria (1–5 scale):
Impact Score:
User Delight: How much will users love this?
Problem Solving: How well does it solve the core problem?
Differentiation: Does this make you stand out?
Effort Score:
Development Time: How long to build?
Maintenance Burden: How much ongoing work?
Complexity Risk: Could this break other things?
The Magic Formula:
Priority Score = (Impact Score × 2) - Effort ScoreWhy x2 for impact? Because in startups, impact > everything else. You can always optimize later, but you can’t optimize something nobody wants.
Priority Levels:
Score > 10: BUILD THIS NOW
Score 5–10: Put it in the “Soon™️” list
Score < 5: Put it in the “Maybe when we’re unicorns” folder
Real Talk: The Psychological Traps You’re Falling Into
Trap #1: The IKEA Effect
You love your feature ideas more because YOU thought of them. It’s like how IKEA furniture seems amazing because you built it (even though it’s basically expensive cardboard).
Solution: Get someone who doesn’t care about your feelings to review your features. Brutal honesty > polite lies.
Trap #2: The Sunk Cost Fallacy
“But we already spent 2 weeks designing this feature!”
So? You know what’s worse than wasting 2 weeks? Wasting 2 months building something nobody wants.
Trap #3: The Competitor FOMO
“But our competitor has this feature!”
Cool story. Are they profitable? Are their users happy? Or are they also playing feature Pokemon (gotta catch ’em all)?
Remember: Your job isn’t to have MORE features than competitors. It’s to have BETTER solutions to user problems.
The “Holy Grail” Validation Process (Steal This)
Week 1: Problem Discovery
Interview 10 potential users (actual conversations, not surveys)
Document their PROBLEMS, not their feature requests
Look for patterns (if 3+ people have the same problem, you’re onto something)
Week 2: Solution Sketching
Create mockups for top 3 problems (use Figma, not PowerPoint, we’re not animals)
Show mockups to the SAME users
Watch their reactions (excitement = good, “meh” = back to drawing board)
Week 3: Fake Door Testing
Create a landing page for the feature
Add a “Coming Soon” button
Track clicks (high clicks = actual interest, not just polite nodding)
Week 4: Build the Ramen Version
Build the absolute minimum version that solves the problem
Like, embarrassingly minimum
If you’re not slightly ashamed, you’ve built too much
The Validation Threshold:
40% of test users say “I NEED this” = Build it
20–40% are interested = Iterate and retest
<20% care = Kill it (with fire)
The Ultimate Feature Decision Checklist
Before building ANY feature, answer these:
✅ Can you explain it in one sentence? (If no, it’s too complex)
✅ Will it make your core value prop stronger? (If no, why are you building it?)
✅ Can you launch without it? (If yes, then don’t build it yet)
✅ Will 80% of users use it? (If no, it’s a “nice to have”)
✅ Can you build it in 2 sprints or less? (If no, can you break it down?)
✅ Is it solving a PAIN or a “nice to have”? (Pain = painkiller, Nice = vitamin. Be a painkiller.)
✅ Would you bet your own money on it? (If you wouldn’t put $1000 of your own money on this feature succeeding, why build it?)
The “Steve Jobs” Close (Because Every Startup Blog Needs One)
Steve Jobs didn’t ask users if they wanted an iPhone. But he DID observe that people:
Hated carrying multiple devices (phone + iPod + camera)
Struggled with existing smartphones (looking at you, Blackberry)
Wanted internet access everywhere
He solved PROBLEMS, not feature requests.
Your users asking for 47 features? They’re really telling you about 3–4 core problems. Find those. Solve those. Ignore the noise.
The Ultimate Truth: A product with 3 features that work perfectly beats a product with 30 features that work “okay.”
Your Action Plan (Do This TODAY)
List all your feature ideas (yes, even the crazy 3 AM ones)
Run them through the Priority Score formula
Pick your top 3
Validate with the Fake Door Test
Build the highest scoring validated feature
Ship it
Get real usage data
Iterate based on ACTUAL usage, not hypothetical requests
Remember: Ship beats perfect. Every. Single. Time.
The TL;DR (Because Who Has Time?)
Users don’t know what they want, but they know their problems
More features ≠ better product
Validate problems, not solutions
Build less, but build it better
Use data to decide, not opinions (even your own)
When in doubt, ship it and see what happens
If you’re not embarrassed by v1, you launched too late
Now stop reading this blog and go cut 70% of your feature list. Your future self (and your users) will thank you.
P.S. — If this blog made you realize you’ve been building the wrong things, don’t panic. Every successful startup has a graveyard of features nobody wanted. The key is to kill them quickly and move on. As they say in Silicon Valley: “Fail fast, fail often, but for the love of all that is holy, please fail CHEAP.”
P.P.S. — Still want to build that AI-powered mood detection dark mode? Fine. But build the regular dark mode first. Please. I’m begging you.
About the Author: Someone who’s watched too many founders build “Uber for [random thing nobody asked for]” and lived to tell the tale. Currently helping founders at AppUp Labs figure out what NOT to build (which is somehow harder than figuring out what to build).