Moving Beyond Features: How to Build Financial Products That Endure

Introduction

After spending countless years in product development—especially within the financial sector—I’ve witnessed the same cycle repeat itself time and again. A promising idea surges from near-zero traction to rapid adoption in just weeks, only to fade into irrelevance within months. Financial products, which deal with people’s hard-earned money, are particularly vulnerable to this pattern. The stakes are high: user expectations are sky-high, and the market is crowded. In such an environment, the temptation is to pile on features, hoping that something will stick. But this approach is a recipe for short-term excitement and long-term failure.

Moving Beyond Features: How to Build Financial Products That Endure

The Perils of Feature-First Development

When you start building a financial product from scratch—or when you migrate existing paper-based or telephony-based customer journeys to online banking or mobile apps—it’s easy to get swept up in the thrill of creating new features. You might think, “If I can just add one more thing that solves this particular user problem, they’ll love me!” But then reality hits: the security team raises concerns, the feature isn’t as popular as expected, or hidden complexity causes it to break.

This is where many product teams fall into a trap. They focus on delivering features to satisfy internal stakeholders rather than solving real customer needs. As a result, the product becomes a reflection of internal politics mixed with good intentions—a “feature salad” of confusing, unrelated, and ultimately unlovable experiences. Users end up frustrated, and retention suffers.

The MVP as a Lifeline

The concept of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) offers a way out. As Jason Fried discusses in his book Getting Real and on the Rework podcast, an MVP is about delivering just enough value to keep users engaged without overwhelming them—or your development team. It sounds simple, but it requires sharp focus, ruthless prioritization, and the courage to say no. There’s always the “Columbo effect”—just one more thing someone wants to add. Resisting that urge is key to building a product that actually works.

Finding the Bedrock: The Core That Lasts

So what’s a better approach? How can we build products that are stable, user-friendly, and—most importantly—stick? That’s where the idea of “bedrock” comes in. Bedrock is the core element of your product that truly matters to users. It’s the fundamental building block that provides ongoing value and stays relevant over time. In the world of retail banking, for example, the bedrock lies in the regular servicing journeys. People open a current account only occasionally, but they interact with it every day—checking balances, making payments, setting up direct debits. These routine tasks are the bedrock; everything else is secondary.

How to Identify Your Product’s Bedrock

To find your bedrock, strip away everything that isn’t essential. Ask: If we could only keep one core function, what would it be? That’s your bedrock. Then build everything else around it, ensuring that every new feature supports or enhances that core. Avoid the trap of adding features just because competitors have them or because internal teams demand them. Instead, let user behavior and feedback guide you. In financial products, trust and reliability are part of the bedrock—if your core service is broken, no amount of bells and whistles will save you.

Conclusion: Build for Sticking Power

Building products that stick isn’t about having the most features—it’s about having the right ones. By embracing the MVP mindset and identifying your product’s bedrock, you can create something that users rely on day in and day out. In the financial space, where trust is everything, that focus is non-negotiable. So resist the feature salad, guard your bedrock, and build something that endures.

— A product builder with too many years to mention