What is a feature of a product or service?

What is a Product vs. a Feature?

In the simplest terms, a product can be described as something that customers consider valuable enough to pay for. It is an item, tool, environment, or even a service for which buyers would be willing to pay. A feature by contrast is a part of a product. It is one of the considerations that make the latter valuable enough to the customer for them to pay.

The difference between products and features might appear clear-cut, but that is not the reality. Debate on the difference between the two has been on for years and it’s still ongoing. Some product managers are faced with the dilemma of wrapping their heads around the difference.

Features Can Be Products

Think of a product as a collection of different mini-products. A feature, on the other hand, is a mini-product under the larger one.

What looks to one company as a product may be nothing more than a feature to another. For example, a processor in an HP or Apple computer is a product to its manufacturer but no more than a computer feature for the end-consumer of that computer, its merely a feature. In the same way, the silicon present in the CPU is a product to the manufacturer but only a feature of the latter.

Another often-quoted example is the reference by Steve Jobs to Dropbox as a feature. However, the creators of the app consider it as a standalone product.  Both views are correct in terms of what their respective products are meant to do. Dropbox was created to enable seamless file sharing and storage across different devices, including Apple’s. You may want to treat features the same way you do products to make them more valuable.

Lifecycle Applies

All products have a lifecycle, phases that they pass through. The individual stages that are involved usually differ from one author to the other. However, the most important ones include:

• Discovery
• Definition
• Development
• Delivery
• Decline

Features should also follow phases similar to the foregoing. This will enable you to make the best decisions regarding them.

A feature should go through a process involving discovery, delivery, and market adoption. Take your time to learn from customers, including those of your rivals, to ascertain the features they deem valuable before proceeding to develop and deliver.

As is the case with products, there will also come a time when you’d need to retire some features. This is, in part, useful for preventing feature bloat and making things more manageable. Paying attention to the phases a feature goes through helps in identifying the stage it is in at a time. This knowledge guides you in the right approach to adopt at every point.

Metrics are Necessary

Another way you want to deal with features as products is by assigning specific metrics to them. Ideally, there must a goal or goals for every feature that you choose to work on. These must link to product goals, which, in turn, are usually influenced by business goals. Metrics are useful for knowing how well a feature is doing toward achieving its set goals. They help to assess the likelihood of attaining those goals. Feature usage is especially important. It is a category of metrics that evaluate how engaged users are with a feature. Low usage can tell us different things depending on the particular feature.

Final Words

Understanding the relationship between features and products is vital for avoiding the frustration of what you thought of as a product being termed a feature. It gives you more confidence when presenting the items on your roadmap to an audience.

The product vs. feature debate is mostly about perceptions – the context influences the difference between the two. The angle you are thinking from determines whether you think they are completely different, or otherwise. As a product manager, your main focus should be on delivering winning products. Useful features can help make that possible.

Writing a product or service description is about more than describing the product or service. It requires creativity to sell it to the potential customer.3 min read

1. Product and Service Features
2. Product and Service Benefits
3. What to Include in Descriptions
4. The Value of Product and Service Descriptions

Writing a product or service description is about more than describing the product or service. It requires creativity to sell it to the potential customer.

Descriptions of products or services involve three things: connecting with the customer, showing them how the product or service can fix a problem they are having, and convince them to purchase it. In order to do this, the writer needs to select the benefits and features that are most important.

Product and Service Features

A feature is a statement that defines a product or service's characteristics. It is a factual statement. Features typically include measurements such as weight, height, or capacity. It also includes such descriptors as color, whether a food is organic, what sort of mileage a vehicle is rated to have, and so on. Features do not have as much influence on a buyer's decision as benefits but can help consumers make decisions by providing information that they need.

Before writing a description, it's important to determine which features to include; those are the ones that make the product or service stand out from other similar offerings. Then, you must figure out what features are most important to your target market. When you know the features your potential customer's value, you will know how to convince them about the product or service's quality and ability to solve their problems.

Product and Service Benefits

Benefits show potential customers the reason that they should buy the product or service. Unlike features, however, the benefits focus on the end outcome and appeal to consumers by showing them why they need it.

For example, a feature of a drink cooler would be the length of time it can keep beverages cold, while the benefit is that consumers can easily enjoy cold beverages whenever they like. If you are selling shoes, the features might focus on how durable they are, while the benefit is that consumers won't have to replace them for a long time.

A benefit can emotionally connect with the potential customer, clearly demonstrating how the product or service will change their life for the better. When writing about benefits, identify what problems that the target market has and then explain how using the product or service solves these problems.

Features cannot be excluded from product and service descriptions because they serve an important purpose. However, features help potential customers to visualize the product or service in their lives so they will want to purchase it.

How do you decide which benefits to include in the description? First, consider the features of the product or service that are most valued and consider what problem they are likely to solve for the target consumer. Benefits are particularly important when the product is complex or has a use that is not immediately obvious. If a potential customer is unlikely to know right away how the product or service can help them, clearly stating benefits helps to make it clear and easy to understand.

What to Include in Descriptions

There are a few items that belong in most descriptions for products and services, including:

• Description of the item's physical characteristics.
• How to use the product or service.
• Information about how the product or service has evolved throughout its development.
• How the offering compares to its competition.

The Value of Product and Service Descriptions

Even if your product is well-known, it's a mistake to assume that your target consumer is familiar with it. Describing it thoroughly and carefully is important. If you are putting a new product or service on the market, make the descriptions especially detailed and include extra references for further information if necessary.

Ideally, a business should consider the appeal of its products and services before finalizing plans for production and marketing. After all, even with the best business plan, without good products and services, a business cannot succeed. Many entrepreneurs fall into the trap of thinking that because they are familiar with the product or service, the reader does not need a detailed inventory of the characteristics and why customers need to purchase it.

If you need help with a product or service description, you can post your legal need on UpCounsel's marketplace. UpCounsel accepts only the top 5 percent of lawyers to its site. Lawyers on UpCounsel come from law schools such as Harvard Law and Yale Law and average 14 years of legal experience, including work with or on behalf of companies like Google, Menlo Ventures, and Airbnb.

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