Every Feature Is a Liability

Shipping a feature is not the finish line; it is the start of an ongoing bill. Every toggle and flow adds maintenance, tests, docs, support load, and cognitive weight for new users. A product with a hundred surface features is rarely twice as valuable as one with fifty—it is often harder to learn, harder to change, and easier to break. Ruthless PMs count the carrying cost before they argue for another checkbox. Growth that ignores liability compounds into fragility. The best products feel simple because someone said no a thousand times.