[infixed]

I think the main argument of this essay is that if you're an early stage company with no customers, it's not a bad thing to churn out features to see what sticks in the market because you don't have the luxury of customers to talk to. And that in this case, people might falsely complain that they are a "feature factory."

I feel like that's a bit different from what most people think of when they hear "feature factory." When I hear feature factory, I think of an engineering team that has zero input into the product process and just builds whatever PMs or leadership says is important.

In the case of an early startup with no customers, I think if engineering teams get no justification, aren't involved in talking with customers, they are completely within their rights to complain about feeling like a "feature factory." The right solve isn't to say "actually -- we have no customers, so shipping a bunch of stuff isn't feature factory mentality" but to actively engage the team in product discovery conversations with users.

[ngc248]

>>>> feature factory, I think of an engineering team that has zero input into the product process and just builds whatever PMs or leadership says is important.

Yep, this was what I had heard referred to as a feature factory. No input of the engineering team, just take stories and churn out code.