to use rather than more complicated. Focus on the features that enable the product to work well and that are carefully considered from these multiple perspectives: user value, level of effort to build, and business value. Balance the level of effort it will take to build the feature set against the impact it could have on the product. How many people will actually use it or have requested it? Is it a unique feature to your product that will set it apart from competitors, or will it just be a neat gimmick that people will try once and never use again? The Funnel Matrix tool will help you to measure the impact by tying it to specific engagement metrics. After you have traction, you can experiment with more risky features. For TradeYa, the features that were absolutely crucial were the ability to bid on an existing trade and the ability to post a specific item to trade (see Figure 9-13). Account creation was circumvented by requiring users to have and sign-in via a Facebook account. We also needed a polling feature to learn what our customers were interested in trading. As discussed in Chapter 7, we chose to hold off on user profiles and a transactional system because they were not critical to our first goal: get people to trade something on TradeYa with the lowest barrier to entry. Figure 9-13. Required Functionality cell in the TradeYa Funnel Matrix Validated Learnings At this point, we take heed and inspiration from Thomas Dolby and his song “She Blinded Me With Science”: “She blinded me with science and hit me with technology.” Yes, it’s time for you to put on your lab coat and think like scientists, logically and without emotion. The entire purpose of this Funnel Matrix is to help you answer qualitative questions about your product using verified data for comparative benchmarking. These questions that you ask are to keep your team honest about your customer’s behavior and business tasks throughout each level of engagement. Like scientists, you must ask tough questions, analyze your data, and not be blinded by your own hopes for the