Choose Your Own Adventure

Features. It's such an innocuous word. New features can usually be summarized in a single word, and therein lies the problem. For instance, implementing Search was much more complicated than its one-syllable description might imply. Most features unfold in a similar fashion.

Whenever designing a new feature, there are always different paths and approaches that you can take. Which path you choose is the single most important factor in determining whether that feature is ultimately successful. Implementing features isn't binary. i.e. Implemented or Not Implemented. Implementing features has every imaginable shade between complete failure and raging success.

The due diligence that goes into the feature up front and the path you choose as a result are the best way to ensure it's on the success end of that spectrum. Whereas the best way to fail is to rush out a knee-jerk half-baked solution.

Since creating Sifter, the hardest lesson to learn is that it's alright for us to stay the course. I desperately want to crank out feature after feature to please people, but deep down, I know that while everyone might be happy with the timeline, they won't be happy with the result. Both are important, but the latter is what we really care about.

We want to add features. However, we want to add them Sifter-style. That is, we want to explore and find options that fit the vision. We're dying to make Sifter even better, and we couldn't be more passionate or excited about the future. We're as eager as anyone to get there, but we don't to be sitting on top of a house of cards when we do.