~Only so many hours in the day~

Each developer on a tech team has 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week, 2000 hours a year to develop a product. Time is limited, we can't get any more. (Working more than 40 hours a week actually lowers per-hour productivity so that is inadvisable.) You can always add more developers to a team, but features can only be broken up so much; you can't grow a garden in half the time by having two farmers! Your tech team's time is limited, the sooner you accept that the better.

~Every release should make one user happy~

Now that we accept that time is limited, we must figure out how to use the time in the best way possible. But what is the "best way"? The most lines of code written? The most features completed? The most code releases made? I suggest that the answer is: the most smiles created.

The thesis of "most smiles per release" implies two things: some features create more smiles than others and features must be released to makes the smiles happen. This definitely requires a balancing act: release too fast and nothing will be of enough value to create smiles or take too long to release and the frowns will multiply.

~Finding the most smiles~

You may think you know what your users want. You might be right! However, it doesn't hurt to justify your assumptions with actual data. I've seen stakeholders respond to delays with: "it is okay that feature will take another month, nobody really cares about that". That's not a feature that will generate any smiles, is it? Remember, we have limited time; we shouldn't waste it on non-smile features!

The best way to find out which features will create the most smiles is to talk to your users. Not send a survey, ACTUALLY TALK TO THEM. You need to know how your different user segments experience the product. What do they love about it? What do they hate about it? Do they use it for business or pleasure? Would they use something entirely different if they could? Your users are people. if you want to work well with people then you have to be a person! Talk to them and really listen!

However, it is unlikely the user will come to you and say "here is the documentation of the feature I want with time estimates". You have to be prepared to steer the conversation. You have to be able to hear though what they are saying and interpret what they actually want. This is an art and a skill. It requires practice. Start now.

~Stop reading this and start releasing~

Now that we know the features that will put the smiles at the most faces, assign them a duration to complete. Next, sort them by most smiles per day. This is your list of priorities. Now get to work, those smiles won't make themselves!

Your time as a tech team is best spent making your users as happy as possible. Anything else is a waste of time. It is about focus. By the way, reading more articles doesn't make more smiles! Cut it out and start making smiles: one release at a time!