R – Which is better: shipping a buggy feature or not shipping the feature at all

releaserelease-management

this is a bit of a philosophical question. I am adding a small feature to my software which I assume will be used by most users but only maybe 10% of the times they use the software. In other words, the software has been fine without it for 3 months, but 4 or 5 users have asked for it, and I agree that it should be there.

The problem is that, due to limitations of the platform I'm working with (and possibly limitations of my brain), "the best I can do" still has some non-critical but noticeable bugs – let's say the feature as coded is usable but "a bit wonky" in some cases.

What to do? Is a feature that's 90% there really "better than nothing"? I know I'll get some bug reports which I won't be able to fix: what do I tell customers about those? Should I live with unanswered feature requests or unanswered bug reports?

Best Answer

Make sure people know, that you know, that there are problems. That there are bugs. And give them an easy way to proide feedback.

What about having a "closed beta" with the "4 or 5 users" who suggested the feature in the first place?

Related Topic