A new wave of fintech products is crashing and burning within months, according to industry experts who warn that the 'feature-first' development approach is creating bloated, confusing apps that fail to retain users. The problem is systemic, with internal politics often overriding customer needs.
'The problem is that companies are building feature salads, not products,' said Dr. Sarah Chen, product strategy lead at a major fintech consultancy. 'They throw everything at the wall hoping something sticks, but the result is a mess.' This trend has particularly severe consequences in financial services, where user trust and daily engagement are critical.
Background
Over the past decade, the financial technology sector has exploded, with startups and incumbents alike racing to digitize banking, investing, and lending. Yet many of these apps see a short-lived spike in downloads, only to fizzle out after a few months. Experts trace the root cause to a common obsession with adding features without a clear strategic foundation.
The concept of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) has been widely promoted as a solution, but it is often undermined by internal pressures. 'It's easy to get seduced by the Columbo Effect — there's always one more thing someone wants to add,' said Marcus Lee, a former product manager at a top digital bank. 'But that leads to feature creep and technical debt.'
What This Means
For consumers, the wave of feature-laden but unfocused apps means higher frustration, security risks from complex code, and ultimately wasted time. For companies, the cost is enormous: development resources are squandered on features users don't need, while churn rates climb.
The antidote, experts argue, is to identify the 'bedrock' of a product — the core value that truly matters to users and stays relevant over time. In retail banking, for instance, regular servicing journeys like checking balances and making payments are far more important than flashy new tools. 'People open a current account once in a blue moon, but they look at it every day,' Dr. Chen noted. 'If you nail that bedrock, everything else is decoration.'
Key Takeaways for Product Builders
- Resist feature creep — evaluate each addition against the bedrock value.
- Align teams around customer outcomes, not departmental metrics.
- Test early — a small, focused MVP beats a massive, untested feature salad every time.
Industry insiders predict a shift toward 'bedrock-first' design over the next year, as the cost of failure becomes too high for investors to ignore. 'The ones that survive won't be the ones with the most features,' said Lee. 'They'll be the ones users can't imagine living without.'