The status quo is an unhappy place. The missing-feature fallacy is a hallmark of legal tech sales fails. Instead of saying, “we are not interested right now,” potential buyers demur by identifying an absent feature as their barrier to purchase. New founders often run off to build this sale-critical enhancement only to learn it was not in fact dispositive. Rather, while many buyers go to great lengths to avoid saying “no” outright, no remains the answer.
A similar frustration is often voiced by more mature vendors who have attempted to convene cadres of existing users to advise on product roadmap. While vendors can work on almost anything, they cannot pursue everything. Vendors are looking to their users not only to source new ideas but also as an organizing principle, a north star for prioritization. Unfortunately, different users have different priorities, and user groups often fail to coalesce around a few critical improvements—when everything is a priority, nothing is a priority.
