Ship New or Fix Old?

This is a major dilemma. As a product manager, you will always tend to ship new features. But the engineering team is stretched. How do you prioritize?

A Real Example

I was working with a $40K account at Nanonets. They wanted an internal dashboard report for their invoices. They were willing to increase to $44K.

It would have been a small win and I obviously pushed the dev team for it. Turns out they are swarmed with bugs and improvements in existing features. It would take 2 months for this feature to get picked.

Marty Cagan's Perspective

Marty Cagan advises against using rigid percentage rules to balance building new products ("Build New") and improving existing ones ("Fix Old"). Instead, he encourages teams to view both as product investments and focus on pursuing the best opportunities for impact, regardless of whether they involve new development or enhancements to current products.

He explains that expanding your product offering (building new) can help acquire new customers or provide more value to existing ones, while improving existing products (fixing old) can increase revenue from current customers and make it easier to attract new ones. Both approaches are valuable, and the key is to invest where the opportunity for meaningful results is greatest.

The Key Quote

"Rather than worry about whether you're investing enough in new product lines versus existing product lines, I would rather have the team worry that they're investing in the best opportunities."

My Framework for Deciding

When faced with this dilemma, I ask:

1. What's the impact?

2. What's the cost?

3. What's the urgency?

4. What's the strategic alignment?

The Reality

In my experience, the answer is rarely binary. Often, the best approach is:

Conclusion

Cagan's perspective is that the decision between "Build New" and "Fix Old" should be driven by where the most promising opportunities lie, not by arbitrary quotas or formulas. Both are important for growth and customer satisfaction, and empowered teams should be trusted to make these calls based on impact.

The key is to think in terms of opportunities, not categories.