Understanding delighters and their role in customer satisfaction

In product management, prioritizing impactful changes can be challenging, especially when ideas lack measurable business impact. Adding a "delighter" feature, which exceeds customer expectations and enhances user satisfaction, can address this challenge by providing unexpected pleasure. Delighters, like Apple's Face ID or Amazon's one-click ordering, offer unique selling propositions that differentiate products in the market. While not essential for core functionality, they foster emotional connections, boost customer loyalty, and encourage word-of-mouth marketing. Implementing delighters can be tough as they don't directly enhance business metrics, but they can gradually reduce churn and improve product ratings. Product managers can incorporate delighters by finding spare time in development cycles or strategically planning them as part of the product roadmap, particularly for mature products. Ultimately, while delighters require careful management and may not always align with immediate business growth goals, they have the potential to define a product's character and appeal in the marketplace.