avoid-feature-creep

Prevent feature creep by enforcing disciplined scope management and MVP alignment. This involves capturing MVP scope definition, maintaining decision logs, and documenting explicit trade-offs to keep product planning focused and ship faster.

The 48-hour rule is a scope management technique to maintain backlog discipline. It requires pausing new feature requests for 48 hours to evaluate them against defined MVP scope before adding them to the backlog.

Document scope trade-offs in a decision log by tracking decisions, rationale, and changes. This maintains a single source of truth to justify scope adjustments and prevent unnecessary features from entering releases.

Yes, MVP scope definition applies to AI-assisted development workflows. Enforcing disciplined scope management ensures AI-generated outputs remain aligned with the defined MVP and do not introduce feature creep.

The best way to evaluate new requests is applying a repeatable backlog discipline process. Assess each request against the MVP scope checklist and document explicit trade-offs before approving any scope changes.