Knowing where to draw the line between a basic value proposition and extended features is crucial to success. I have this same dilemma. Users have been requesting features to one of my websites, but I am unsure if adding these features won't detract from the simplicity of the experience. Currently users do 10 pages a visit, which to me, tells me they understand the flow of using the website.
Another core insight is to differentiate your "users" into specific user types, or personas.
To really drive value, it helps to identify a specific user-type or persona that drive a lot of value for your site. For Dropbox, one persona might be a photographer who is using Dropbox to share huge photos with clients. To better serve that persona, maybe Dropbox could create a Gallery feature so that images in a Photos folder are automatically turned into a gallery that anyone can view without having to log into Dropbox. This is actually something that they did:
http://www.dropbox.com/help/18
By differentiating from general discussions of "users" into specific personas, you can really focus your customer development on superserving a specific user focus. That's a huge element of driving value creation through the lean methdology.
I wonder how many people use it. I didnt know it existed. They have built a platform with zero discoverability. Maybe they could dropbox sync a new features file into a folder sometimes...
Knowing where to draw the line between a basic value proposition and extended features is crucial to success. I have this same dilemma. Users have been requesting features to one of my websites, but I am unsure if adding these features won't detract from the simplicity of the experience. Currently users do 10 pages a visit, which to me, tells me they understand the flow of using the website.
It is an exciting trade-off!