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Comes back to that age old argument of building to a vision or building for and with your users. When you start out you have an idea, a vision, a concept...some grand problem you want to solve. Along the way as you release iterations of this product/idea you get users, feedback and insight. The majority of us at one time or another take jump on this feedback and use it to shape upcoming versions, to build out our feature list...attempting to make the product/idea better. Sadly more often than not this is what kills the product or adds so much bloat to development that stagnation sets in and getting to the best product/idea never happens. I'd turn the question around. Which features that are requested fit not into the cacophony of customer feedback, but to the original vision? Sure ideas change and pivots ( ahem Sprouter ) occur..but keeping to a vision for me is always better than managing expectations. The best example of this..Apple Computers.

Have a "core set of functionality" - complete this, do not get distracted by additional requests for features unless paid for "change requests". Additional features that customers ask for should then go into a product roadmap. Get together a user group, ask for feature requests to go through this conduit then rank and prioritise and communicate back to the group. This way your being inclusive, considerate and transparent with your users, your getting great feedback on new stuff for V2,3,4,+ and your not distracted from the core goal. Its OK to say "No, not now - but maybe later........"

Because of those features if customers use your service repeatedly then go ahead and build those features . As we know we are developing services for customers so , we need to respect their interests .

In the initial phases of business (especially when you don't have lot of customers) I believe it is necessary to deliver up to their satisfaction though they are demanding. Obviously, there need to be "Change Requests" for anything more than that was committed. But "Going one step extra" even for the services promised, makes a whole lot of difference. A happy customer is a best marketing any new business can ever invest in.

Yes, to deliver up to customer's satisfaction is very essential at the beginning. Once we are successful to build our good-will in front of our customer, then its not so tough to get in touch with those good and needy customers. Effort that is required or whatever expenses that are to be made, should be made immediately unless and until it is impossible to be done or it becomes over expensive in terms of effort or cost. As we say first impression is the last impression, we need to provide good service initially, for a long-term relation. Then later we can make our customer understand our Limits with respect to efforts and overbuilding the product / enhancement of the service to be provided.

If your only concern is to overbuild your product, then I can suggest the following procedure: Build it, ship it, measure it and take it away. If a lot of users wreak havoc on you, than its probably a feature worth having. If nobody or only a small percentage of your users complain, thats a signal in itself :)

It's very important to please your initial customers, but... You need to avoid a situation where in a quest to please your customer, you get off track. Ask yourself the following questions: 1. Can this new feature add a LOT of value to a significant part of my customer base? If it you are not sure, ask your other customers. If the answer is yes, then by all means create the feature and add it to your marketing material. 2. Is this feature so amazing that it changes my entire product? It's rare but those things happen, be open to those kind of features (read - new product ideas). Customers have a very good grasp of the market and can sometimes offer those insights. 3. Is this easy to implement? If the answer to questions 1 & 2 is NO. And the feature is difficult to implement, then do your best to persuade the customer he can live without it. Try to avoid features that are specific to a single client at all cost!

I would say, to my experience, you should learn when and where to say "No". It is nothing wrong to say "No, not now" diplomatically and come back to the table with a next release with the requested features included. If you are developing a new product, you should know better what the core features that bind together to deliver the promised features. Any product, would have its future releases with more promising features. They all don't have to fit in one initial product bag itself. Coming to the customer satisfaction, even customer knows well that all the world of features would not fit in a simple bag at an affordable price, hence there would be grades and levels of a product. Take an example, if I want to buy a car with sports features loaded in a basic priced model??? Would you make/sell one for me as a seller and make me a very happy customer of yours??? So, you would come up with two versions, basic and sports, but not all in one (for the heck of a customer satisfaction)