Nora: “Features nobody clicks. I have the heatmaps.” — We need to cut costs. Where do we start?

We need to cut costs. Where do we start?

We need to cut costs. Where do we start?“Features nobody clicks. I have the heatmaps.”Nora Bell, The User Advocate

💡 WHY NORA IS RIGHT

Every shipped feature carries ongoing cost: code to maintain, tests to run, support tickets, documentation, onboarding complexity and attention in every future design discussion. Usage analytics often show that a large share of features are touched by a tiny fraction of users. Removing them shrinks maintenance and makes the remaining product easier to learn, which can lift adoption of what matters. Unlike most infrastructure savings, this cut improves the experience instead of quietly degrading it.

✅ RIGHT WHEN

Usage data clearly shows features with negligible reach and real maintenance cost.

🚩 TOO FAR WHEN

The rarely clicked export button turns out to be how the biggest customer does its annual audit.