The feature I'm proudest of cutting
Bulk approve, the prototype that tested well with managers and badly with everyone else.
Note
Notes are where things go before they turn into a case study. Some never do, and that’s fine.
Managers at Penwick asked for bulk approve in almost every interview. Select everything, press one button, get back to work. It was the most requested feature on the board.
We built a prototype and tested it with eight managers. They loved it. Then we looked at what they approved: everything, on Friday afternoon, without opening a single receipt.
That was the exact behavior the project was meant to end. Employees waited a week to be paid, and finance cleaned up the mistakes afterward.
I didn’t argue in the review. I showed three short clips of managers selecting forty expenses and approving them in four seconds. The room decided on its own.
We shipped the three facts on every row instead, so a clean expense takes one tap and a strange one stands out. Cutting a feature people asked for is uncomfortable. It was also the right call.