Conduct a feature sunset plan

The Sunset Plan Is the Forcing Function

Features accumulate because sunsetting requires courage and a plan — and the plan is usually the missing ingredient. Reforge's portfolio writing and Marty Cagan on product focus both identify feature accumulation as the silent tax on engineering capacity. Atlassian's change management research documents the right notice periods: 60-90 days for consumer features, 12 months for enterprise integrations — shorter notice causes disproportionate churn.

How the Conduct a feature sunset plan Prompt Works

The prompt runs explicit sunset criteria, designs the migration path, and sequences a five-stage communication plan with specific timing per audience. The "one customer most likely to churn" output is the retention intervention — sunsets cause churn not from the sunset itself but from customers feeling abandoned, and a targeted retention move pre-empts it.

When to Use It

• A feature has <1% usage and clear maintenance cost.
• A portfolio prune is creating explicit sunset candidates.
• A rewrite is introducing a replacement and the old version needs an end-of-life.
• An acquisition exposed a feature overlap.
• Engineering time on debt is >20% and a sunset would free capacity.

Common Pitfalls

• No migration path. A sunset without a migration path triggers churn on the announcement, not the sunset date.
• Short notice to enterprise customers. Enterprise contracts assume long-notice. <6 months notice for integrations can trigger contract disputes.
• Not measuring post-sunset. Capacity freed and churn risk vs. control need to be measured to learn for the next sunset.

Sources

• The Product Strategy Stack — Reforge
• The Most Important Thing — Silicon Valley Product Group
• Agile Metrics — Atlassian
• Product Strategy Overview — Silicon Valley Product Group