Features vs. Benefits

Are you highlighting the features or the benefits?

A feature is what it does.

A benefit is the result.

For example, What's unique about a PDA contacts list? For the product I'm currently writing about - it's the 'time bomb' feature. The contacts list self-destructs if it isn't synched to the enterprise database within a given period of time. Cool - but why?

The result is that sales people cannot (easily) take the contacts list with them, when they leave the company. The benefit is that the software safeguards the company's sales contact information (intellectual property).

David Garfinkel provides a good example of this using a fan analogy in his post on Tuesday.

While all the fuss between features and benefits usually has to do with sales and marketing products, the techniques also work for internal documentation, user documentation, and management reports. After all, achieving buy-in is about getting users and management to agree to use or endorse the technology you have in place or in the solutions you are proposing.