Slowly but surely, we’ve been building replicas of the tools we use into The Portal.
When I say “replicas,” I don’t mean we’re trying to reinvent every wheel in the tech universe. I mean that we’re taking the core functions of the tools we already use—ticketing, client notes, service tracking, dashboards—and integrating them into one unified platform.
The dream is simple: everything in one place, tailored for how we work, without the fluff.
And in doing this, I’ve stumbled across a really interesting (and slightly depressing) pattern:
Most SaaS tools have a mountain of features that nobody—and I mean nobody—ever touches.
The Hidden Cost of All-You-Can-Feature
Take almost any app you use daily. Let’s say it’s a CRM, a project management board, or even a simple to-do list tool.
Open the menu and scroll around. You’ll probably see:
- Settings tabs you’ve never opened.
- Integrations with services you’ve never heard of.
- Widgets that look exciting but require a 40-minute setup.
This is feature creep—the slow, steady expansion of a product’s scope until it’s bloated, confusing, and harder to use.
It’s not just harmless clutter. Every unused feature comes with hidden costs:
- Cognitive load – Every extra button or menu forces your brain to scan, process, and filter it out. Multiply that by a hundred, and the tool starts to feel overwhelming.
- Development drag – Those unused features still need maintenance, bug fixes, and documentation. That time could’ve gone into making the core features even better.
- Support headaches – More features mean more support tickets, more “how-to” articles, and more training.
The net result? A tool that’s slower, harder to navigate, and ultimately less useful than it could have been if it just stayed laser-focused.
Why It Happens
I get it though. I really do.
When you’re building something, it’s so easy to add a feature. It’s exciting. It feels like progress. And when customers request things, you want to say yes—especially if a competitor already offers it.
But here’s the trap:
- You add a “just in case” feature.
- It makes the tool 2% more useful for 2% of your users.
- Now that feature has to be supported forever.
Do this a dozen times, and your clean, simple product becomes a sprawling jungle of buttons, menus, and half-baked tools.
The Tools That Win
Look at the products you genuinely love using. I’d bet they share a common trait:
They do a few things exceptionally well, and they leave everything else out.
Think about:
- Notion when it first launched — It wasn’t trying to be your entire operating system. It was a blank canvas for notes, docs, and simple databases.
- Figma — Focused on collaborative design in the browser. No bloated “also-ran” features from print design suites.
- Dropbox in the early days — “Here’s a folder. It syncs. Done.”
The beauty was in the clarity.
The Portal’s Design Philosophy
This is the discipline I’m trying to bring into The Portal.
Every time we build something, we ask:
- Does this solve a real, recurring problem?
- Will 80% of our users (our own team, in this case) use it regularly?
- Is it better to integrate with an existing tool rather than rebuild it?
Sometimes the answer means not building something at all. For example, we could create our own email client inside The Portal. But why? Gmail already does that job beautifully, and the integration is straightforward.
Instead, we focus on what only The Portal can do for us:
- Bring together service tracking, CRM, and internal notes into one screen.
- Show client-specific info in context, without switching between 4 different apps.
- Automate repetitive admin in ways off-the-shelf tools can’t.
The “Feature Filter” in Action
Here’s a real example.
We were building the client service dashboard. Someone suggested adding a live chat function so clients could message us directly inside The Portal.
At first, it sounded great. More engagement! Faster responses!
But then we ran it through the filter:
- Is this a core problem? Not really—we already have a solid ticketing system and WhatsApp for quick chats.
- Will 80% of users benefit? Nope. Most prefer email or phone.
- Could an existing tool handle it better? Absolutely. We already have Teams and Crisp for this exact purpose.
Result: We didn’t build it.
Instead, we doubled down on making ticket visibility faster, so when a message does come in, it’s instantly actionable.
The AI Temptation
There’s another twist here for anyone building with AI (and The Portal is heavily AI-powered): AI makes it even easier to build features quickly.
A few lines of prompt engineering, a quick API call, and suddenly you’ve got:
- An “AI assistant” sidebar
- Auto-generated reports
- Predictive analytics graphs
But here’s the danger: if those features don’t get used, they’re not just harmless experiments—they’re distractions. And AI-powered distractions can chew through budget and complexity fast.
So the same rule applies: AI features have to earn their place.
What This Means for You
Whether you’re building an internal tool, a SaaS product, or even just setting up your own workflow, the lesson is the same:
- Identify the 2–3 core problems you need to solve. Everything else is secondary.
- Be ruthless about feature creep. If it’s not essential, it’s optional. If it’s optional, it’s probably unnecessary.
- Prioritize clarity over capability. A tool you can actually use beats a tool that can theoretically do everything.
- Integrate instead of duplicating. If someone else already does it brilliantly, plug it in and move on.
The Takeaway
The best tools don’t try to be everything to everyone. They do a handful of things incredibly well and let go of the rest.
The challenge—and the opportunity—in building The Portal is to stay disciplined enough to resist the temptation to add “just one more feature” every time we get a good idea.
Because the truth is, the tools that scale aren’t the ones with the most features. They’re the ones with the right features.
And that’s where the real magic happens.