In the early days of running a startup, it's hard to surprise anyone - the biggest challenge is getting anyone to discover you in the first place. Because of this, most startups, especially those who follow the principles laid out in books such as "The Lean Startup", tend to work in the open.

Building new features in your product can seem simple at first. But building features that really work for your customers is an incredibly difficult process, and one that requires stepping back from the superficial. Good features come from focusing on the customer and their problem before ever touching a line of code or a pixel of the user interface.