Healthcare app had a 'Daily Health Tip' feature. Users loved it (high engagement), but it cost significant maintenance and didn't drive our core metric (symptom checker usage).
THE DECISION
Sunset the Daily Health Tip feature after 3 months' notice.
Feature required daily content creation (2 hours/day for medical team)
Users engaged but didn't convert to symptom checker users
Maintenance distracted team from core product improvements
Analytics showed 'tips users' and 'symptom checker users' were different cohorts with minimal overlap
Team focus on core product
Freed up medical team bandwidth
Reduced complexity
15% of DAU (mostly tip readers)
Social media complaints
Some brand goodwill
Lost 15% DAU but symptom checker usage increased 25% (team could focus). Users who left weren't our target market anyway. Tough decision, but right call.
High engagement doesn't mean strategic value. Kill features that don't serve your core metric, even if users like them.