Why Non-Functional Requirements Matter: A Guide for Product Managers

While features and functions grab the spotlight, non-functional requirements (NFRs) quietly govern the success of your product. These requirements define how well your system operates, not just what it does.

Non-functional requirements, often abbreviated as NFRs, are the qualities that make a product usable, performant, reliable, secure, maintainable, and scalable. They're often overlooked, but they're essential for building products that users love and that businesses can rely on.

• Usability: How easy is the product to learn and use? Can users complete their tasks quickly and efficiently?
• Performance: How fast is the product? How quickly does it respond to user input? Can it handle a large number of users and requests simultaneously?
• Reliability: How often does the product crash or experience errors? How much downtime can the product afford?
• Security: How well will the product protect user data from unauthorized access and modification?
• Scalability: How easily can the product be scaled to meet the needs of a growing user base?
• Maintainability: How easy is the product to update and fix bugs in?
• Compliance: Does the product adhere to laws, regulations, standards, and company policies?

Spotify pushes the boundaries of network optimization by partnering with internet service providers and peering directly with major internet exchanges. This eliminates bottlenecks and latency, resulting in a near-instantaneous music streaming experience.

Utilizing a global network of content delivery servers and employing techniques like content pre-fetching and intelligent caching, Spotify aims to deliver music within milliseconds, regardless of a user's location.

Amazon focuses on scalability and reliability. Amazon's website is able to handle large volumes of traffic during peak shopping periods, such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Amazon achieves this by investing heavily in its infrastructure and using a variety of techniques to distribute traffic across its servers.

Netflix invests heavily in perfecting its high-quality video streaming experience. They rely on their content delivery network and use techniques like adaptive bitrate streaming to adjust the video quality based on the user's internet connection speed.

Google stands for excellence in speed, accuracy, and relevance. Google engineers spend extensive effort improving the performance and usability of Google Search, implementing caching techniques and machine learning algorithms to deliver fast, accurate results.

Apple is well known for designing from the ground up with security in mind. Features like end-to-end encryption, multi-factor authentication, and rigorous hardware security audits create a robust defense against cyberattacks. They minimize data collection, limit third-party access, and provide transparent user controls over their information.

• Non-functional requirements (NFRs) are essential for building products that users love and that businesses can rely on.
• Successful companies like Spotify, Amazon, Netflix, Google, and Apple have all prioritized NFRs as key factors in their success.