The "Feature Constellation" Framework That Unlocks 10x Customer Value | Aleks Bass (CPO, Typeform)
How do you decide what to build when growth is flattening and free competitors are everywhere?
TL;DR
When Aleks Bass joined Typeform as Chief Product Officer, she solved both flattening growth and the threat of free competitors by pivoting her team to deep customer research and developing a new way of bundling features.
On today’s repeat episode of LaunchPod, Aleks introduces the "Feature Constellation" framework: combining features so the total value is greater than the sum of its parts.
Here’s what we cover:
Why “incrementalization” puts horizontal products at risk (04:45)
The research process that aligned TypeForm on what to build next (11:50)
How feature constellations can turn small updates into major value (33:35)
How to use research to drive company-wide alignment (38:30)
1. From Flattening Growth to Breakthrough Insights
When Aleks joined, Typeform’s growth had slowed. The company was competing not just with paid rivals but with free tools that threatened to commoditize survey and form software. The danger, as she explains, was getting trapped in endless “incrementalization,” or small improvements that don’t fundamentally shift customer value.
To escape that cycle, Aleks and her team designed a research plan to uncover what customers actually valued most, and how those insights could reshape the roadmap.
What you can do
Audit your roadmap for “incremental” updates that won’t change customer willingness to pay
Define what breakthrough value looks like in your market, not just small improvements
Build a research plan before defaulting to quick feature fixes
2. The Research Engine: MaxDiff on 86 Features
The centerpiece of Alek’s plan was a MaxDiff survey that asked users to trade off among 86 potential features. The results were striking: about 75% of features showed overlap across all segments, meaning they were broadly desired regardless of user type. This gave Typeform a clear map of what mattered universally and what was only valuable to niche audiences.
The analysis also revealed that feature maturity plays differently depending on the persona. For marketers, even less mature features could be compelling if they addressed campaign needs directly.
What you can do
Use MaxDiff or other trade-off surveys to rank features by actual preference, not assumptions
Look for the overlap, or the features that matter most across all segments
Consider how feature maturity affects different personas, not just the “average user”
3. Feature Constellations: Unlocking 10x Value
The biggest unlock came from looking at feature combinations instead of individual items. Aleks describes these as “feature constellations,” or groupings that unblock entire workflows. For example, pairing Video Answers with AI Analysis transformed what could have been two incremental add-ons into a single powerful solution that customers valued far higher.
By streamlining workflows, constellations created outcomes customers were willing to pay five to ten times more for than standalone features.
What you can do
Identify natural groupings of features that together solve an entire job-to-be-done
Test whether customers see disproportionately higher value in these bundles
Frame product marketing around outcomes, not just features
4. From Research to Company-Wide Alignment
Equipped with these insights, Aleks could do more than just reprioritize the roadmap. The findings gave Typeform a way to align the entire organization — product, marketing, and sales — around the same customer-driven strategy.
And while research was central, Aleks emphasizes the importance of domain intuition. Product leaders need to interpret findings through the lens of experience, using data to bolster gut instinct rather than replace it.
What you can do
Share research insights broadly to create organizational alignment
Use data to validate and strengthen intuition, not override it
Establish rituals where product, marketing, and sales align on ICP and roadmap priorities
Links
Resources
Build Product Like Typeform | Aleks Bass, CPO (TypeForm) | LaunchPod (Pt.2)
How To Say "Not Yet" To Enterprise | Deepti Mendiratta, VP Of Products (HungerRush) | LaunchPod
Chapters
00:00 How Combining Features Creates 10x Value
02:26 The Challenge: Flattening Growth & Hyper-Competition at Typeform
04:45 The Danger of "Incrementalization" in a Horizontal Product
07:50 Reigniting Growth with a Customer-Centric Strategy
11:50 The Research Plan: How to Figure Out What to Build, Fast
15:15 The Methodology: Using a MaxDiff Survey to Prioritize 86 Features
19:00 Surprising Discovery: 75% of Features Were Wanted by Everyone
24:30 Why Feature Maturity Matters for Different Personas
33:35 Unlocking Exponential Value with "Feature Constellations"
34:30 Case Study: Why "Video Answers" + "AI Analysis" is a 10x Combination
38:30 How to Use Research to Drive Company-Wide Alignment
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