Hero Feature Filter
Add convenience without distracting from the product customers came to experience
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 97%
The Hero Feature Filter starts by identifying the central experience customers actually came to enjoy. Supporting products, services, and technologies must then be additive: they should reduce friction, increase safety, improve convenience, or deepen engagement without competing with the core. At a football stadium, the play on the field is the hero feature, while faster entry, mobile ticketing, and seat delivery improve the surrounding six-hour journey. The filter guards against novelty for novelty's sake by asking whether a proposed feature makes patrons more likely to return while preserving what fans already love. It is also market-sensitive; the right supporting experience depends on local expectations rather than a universal package of stadium technology.
Origin
Extracted from Masters in Business, where Al Guido described how the 49ers evaluate technology and other additions to the stadium experience.
Core principles
- 01Identify the experience customers fundamentally value
- 02Make surrounding features additive rather than distracting
- 03Use technology to remove friction
- 04Evaluate the entire customer journey, not only the main event
- 05Preserve what loyal customers already love
How to run it
- 1
Name the hero
State the single experience or outcome that customers principally value. Frame it from the customer's perspective rather than the organization's revenue model.
Pro tip Complete the sentence, “Customers primarily come here to…”
Watch out Confusing a monetization channel with the hero feature will distort later decisions.
- 2
Map the whole journey
Examine the experience before, during, and after the core event. Identify delays, safety concerns, communication gaps, and unmet convenience needs.
Pro tip Measure the customer's total time commitment, not only active consumption time.
Watch out Optimizing one touchpoint can transfer friction somewhere else.
- 3
Screen proposed additions
Ask whether each addition supports the hero by removing friction or creating useful engagement. Reject ideas that compete for attention at the wrong moment.
Pro tip Classify each feature as additive, neutral, or distracting.
Watch out Exciting bells and whistles can weaken the experience customers already value.
- 4
Localize the solution
Adapt supporting features to the market, venue, and customer behavior. Avoid assuming that an implementation successful elsewhere will transfer unchanged.
Pro tip Pilot with representative local customers before broad deployment.
Watch out Standardized solutions may ignore meaningful differences between sports, markets, or audiences.
- 5
Measure return value
Track whether the feature improves speed, safety, satisfaction, engagement, or repeat attendance. Continue only when it strengthens the overall experience.
Pro tip Pair operational metrics such as wait time with customer-reported satisfaction.
Watch out Usage alone does not prove that a feature supports the hero.
In the wild
Levi's Stadium enabled food and beverage delivery to every seat, with pizza arriving in less than eight minutes. The service gave fans a convenience benefit without requiring them to abandon or divert attention from the football game.
→ The technology supported the core viewing experience by reducing time away from the seat.
A conference identifies live sessions as its hero feature. Its app handles schedules, directions, and introductions between sessions but silences networking prompts while speakers are presenting.
→ Attendees navigate and connect more easily without digital interruptions weakening the sessions they paid to attend.
Common mistakes
Making the support feature the star
A supporting technology becomes harmful when it competes with the central experience for customer attention.
Measuring only novelty
Initial curiosity or download counts do not demonstrate improved convenience, safety, or repeat attendance.
Ignoring the wider journey
Focusing only on the event itself misses hours of travel, entry, waiting, purchasing, and departure friction.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for venues, events, hospitality businesses, and digital products adding services or technology around a valued core experience.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal when the core product itself is failing and requires fundamental redesign rather than supporting improvements.
From the transcript
“let's not do things that take away from the hero feature.”
“And the hero feature in my mind is the play on the field.”
“To me, it's what are the convenient things that you want as a patron inside of a venue that's gonna make you keep coming back?”
From the episode
Al Guido Discusses the Sports Industry Business Model (Podcast)
Al Guido