I found that, FOR ME, the most commonly requested feature only affects my lowest common denominator of users.
It seems that the most requested feature on my primary app is a very "social" feature, meaning only the most "social" people were requesting it.
A competitor came out that STARTED with the social feature and it appears that very few people use it.
Not that the feature is off the table, but I didn't let users determine what goes to the top of the list. I've learned which features create more customers, and I'm sticking with that for now.
What I learned in building my app was how many different ways people used my app. I found that once I asked why they wanted certain features and learned a bit about their usage behavior, I could more clearly ascertain whether this was a smart idea or an aberration.
An interesting counter-example is Goodreads.com. The number of features on the site is amazing, and consistently growing.
At a first glance it seems to be a fairly basic site for book reviews, but the deeper you dig you find a full fledged used-book exchange, quizzes, lists, comparison shopping, profiles, trivia, quotes, videos, short stories, etc.
I'm not sure how they manage to keep it all under control or how they decide which features will be useful, but they do a great job with keeping users engaged in multiple activities on the site, no feature seems neglected or empty.
It seems that the most requested feature on my primary app is a very "social" feature, meaning only the most "social" people were requesting it.
A competitor came out that STARTED with the social feature and it appears that very few people use it.
Not that the feature is off the table, but I didn't let users determine what goes to the top of the list. I've learned which features create more customers, and I'm sticking with that for now.