The One With NFRs: Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

Daft Punk Knows NonFunctionals

"Work it, make it, do it, makes us, harder, better, faster, stronger.” - Daft Punk 

While this phrase might be from a popular electronic music track, it also sums up the typical trajectory of product development—and the challenges that arise when we forget the importance of Non-Functional Requirements (NFRs).

In Agile teams, the focus often leans heavily toward delivering functional features—what the product does. But the how—the qualities of the product, the experience it delivers, and its operational efficiency—can end up as an afterthought. And that’s where things go sideways.

Let’s break it down.

“Work It” 

Design the Product

In the early stages of product development, the focus is often on the core functionality:

• What are the key features?

• What problems are we solving for the user?

• How can we get this to MVP status quickly?

Functional requirements like “users can log in,” “users can submit a request,” or “users can generate a report” dominate the conversation. These are the tangible, visible parts of the product, and they’re essential. However, this is also where NFRs often get sidelined.

• What about performance? How fast does the report need to generate?

• What about security? Is the login process safe and robust?

• What about usability? Is submitting a request intuitive?

NFRs must align with the product’s core value proposition and market expectations. For example, a real-time analytics tool should prioritize performance and scalability, while a secure messaging app must emphasize security and reliability. Understanding user and industry norms is equally important; consumer apps demand speed and ease of use, while enterprise software requires compliance and reliability.

It’s essential to identify the NFRs that are critical to your product’s success and those that could provide a competitive edge. Prioritizing and integrating these NFRs into the design ensures your product not only meets core requirements but also stands out in the market.

“Make It”

Build the Product

As engineers, we thrive on the tangible act of building. The sprints are focused, the backlog is clear, and progress feels good.

In the rush to deliver features, NFRs like scalability, maintainability, and resilience often get deprioritized. The thought process goes something like this:

“We’ll optimize later. Right now, let’s just get it working.”

A system that works, but not well isn’t the goal. It’s functional but fragile. And while it feels like you're saving time now, you’re actually accumulating technical debt.

“Do It”

Launch the Product

Launch day is here! The team celebrates the hard work, the product is live, and users are diving in. And then reality sets in.

You start hearing from customers:

• “It’s taking forever to load this report.”

• “This feature is confusing to use.”

• “Your app crashed when I tried to do the doos.”

At the same time, your operations team flags concerns:

• “This system is burning through cloud resources like wildfire.”

• “We’re struggling to keep up with usage spikes.”

This is where the absence of NFRs comes back to haunt you. You might have delivered functionality, but the experience and the cost of operating that functionality fall short.

“Makes Us”

Measure Success or Failure

Here’s where the learning occurs. User feedback, operational pain points, and performance metrics paint a clear picture: NFRs matter.

• The product is difficult to use.

• It’s slow when handling critical workloads.

• It’s expensive to operate in the cloud.

At this point, the team often scrambles to address these issues post-launch. And while it’s possible to course-correct, it’s expensive, time-consuming, and frustrating for both teams and users.

Now that the product is in the hands of customers, we start hearing from stakeholders. The product needs to be Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. 

Nonfunctional requirements are difficult to nail down in simple terms to communicate effectively. They suffer from being misunderstood and under-articulated. 

Work towards a more specific language that draws people towards the ultimate project goal, but in the meantime I’ve organized translations for a few below. 

Harder

• Secure at rest and in-transit: Data is encrypted whether it's stored or moving, so users can trust their information is safe.

• Stronger authentication: Multi-factor authentication (MFA) adds an extra layer of security.

• Protected against attacks: Resilient to DDoS and brute-force attacks, ensuring the app can handle threats without compromising performance.

Better

• Easier to sign up: Simple, streamlined registration process that requires minimal steps.

• Easier to use: Intuitive design that enables users to navigate without a tutorial.

• Accessible for everyone: Designed to meet accessibility standards (e.g., WCAG), making it usable for people with disabilities.

• Supports integration: Easily integrates with popular tools like Slack, Google Calendar, and other systems in the user's ecosystem.

Faster

• Load times rock: Pages load in under 2 seconds, even when 20 users run our heavy analytic reports..

• Running reports blazes: Reports are generated within seconds, even with large data sets.

• Quick transactions: Payment processing is completed in under a second, ensuring a smooth checkout experience.

• Instant notifications: Users receive alerts and notifications with minimal delay.

Stronger

• More resilient: Designed to handle unexpected crashes or spikes in usage without downtime.

• Quick disaster recovery: Can recover from outages in under 15 minutes, ensuring minimal disruption.

• Fault-tolerant: If one server or component fails, the system reroutes traffic automatically to ensure uptime.

• Economically efficient: Operates in the cloud in low cost operating modes taking advantage of system behaviors that reduce operating costs.

Non-Functional Requirements (NFRs) often live in the shadow of functional features, but they are the backbone of a product that doesn’t just work—it works beautifully. Addressing NFRs early and intentionally ensures your product delivers a seamless experience, meets user expectations, and operates efficiently. From design to launch, focusing on qualities like performance, usability, security, and scalability transforms a product from a fragile MVP to a robust, reliable solution.