What is Negative Carry (Features)?
Negative Carry is a financial concept applied by Richard Ewing to product features.
Negative Carry is a financial concept applied by Richard Ewing to product features. A feature has negative carry when its total cost (direct maintenance + opportunity cost + complexity tax) exceeds its value contribution (revenue attribution + user engagement + strategic importance).
Borrowed from bond trading: a bond has negative carry when the cost of financing it exceeds the coupon yield. Similarly, a feature has negative carry when maintaining it costs more than the value it generates.
Identifying negative carry features is the first step of the Kill Switch Protocol. Features with the highest negative carry should be sunset first, as removing them frees the most engineering capacity per feature removed.
The typical enterprise software product has 30-40% of its features in negative carry territory. These features collectively consume $1-5M+ in annual maintenance costs while contributing zero or near-zero to revenue and strategic objectives.
Why It Matters
Negative carry features represent pure economic waste — you're paying more to keep them than they're worth. Identifying and removing them is the highest-ROI activity in engineering because it frees capacity without building anything new.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is negative carry for features?
When a feature's total cost (maintenance + opportunity cost + complexity tax) exceeds its value (revenue + engagement + strategic importance). The feature costs more to keep than it's worth.
How common are negative carry features?
30-40% of features in typical enterprise software have negative carry. Collectively they can represent $1-5M+ in annual wasted maintenance costs.
Related Terms
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Richard Ewing is a Product Economist and AI Capital Auditor. He helps companies translate technical complexity into financial clarity.
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