There are two jobs that I would never want as a product manager and that is either being the PM for Microsoft Word or Intuit's Quicken. These are products that are so well established that any additional feature you add will statistically make the product worse. They are so bloated and feature rich that these inordinately complex products will only get more complex. As if that is even possible.
Sadly, as feature rich as they are, they are far from perfect. However, the way that shrink wrap software works, any new release begs the question of what can it do that's new. The truth is that assumption that a release has to do something new has only led to the untenable situation. That's the wrong question to ask, because it limits the notion of improvement to the realm of functionality. Many things can be improved upon simply by reworking what's been done in the past in a new way.
Artists get this. Often each new payment doesn't focus on creating something new, but creating something better than it was before. That's why you see the similarities in the great artists paintings. How many haystacks and lily pads did Money create? He was trying to get it right. Think of Mondrian and his classic design varied to explore shape and form.
Think about the most ordinary of paintings, the Mona Lisa. It's just the portrait of a woman, but it focuses on each part in the right combination to create something magical. So look to the masters, get the basics right, make them better. Don't focus on new styles or subjects.
Customers buy your products to do something they couldn't do before. If they can do what they did before far easier, far quicker. That's something different without being new. I'd pay for that.
