What is a Feature?
A feature is a coherent chunk of product capability that delivers value a user can recognize — bigger than a story, smaller than an epic in most hierarchies (epic → feature → story), and the natural unit for release planning and stakeholder conversation.
The discipline features enforce: they're described by the benefit ("customers can pay by installments"), not the implementation ("integrate the installment API"). Stakeholders fund benefits; nobody funds an API.
Worked example
The epic "modernize checkout" contains features: guest checkout, saved payment methods, installment payments. "Installment payments" splits into a dozen stories — eligibility rules, provider integration, refund handling. The steering committee tracks the three features; the team tracks the forty stories; both are looking at the same work at the altitude that serves them.