Smart product-service systems (sPSS) revolutionize mass customization by adapting solutions to changing customer requirements, yet demand substantial engineering to ensure valid future configurations. A “maximum configuration” approach installs all potential features regardless of use. While enhancing scalability, this raises concerns about sustainability. Traditionally, sPSS address defined customer problems within optimized supply networks, but especially business ecosystems require broader perspectives regarding complementarity. This paper conceptualizes compound features, derived from systems engineering, as emergent properties of interactions between system components. By treating compound features as resources and capabilities and employing a resource-based configuration strategy, the paper highlights how this approach helps to find capability gaps and align requirements across entities. Furthermore, it discusses compound features within different hierarchical levels of business ecosystems.