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I absolutely love it when people working on a product tell their customers that they don't need a feature they're all asking for and that would clearly improve

I absolutely love it when people working on a product tell their customers that they don't need a feature they're all asking for and that would clearly improve the experience, just because not everyone uses it all the time.

simion314 5y ago
> absolutely love it when people working on a product tell their customers that they don't need a feature they're all asking for and that would clearly improve the experience, just because not everyone uses it all the time. We need a name for this, personally I call it GNOME mentality but probably is bad name since most developers are not familiar with GNOME (though the file picker issue get on top HN a lot )
notyourwork 5y ago
> they're all asking for All is the flaw in your comment. One person does not imply all and data speaks for itself.
- marginalia_nu 5y ago
  The data does not speak at all. You are drawing inferences based on the data, inferences of a type that are pretty easy to poke holes in by looking at the pretty large class of things rarely used but situationaly useful (often life saving). This type of bizarre logic makes me feel like I have to habitually use features even when they are not useful in order to protect them from UX designers in case I'm subject to some misguided A/B test.
  - breakfastduck 5y ago
    UX designers not sufficiently held in check by strong product teams are lethal.
  - notyourwork 5y ago
    > The data does not speak at all. What data are you referencing? I'm drawing conclusions based on data I have but I don't think you work for the same company as me so I'm not sure how you can speak to confidently about how wrong I am.
- breakfastduck 5y ago
  If x number of people are asking for something, all of those people are asking for it. I think it was pretty obvious I wasn't claiming all spotify users are asking for this. I'm a PO so feel sufficiently qualified to state that user analytics data is completely redundant for looking at small use high value features & undervaluing direct user feedback from your 'power users' is generally a bad move. Again, just because not everyone needs/wants a feature does not make it useless or not worth implementing. Data doesn't tell you how useful a feature is, it tells you how frequently it's used & how many people use it. They are not the same things.
  - notyourwork 5y ago
    > Data doesn't tell you how useful a feature is, it tells you how frequently it's used & how many people use it. They are not the same things. That entirely depends on the the data set. On one hand you are claiming to be an expert and on the other making generalizations about what data can be used for. In reality you know that data is contextual and depending on the data set is what determines what conclusions and how confident you can be in those conclusions.
    - breakfastduck 5y ago
      It entirely depends on your perspective. There's a difference between justifying your decisions with data, and letting data make your decisions for you. What data would you use to justify not implementing a dislike feature that many users are asking for, for example?

simion314 5y ago

> absolutely love it when people working on a product tell their customers that they don't need a feature they're all asking for and that would clearly improve the experience, just because not everyone uses it all the time. We need a name for this, personally I call it GNOME mentality but probably is bad name since most developers are not familiar with GNOME (though the file picker issue get on top HN a lot )

notyourwork 5y ago

> they're all asking for All is the flaw in your comment. One person does not imply all and data speaks for itself.

marginalia_nu 5y ago
The data does not speak at all. You are drawing inferences based on the data, inferences of a type that are pretty easy to poke holes in by looking at the pretty large class of things rarely used but situationaly useful (often life saving). This type of bizarre logic makes me feel like I have to habitually use features even when they are not useful in order to protect them from UX designers in case I'm subject to some misguided A/B test.
- breakfastduck 5y ago
  UX designers not sufficiently held in check by strong product teams are lethal.
- notyourwork 5y ago
  > The data does not speak at all. What data are you referencing? I'm drawing conclusions based on data I have but I don't think you work for the same company as me so I'm not sure how you can speak to confidently about how wrong I am.
breakfastduck 5y ago
If x number of people are asking for something, all of those people are asking for it. I think it was pretty obvious I wasn't claiming all spotify users are asking for this. I'm a PO so feel sufficiently qualified to state that user analytics data is completely redundant for looking at small use high value features & undervaluing direct user feedback from your 'power users' is generally a bad move. Again, just because not everyone needs/wants a feature does not make it useless or not worth implementing. Data doesn't tell you how useful a feature is, it tells you how frequently it's used & how many people use it. They are not the same things.
- notyourwork 5y ago
  > Data doesn't tell you how useful a feature is, it tells you how frequently it's used & how many people use it. They are not the same things. That entirely depends on the the data set. On one hand you are claiming to be an expert and on the other making generalizations about what data can be used for. In reality you know that data is contextual and depending on the data set is what determines what conclusions and how confident you can be in those conclusions.
  - breakfastduck 5y ago
    It entirely depends on your perspective. There's a difference between justifying your decisions with data, and letting data make your decisions for you. What data would you use to justify not implementing a dislike feature that many users are asking for, for example?