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"Death by a thousand cuts" doesn't show up in a spreadsheet because each cut is hidden in a different cell. We've all worked in the industry long enough. We kn
by jakevoytko 4y ago
"Death by a thousand cuts" doesn't show up in a spreadsheet because each cut is hidden in a different cell.
We've all worked in the industry long enough. We know that if you approach the PM and say, "man, I watched my girlfriend try to use the site on her phone this weekend. She gave up because every page tried forcing her to use the app," the PM would respond, "we did some testing and not many people stop using the site when this happens, and people who use the app are 3x more engaged, so this isn't true in practice." But those tests don't show what happens 3 months from now when your girlfriend uses a competitor that doesn't have any of that shit, and she thinks "wow this is so much better" and just never goes back.
- peytoncasper 4y agoI feel as if there needs to be a modification to the phrase "Data Driven". Data, generally, will not help you predict the future. It is however, fantastic at finding bias, inefficient existing processes and tracking the results of your changes. When applied blindly you end up with scenario you described. Product direction that says something isn't necessary because the question was never asked to begin with. Science without the hypothesis.
- mrguyorama 4y ago"Data driven companies" aren't, because none of the people involved in making decisions ever took anything more than stats 101 and have never experienced a real world data situation where things are messy and if you aren't careful about how you measure and collect data you make it useless for decision making and also apparently because they don't teach goodharts law in business school?
- Turing_Machine 4y ago> she thinks "wow this is so much better" and just never goes back. Worse still (for the original company), she then tells all her friends about the competitor that doesn't suck.