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It baffles me that businesses such as Facebook seem to be driven so heavily by the numbers. If I were the FB product manager given the choice between a News Fee

It baffles me that businesses such as Facebook seem to be driven so heavily by the numbers. If I were the FB product manager given the choice between a News Feed that is pleasant to use, or one that at times feels actively user-hostile but provides better metrics, I would want to have the freedom to pick user happiness over the bottom line, in no small part because I would (I assume) be one of those users. I can't help but feel that something has gone wrong when Facebook - or any company - will deliver its users a worse product for the sake of few more dollars.

nemothekid 13y ago
>will deliver its users a worse product for the sake of few more dollars Its hard - we don't know if its a "few" more dollars, the article and facebook doesn't share this info. If it possibly meant that each user was spending half as much time on facebook, which could possibly meant half as much revenue for the company - what choice do you have? As a product manager, are you willing to graze half of company because a new feature that is pretty, but costs the company a fortune? Arguably there are those who have considered the iPhone a worse product because of its locked down nature. Does Apple deliver a worse product for the sake of a "few more dollars?" Even then you have to consider is the App Store ecosystem, the relatively high quality of iPhone Apps, and ease-of-use-through-handcuffs just worth a few more dollars?
- oneeyedpigeon 13y ago
  Of course, you have to take into account advertising performance. I don't have any figures to back this up, but I haven't seen any to the contrary so I'm going to hypothesise that ads on a really nice site that people enjoy using are going to do better than on a site that's horrible and pisses people off. Plus, the former gives people more spare time to click ads and buy stuff. I don't think the 'more time viewing pages with ads on = more money' is the full story.
incompatible 13y ago
I suppose Facebook can get away with it as long as the barriers to competition are high enough. If competition was possible then users would presumably use the site with the best interface.
gedrap 13y ago
>>> will deliver its users a worse product for the sake of few more dollars. When you are operating in FB scale, few more dollars become millions. Repeat 'few more dollars' several times, you have hundreds of millions/billion. While morally you are correct and that's definitely what a startup should do, when you are large you have managers striving for bonuses, investors keen on getting higher ROI etc. It's not that simple and pure anymore.

nemothekid 13y ago

>will deliver its users a worse product for the sake of few more dollars Its hard - we don't know if its a "few" more dollars, the article and facebook doesn't share this info. If it possibly meant that each user was spending half as much time on facebook, which could possibly meant half as much revenue for the company - what choice do you have? As a product manager, are you willing to graze half of company because a new feature that is pretty, but costs the company a fortune? Arguably there are those who have considered the iPhone a worse product because of its locked down nature. Does Apple deliver a worse product for the sake of a "few more dollars?" Even then you have to consider is the App Store ecosystem, the relatively high quality of iPhone Apps, and ease-of-use-through-handcuffs just worth a few more dollars?

oneeyedpigeon 13y ago
Of course, you have to take into account advertising performance. I don't have any figures to back this up, but I haven't seen any to the contrary so I'm going to hypothesise that ads on a really nice site that people enjoy using are going to do better than on a site that's horrible and pisses people off. Plus, the former gives people more spare time to click ads and buy stuff. I don't think the 'more time viewing pages with ads on = more money' is the full story.

incompatible 13y ago

I suppose Facebook can get away with it as long as the barriers to competition are high enough. If competition was possible then users would presumably use the site with the best interface.

gedrap 13y ago

>>> will deliver its users a worse product for the sake of few more dollars. When you are operating in FB scale, few more dollars become millions. Repeat 'few more dollars' several times, you have hundreds of millions/billion. While morally you are correct and that's definitely what a startup should do, when you are large you have managers striving for bonuses, investors keen on getting higher ROI etc. It's not that simple and pure anymore.