That first question is the most important because how you collect data and what you count as success influences everything else; if your organization

Vibe Driven Development

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2024-09-23 11:30:02

That first question is the most important because how you collect data and what you count as success influences everything else; if your organization is measuring shit then they’ll build nothing but shit. And most product orgs suck and churn out garbage projects because they waste so much time thinking in terms of junk data and half baked user inputs to inform their decisions.

The problem underlying all this is that when it comes to building a product, all data is garbage, a lie, or measuring the wrong thing. Folks will be obsessed with clicks and charts and NPS scores—the NFTs of product management—and in this sea of noise they believe they can see the product clearly. There are courses and books and talks all about measuring happiness and growth—surveys! surveys! surveys!—with everyone in the field believing that they’ve built a science when they’ve really built a cult.

I guess customers could tell us the answer, right? Well, no. Sure, you can talk to customers to see how they struggle but they cannot tell you why they struggle. They’ll have terrible ideas for improvements like “I really wish AI could show me all the relevant things on this page” or “I want more dashboards” where the answer is always much simpler than that. Customer feedback is a geiger counter: they can tell you about the problem coming your way but not how to prevent it.