https://twitter.com/danluu/status/1504567905819643904
When a PM tells a user (engineer) that you are not the audience and we know the user better than you then switch teams. There's no point in working with people who force their will on users. No one ever knows what will be received well or not. Its one of the reasons why companies dogfood their applications. To find these kinks and adjust.
What the hell is the point of dogfooding and getting feedback but then throwing away the feedback. You throw it away and find when it gets released that now you got tons of customer service complaints exactly about that feedback you threw away. When you do as a person or group think about your actions and believe that you don't know everything and you have to listen to what is being said.
If FB users are saying they want recent posts from their friends, but FB product managers want to throw garbo posts into your feed "because engagement" then they've effectively shut out their users. Always an opportunity for someone else to get in and do it for them. Some people want to explore and others don't want to explore (recent posts) outside of their circle. I mean it seems like a no-brainer feature, but product managers don't see the value.
That funnel they always talk about when it comes to user acquisition and retention (continued engagement) takes a hit when you have shitty product managers. Said product managers may only be focused on metrics. LoL, users just told you they are annoyed by your change and will disengage from your product and you ignore it. Watch those metrics fall and the funnel shrink in the long term as more users get annoyed, disengage and engage with another product. It's the death of your product.
It is not always user error when a user complains about something. It is also pompous as fuck to say a user is not the intended audience when they are giving feedback while dogfooding your product. Some people need to get their heads out of their asses.