Backseat Software

Mike Swanson:

Usage data stopped being a tool for improving software and became a tool for optimizing behavior. The question quietly changed from:

“Is this good software?”

to:

“Does this increase engagement?”

Products have become laboratories:

But A/B testing quietly changes the role of the product team. You’re no longer just building a tool and observing how it’s used. You’re now running experiments on people…adjusting wording, placement, timing, friction, and flow to see what moves the metric.

At that point, the product stops being a finished artifact and starts behaving like a laboratory.

And product vision has become optional, replaced by the (not-statistically-signification) results of (unobjective) experimentation:

backing a chart is safer than backing an opinion. Metrics have numbers and experiments have winners. If a decision goes wrong, you can always point to the data and say, “we followed the evidence.”

Over time, this can change the role of a product team where judgment slowly gives way to iteration, and taste gives way to performance. The product still evolves, but it does so without a clear sense of direction…only a sense of momentum.

You know, you can just say no to the data.