For years, these two memes have lived rent-free in my walk-around decks, much to the collective groan of my coworkers. (Which, naturally, is exactly why I’ll never retire them.)
But there’s a real truth hidden in the flames: Bad customer experiences drain users. Bad developer experiences drain teams. Both breed friction, and friction is the mortal enemy of momentum.
Product leaders need to care about both sides of that equation. It’s not just about what you ship; it’s about what it costs your team to ship it. The health of the team building the product is a fundamental part of the product’s story.
The real job isn’t to keep adding features or deliver on the design sexiness. It’s to reduce friction: for users, for builders, and for the system holding it all together.
The dream version of this job (ironically) is to work yourself out of it. Platform is rock solid, experience is flawless, all problems are solved. Mission accomplished.
That never fully happens, of course. (Thank God. Job security.) There’s always another bottleneck, another broken workflow, or a new fire to put out.
But that’s the beauty of it. You fix a customer problem today, and build the platform muscle to solve tomorrow’s problem twice as fast. A slightly nerdy fractal of progress.
Wouldn’t have it any other way.