> If I can’t just ship that and get the feedback I need
As a user, I detest when I'm treated as a lab rat and the software I rely on to get stuff done has the UI randomly changing because the people making it don't have anyone in charge with enough design sense to make a call on how the product should function.
Google normalized this practice with the obsessive A/B testing and it's one of the biggest things that pushed me away from Android and general Google services. Microsoft is terrible for it too now. Every piece of software feels like a perpetual beta test.
As a person who regularly ships software to folks to solve problems I think this is more of a symptom of marketing and product folks taking over than software developers trying to provide a stable, useful solution.
A system needs to change over time as demands and requirements change… but it shouldn’t be unexpected and without warning. And it should be in concert with knowing the unique demands of the users involved with the system.
When I want to run an experiment, I mean to run a deliberate experiment that the people using the software are aware of and are a part of. Not some random trial A/B test based on telemetry. That stuff is too common these days, I agree.
As a user, I detest when I'm treated as a lab rat and the software I rely on to get stuff done has the UI randomly changing because the people making it don't have anyone in charge with enough design sense to make a call on how the product should function.
Google normalized this practice with the obsessive A/B testing and it's one of the biggest things that pushed me away from Android and general Google services. Microsoft is terrible for it too now. Every piece of software feels like a perpetual beta test.