Small hassles and extra steps can sharply reduce action.
More quotesThe milkshake had two customers hiding inside one cup.
Parents saw dessert. Commuters saw breakfast, entertainment and a companion for traffic.
That difference is commercially explosive because each job wants a different product. Parents want children finished quickly; commuters value thickness precisely because it lasts. The “improvement” that pleases one group sabotages the other. Averaging their preferences creates a mediocre shake nobody hired with conviction.
Hidden jobs turn up everywhere. A spreadsheet sold for analysis becomes an unofficial approval system. An export feature exists because somebody needs one acceptable chart for a board pack. Group chat, introduced for quick collaboration, becomes emergency customer support. Product teams often dismiss these behaviours as misuse, then build features for the imaginary workflow in their roadmap.
Watch the moment around use. What happened immediately before? What alternative was rejected? What would make the customer say the task is finished? Behaviour may contradict the feature request because people are poor at describing the job while being excellent at revealing it.
When two groups want incompatible progress, stop demanding one compromise. Separate the versions, messages, routes or service levels. Move the machine to the front for commuters; offer families a different dessert. The product category is an internal filing system. Customers ignore our noun and buy help with a particular bit of life; they will cheerfully repurpose the product until it does the job.