The Problem with Metrics... Listen Up Google...

One of the complaints listed here, What is the worst part about working at Google? is an obsession with metrics. First of all, while data is nice, it's still kind of like statistics... depending on how you collect it, you can make it say almost anything.

So most likely you are going to go by... majority rules. Let see, didn't Apple say something like:

Consumers don't know what they want?

But there's usually a small group of people, a super minority that does tend to know what they want. And well maybe they aren't exactly consumers... they are more like technologists... without the super smarts to get into big tech shops... or just the cramming needed to get past the interviews or have any interest in joining...

But they tend to be self-identifying and very collaborative and helpful when asked or given a chance to speak. In fact, they/we are the ones submitting most of the bug tickets and feature suggestions. But what do we get back? Nothing... It seems we just end up yelling into the mountains.

Google...

You're apps are draining my battery and data.... unnecessarily. We've been yelling at you and talking among ourselves for years... All you need to do is put in some settings so we don't need to forcefully kill and block them.

Also, the Gmail app is a mess... The web version is actually much more functional feature-wise... but anyway, I think I have told you guys repeatedly already so you want the details? You come ask me.

But this may also have something to do with your engineers' tendency to always chase shiny new things and because they seem to be zoomed into some challenging algorithmic problem rather than trying to deliver a high quality product to users... hey why don't you hire some full stack developers instead of massive teams of specialists...

Anyway, why don't you put some more focus on the minority that actually knows what we and probably everyone else wants... rather than putting your attention on a majority... that don't know the status quo can be changed until it is.