{"id":22917,"date":"2025-06-06T10:49:50","date_gmt":"2025-06-06T17:49:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/?p=22917"},"modified":"2025-06-06T10:56:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T17:56:09","slug":"tell-me-about-a-product-you-hate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/06\/tell-me-about-a-product-you-hate\/","title":{"rendered":"“Tell me about a product you hate…”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I interviewed many hundreds of PM candidates at Google, and if things were going well, I’d ask, “Tell me about a product you hate<\/strong> that you use regularly. Why do you hate it?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This proved to be a great bozo detector. Does this person have curiosity, conviction, passion, unreasonableness<\/a>? Were they forced into coding & now just want to escape life in the damn debugger, or do they have a semi-pathological need to build stuff they’re proud of? Would I want them in the proverbial foxhole with me? Are they willing to sweep the floor<\/a>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unsurprisingly, most candidates offer shallow, banal answers (“Uh, wow… I mean, I guess the ESPN app is kinda slow…?”), whereas great ones explain not just what sucks, but why<\/strong><\/em> it sucks. Like, why\u2014systemically\u2014is every car infotainment system such crap? Those are the PMs I want asking the questions, then questioning the answers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

——- <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Specifically the car front, as Tolstoy might say, \u201cEach one is unhappy in its own way.\u201d The most interesting thing, I think, isn\u2019t just to talk about the crappy mismatched & competing experiences, but rather about why<\/em> every system I\u2019ve ever used sucks. The answer can\u2019t be \u201cEvery person at every company is a moron\u201d\u2014so what is it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So much comes down to the structure of the industry, with hardware & software being made by a mishmash of corporate frenemies, all contending with a soup of regulations, risk aversion (one recall can destroy the profitability of a whole product line), and surprisingly bargain-bin electronics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check out this short vid for some great insights from Ford CEO Jim Farley:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Ford CEO Jim Farley on why it’s so difficult for legacy car companies to get software right & why @Tesla<\/a>\u2019s vertically integrated approach is the right one:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe farmed out all the modules that control the vehicles to our suppliers because we could bid them against each other, so\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/kWsIaiOJlI<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) January 7, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n