Product Decisions That Backfired

What is this page about?

An analysis of product decisions that backfired, opening with Snapchat's 2018 redesign that drew a 1.2-million-signature petition and wiped roughly 1.3 billion dollars off Snap's value after a celebrity tweet. It works through case studies (Windows 8's forced touch interface, Digg v4, Google+, the Amazon Fire Phone, and Netflix Qwikster) and extracts the recurring patterns, ignoring user feedback, designing for hypothetical users, adding complexity, and changing too much too fast, then offers principles for avoiding them.

What has been corrected on this page?

Every accepted correction to this page is recorded with the exact change, so readers can see how the page improved over time.

1. 11 July 2026 · corrected by Emir Baycan

   2 corrections applied: Snapchat redesign backlash, petition, Kylie tweet, and market-cap drop occurred in February 2018, not September 2018 | YouTube co-founder is Jawed Karim, not Javed Karim

   Before

   In September 2018, Snapchat completed a controversial redesign... the YouTube co-founder Javed Karim posted his first comment

   After

   In February 2018, Snapchat completed a controversial redesign... the YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim posted his first comment

   Why: Two corrections: the Snapchat redesign backlash/petition/Kylie tweet/market-cap drop occurred in February 2018, not September 2018; and YouTube's co-founder is named Jawed Karim, not Javed Karim. Verified the live article body already reflects both corrections consistently throughout. The faq field does not reference the date or the co-founder's name, so no secondary fix was needed there.

   View the full record →

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1 contributor has checked "Product Decisions That Backfired" on When Notes Fly. Each name below links to that person's public CitePep profile, where every contribution they have made is listed with the exact change they proposed.