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> I'm sure the YT PMs have proof that this improves engagement.

I sometimes wonder if the opposite is true - that the PMs can convince the upper managment that users are staying on the website longer with all those stupid as fuck shit changes, but in reality they are there longer because it's increasingly more difficult to find anything you are looking for

Sort of 'When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure'

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Yes, like the way modern shopping centres seem to be designed to disorient.

I thought they were just incompetent, but I think you're right.

Not to disorient, but to force you travel past most isles, increasing the chance of impulse buys.

No, they are literally designed so it is difficult to tell where you are and which ways lead to exits, because it increases the amount of impulsive purchases.

This mind trick is called the Gruen transfer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gruen_transfer

Successfully being a PM and successfully managing a product are often at odds with each other. I've seen few do it well. Not really picking on PMs either, as both an SDE and now an EM I deal with similar tensions. Gotta love corpo life.

Could you elaborate that a bit more on this? I am on SDE side and keen on understanding the PM motivations as well

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