[fernmyth]

> Should they ignore engagement increases of 3% because someone has stern feedback?

Yes. A sane person or organization must be able to make judgements that include values other than narrow metrics.

If your engagement numbers told you to jump off a bridge, would you?

[augustuspolius]

User feedback is very unreliable. At a certain scale we tend to trust usage data more. (Eg why should they care more about your individual feedback than what seems like an increased user satisfaction with the platform?)

So far I have not encountered a single big tech company that is able to factor in values into decision making at this level. I don’t know whether we even have the tools for that. The incentives (promos, bonuses), company size (internal competition, changing ownership, focus on growth), being public (relentless growth), etc, etc - all of that contributes to this outcome.

Personally I prefer a more thoughtful and caring approach to introducing changes, but knowing how the industry works I don’t see a lot of space for that.