Hello!
Recently I revisited “The Divine Comedy”, Dante’s classic poem divided into three where he is guided through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise by the poet Virgil. The first part of the poem guides us through the Inferno of Hell, all 9 circles of it. The epic shows the pain and suffering, the mistakes tortured souls make and the tragedy that awaits them. And guess what, yep, it’s incredibly reminiscent of product development.
So join me, toss a coin to the ferryman as we descend into product development hell.
First Circle: Limbo
The first circle of Hell is home to the unbaptized and virtuous pagans. Those who have not seen the light to be saved but otherwise meant well. It isn’t the worst place in the world to end up. Imagine products being built in old ways before putting user needs first. Things will happen, it may not be effective, but there’s no severe malice, but let’s be honest, it’s hell, so there will be at least 6 Gantt charts and 12 status meetings.
Second Circle: Lust
Ah lust, blown around by base desires. Who amongst us hasn’t been in a meeting where we’re trying to build the right thing and someone has decided to chase the sexy new shiny thing. Fuck value eh? Bill in Marketing has told us that the product needs to be fancy, attractive, fresh and dive straight into the strategic synergistic vision. Products guided by lust are never long for this world, as soon as you catch the shiny new thing there’s something shinier and glossier down the path.
Third Circle: Gluttony
The icy rain pours down on the gluttonous in the third circle. Product teams that demand that their products, tools and services are stuffed, chock full of unnecessary indulgent features make them slow and unable to react quickly to change. Weighed down by their indulgent and obese products, like Double Stuffed Oreos oozing in the sun, then wind, then rain, icy icy rain. There’s probably ants there too, because, you know, ants.
Fourth Circle: Greed
The greedy are condemned to drag around heavy boulders with their chest. Greedy product teams are never content. This stops releases, hurts their agility and causes everything to grind to a halt. The greed of wanting more and what their competitors have, be it features, marketshare, brand or content causes them to condemn themselves.
Fifth Circle: Anger
Those filled with wrath and vengeance fight it out on the River Styx for eternity. Product teams that can’t get on as a cohesive unit tear each other apart. Building things is rare, and building for the right reason even moreso. Every time any progress is made it is attacked and pulled back down. Bitterness, resentment and skittishness cause teams to fracture. Culture is important and if anger infects it within a team, it becomes dangerous.
Sixth Circle: Heresy
Teams working together, aligned behind a purpose, mission and approach can do amazing things. Then along comes a heretic. Teams can unite to take on challenges, but what happens when there’s dissent from within, the secret voice inside that takes them down. Inner saboteurs can do incredible damage to progress, rotting teams from the inside out until they crumble to a fetid dust. It’s important to call out poor work and misguided approaches when you see them, but to be the constant heretic within the team tarnishes beautiful potential.
Seventh Circle: Violence
The seventh circle is divided into three rings.
The outer ring consists of murderers sinking into boiling blood. Those that kill without reason or purpose. Needlessly killing products and features, or teams and projects cause hurt and pain.
The middle are the suicides who turned into bleeding trees. Forest upon forest of dead ideas, not given the chance to reach their full potential. In pain and anguish,
The inner ring are blasphemers and sodomites who reside in a desert of burning sand and are scorched by burning rain falling from above. Now let’s move on from the sodomites and make this a bit more 21st Century and product-y. Those that disparage the good work that the team strives toward.
Violence is misguided and damaging to the team. For every malicious blow, be it in customer service or against others comes back to those that lashed out. Every idea needs to be nurtured and explored, violence and maliciousness is misplaced within a product team.
Eighth Circle: Fraud
I could be incredibly blunt here and just put a picture of a pointless consultant. Those that promise salvation, meeting the needs of everyone, promising the world and delivering nothing, be it to teams, companies, stakeholders or users. It sours the soul, salts the earth and makes it difficult to grow trust again. Flatters and false prophets haunt product teams making it difficult to regain trust and momentum. Product teams may be guilty of trying to chase the shiny new thing, but what if the shiny new thing is purportedly a person, parachuted in with all the answers? The false prophet with all of their misguided answers can condemn teams to this circle of product hell for aeons. You can overpromise and under deliver, but to willingly commit fraud stains the soul and is nigh on impossible to recover from.
Ninth Circle: Treachery
The final circle is a frozen wasteland occupied by history’s greatest traitors. Again, I could put in some pictures of some overpaid consultants. This deepest and most stoic level of hell is for those that betray their teams and their stakeholders. Lying and betraying those for either a sale or a quick win, it is nigh-on impossible to recover from this level of product hell. Dante comes face to face with the Devil himself at this level of Hell, upon gazing upon his visage with evil laid bare it’s obvious that true evil isn’t alluring or seductive, instead bold and ugly, an affront to decency.
So, what have we learned? Other than epic poems have many things in common with epic Italian poetry? The common faults in humanity are manifest within products, teams and companies. Indulgences and selfishness, violence and treachery are infectious, but they can be stopped.
The way to avoid the piftalls of product development hell is to be aware of them, call them out and approach each project with objectivity with a strong compass, lead by user needs. Sometimes it’s hell, trying to get to heaven.