Resetting optimized features to simple baselines prevents long-term UI bloat
Jackson Shuttleworth · Behind the product: Duolingo streaks | Jackson Shuttleworth (Group PM, Retention Team) · Dec 15, 2024 · at 30:03
Jackson Shuttleworth, Group PM at Duolingo leading retention, discusses how to escape local maxima and prevent product degradation caused by continuous micro-experimentation.
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“Eventually you just hit a local maxima and you say, like you talked about lunch and neutral experiments. This is a great example where it's like, all right, cool. Now we need to throw a bunch of this stuff out based on all the learnings. Can we reset this real estate? Can we reset this UI, reset this feature in such a way that Is just as good as what we have now, but is way more plain or simple that we can again, start to layer on. Those are hard. Those are really hard experiments to get win on, you know, to win, obviously, because they are so optimized, but they're really important to do. Otherwise, yeah, you just end up with a kitchen sink of a feature.”
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