Apr 19, 2025
My wife and I watched Black Mirror S7E1 "Common People" last night. It felt less like fiction and more like a documentary. You could swap the brain implant with any early-stage product and the pattern is the same: from solving a problem to squeezing value.
You don't start out building dystopia.
You start with a dream. To help someone. Maybe save a life. Not growth. Not virality. Just impact.
It begins with something human. “I want to help people.” Real pain. Real need. Strong emotional pull.
So you build. Scrappy MVPs. Test empathy. Pitch it as perspective-shifting. Maybe even healing.
Early adopters rave. Investors lean in. Retention climbs. Virality kicks. So you optimise.
Empathy turns to entertainment. Immersion becomes addiction. Exploration turns into extraction.
“Total immersion” becomes your edge. Richer data. Deeper sync. Sharper fidelity. The product gets better. But better for who?
Then come the tiers. Free. Plus. Premium. Ultra. More access. More control. More fun.
Lower tiers don't get less. They just get worse. Ads. Friction. Withdrawal.
The customer's life becomes content. Their pain becomes product.
Then the customer disappears. No roadmap. No experience tracking. No consent. Because they're not the customer. They're the cost.
You're not evil. You're just in growth mode. The sprint is full. The metrics are green. Legal said yes. And besides - it's working.
Dystopia doesn't crash through the door. It slips in quietly… while the dashboard stays green.
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I'm a father of 3 from Sydney, a product and technology leader. I write about leadership, product management, technology and the messy reality of making work work.
I'm currently building and experimenting with a mildly alarming number of things. I also work as a fractional product leader, stepping in where the founder or CEO is still carrying product decisions on their own, and offer 1:1 product leadership coaching for senior PMs and emerging product leaders. I founded SoundingBoard, practical peer exchange for product people. Connect via LinkedIn, or follow me on X.
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