The safest decision is rarely the right one

"Data feels objective, defensible, and safe. In many product teams, it has quietly become the most powerful decision-maker in the room - not because it consistently leads to better outcomes, but because it removes personal accountability. When a decision can be justified with numbers, no one has to truly own it. "Although you may think that people instinctively want to make the best possible decision, there is a stronger force that animates business decision-making: the desire not to get blamed or fired." - Rory Sutherland"

"'Data-driven design' is often framed as maturity. In practice, it can become a way to defer judgement, smooth over disagreement, and default to the option that will attract the least resistance. The result isn't better products - it's safer ones. Incremental improvements which optimise what already exists, while bolder ideas are quietly filtered out because they can't yet be proven."

Data can feel objective and safe, becoming the dominant decision-maker when teams use numbers to avoid personal accountability. When choices are justified purely by metrics, ownership and judgment disappear. Framing design as "data-driven" can defer hard decisions, smooth disagreement, and default to low-resistance options. That tendency produces safer, incremental products that optimize existing solutions while filtering out bolder ideas that lack proof. Data only describes what happened in the past and cannot determine what should exist. Overreliance on quantitative signals slows teams and reduces innovation by privileging measurable outcomes over creative risk. Balancing judgment and evidence is necessary for meaningful progress.

Read at Medium