Having personally experienced how leaks can damage the rollout of a product by depriving the creators of a chance to tell their own story, I have little to no sympathy for leakers.
Leakers damage internal trust and openness by forcing product leadership to create secretive silos (aka. tents) for product development, and by limiting how detailed strategy discussions can be.
And no, leakers are not necessarily whistleblowers; that's a common motte-and-bailey. In the vast majority of cases, they are not exposing harmful practices or creating space to hold leadership accountable. They're just gossiping.
I used to get Febreze air fresheners from Walmart. The type that plugs into a wall outlet, and you buy refills for.
A couple of years after getting my first one, I got a couple more for other rooms. Suddenly, one night I woke up and there was this bright blinking blue light in the room.
Turns out that they updated their Wall unit to have a blue indicator light when a refill is needed. I could imagine the rationalization for that product decision being that reminding users to refill would increase recurring revenue.
I have now replaced all my Febreze units with Air Wicks from Costco. Cheaper, more dispersal rate options, and no silly blue indicator light.
Having personally experienced how leaks can damage the rollout of a product by depriving the creators of a chance to tell their own story, I have little to no sympathy for leakers.
Leakers damage internal trust and openness by forcing product leadership to create secretive silos (aka. tents) for product development, and by limiting how detailed strategy discussions can be.
And no, leakers are not necessarily whistleblowers; that's a common motte-and-bailey. In the vast majority of cases, they are not exposing harmful practices or creating space to hold leadership accountable. They're just gossiping.
Good riddance, and I hope this continues.