Red Herring and Product

So, you’ve heard about a red herring ... something that misleads or distracts from a relevant issue or important question. It may be either a logical fallacy or a literary device that leads users or audiences toward a false conclusion.

In product, it might be an indicator that diverts attention away from the actual problem, root cause, or user impact.

Coming from a product quality background and heuristics topic area, hear more about this idea and how it connects to product.

This presentation explores the red herring in product and what it takes to follow the right scent. We will look at how false signals disguise themselves as quality work, why teams sometimes miss the real problem, and what is product quality.
There is also why products often feel "wrong" before metrics or dashboards show visible failure. Sometimes we just focus on the wrong signals and that is why product quality and heuristics matter.

The red herring didn't break the product.
It broke our ability to see the product clearly.

On quality, distraction, and the signals we trust.