Boy, do I see a lot of the latter. And that is indeed a good first assumption that that’s probably what you’re dealing with in any particular situation.
I do also see some of the former. It’s pretty rare though, and typically from some marketeer. It’s where the idea of “dark patterns” comes from.
What I actually see, though, is a lot of laziness. In fact, I see that more and more. I guess speed to market is the culprit here. I’ve also seen a fair amount of throwing issues that do come up into the backlog, where they can conveniently be ignored. It’s typically not incompetence per se, but just other things taking priority.
So, what’s a simple user researcher to do in this situation? I guess my main advice is to not be afraid to call it out.
God knows, there are always people on the team who will speak up for the business or the schedule or the technical side of things. Just make sure someone’s drawing the team’s attention to the user as well.
By the way, this quote is sometimes called Hanlon’s Razor. I’m guessing that’s a nod to Occam’s Razor, where the simplest explanation of something is usually the best. For example, I love a good JFK conspiracy theory. But when it comes down to it, it was probably just Oswald.
Apart from his submitting his saying to Arthur Bloch's Murphy's Law Book Two (and being from Scranton, PA), no one knows for sure exactly who Hanlon is
