Main idea

Customer feedback that contradicts itself — a dock that wants less data entry, an accounting team that wants more — is not a flaw in the material. It is often the most valuable kind: it shows the exact spot where the product has to make a choice, and signals that two trades, two uses or two real constraints are meeting.

An open contradiction is information. A smoothed summary is a mistake you can't see yet.

Why it matters

This reverses the usual handling of a contradiction in a body of feedback: instead of resolving it to get a message, you look for it, because it points to where the real design work is hiding.

Nuances and limits

Not every contradiction points to a product choice: some come from different customers, only one of whom is in the target.

Open questions

• How do you prioritize several open contradictions when each one points to a different choice?