During my last semester at Waterloo, an advanced HCI course transformed my perspective on products by integrating technology, ethics, and philosophy. I realized that product engineering is not just about features but also about intent, execution, and the team you’re fortunate to have—mainly when your product affects millions and deals with sensitive issues.

In this article, I examine why many products fail, based on my research, experiences, and observations. I also share simple facts to help founders “think in mirrors” and avoid common product pitfalls.

Products can fail for many reasons, from misunderstandings of business requirements to poor execution. Success depends on more than just a clear vision; it also requires thorough planning, careful design, the right team, and proper operations. In the sections that follow, I’ll explore some main reasons why products fail.

How you execute is more important than almost anything else. Anyone can have an idea, the right team, and the right tools, but poor execution can ruin a product. Execution isn’t the same for every product; what works for one might not work for another. Some products need to be completely ready before launch, especially in competitive markets or heavily regulated areas.

A poor launch can damage your product from the very beginning. A simple way to lower execution risks is to validate early through research, talking to potential customers, surveys, and observing people. Execution fails for many reasons, such as unclear goals, insufficient resources, technical challenges, or weak leadership.

Let’s consider Color Labs as an example.

This photo-sharing app was launched several years ago, probably when I was still in high school. Its failure came from having an unclear product vision; without clarity, execution inevitably suffers. Additionally, the idea wasn’t properly validated, which led to problems at launch. In other words, execution isn’t just about creating the right product, but about doing so in the right way.

Poor product engineering usually begins with having inadequate product engineers. I often tell other engineers that a product engineer isn’t just a software developer but someone who deeply understands business needs and writes code to address them while genuinely satisfying user requirements. These individuals typically consider every aspect of the development process to create a product that solves real problems. Startups, in particular, need product engineers—engineers with strong product thinking—who are prepared to build meaningful experiences and continually refine requirements until they achieve the desired outcome.

We all know that failing to innovate continuously can kill a product. There’s too much user feedback, too many pain points, and too many needs that need to be met to ignore. Resisting innovation not only holds you back, but also gives competitors too much leeway. To succeed, especially in tech, you have to evolve, adapt, and keep pushing forward.

Let’s consider Houseparty as an example.

I loved Houseparty. It was a video-based social platform that let users connect through video calls and chats. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Houseparty saw a surge in popularity. I remember my friends and I having many funny and meaningful conversations on it. But after the pandemic, the hype faded, and the app didn’t update its features, leading to a drop in engagement, especially compared to strong competitors. Many reports blamed a viral hack for its decline, but I firmly believe the real issue was that the app didn’t adapt to the post-pandemic era.

I’ve seen many startups, especially in fintech, forced to shut down due to security breaches. I still wonder why founders often neglect cybersecurity. If I were a founder today, I’d hire security experts from day one—no excuses. Startups move fast, but moving fast without doing things right comes at a cost, especially if ignoring proper security procedures leads to collapse.

Let’s consider Bunni as an example.

The situation with Bunni was heartbreaking. An attacker stole $8.4 million by exploiting a vulnerability in their platform—a rounding-direction bug in the smart contract’s withdrawal logic—using flash loans, micro-withdrawals, and sandwich attacks. After the hack, Bunni had to pause operations and eventually shut down, with its value dropping from about $60 million to zero.

I first learned about this through a detailed thread on Twitter, which I highly recommend you read because it offers incredible insights. Many startup founders think, “We’re too small to be hacked.” But how can you risk something that could destroy your company in a single day? Security needs to be part of your product development process. Sadly, in the race for funding and growth, too many startups treat it as an afterthought.

Technical debt can ruin your product, and I mean it! I remember working as a senior engineer at a fintech startup. Because we wanted to move quickly, the backend was full of debt, including code with security flaws. I also worked on the frontend, but I had to step in to fix critical technical debt that could have crippled the company.

Technical debt is an obstacle to innovation: legacy architecture and fragile code drain your team’s ability to think creatively. It also affects morale becauseno one wants to work with debt-ridden code. In my case, if the backend had been reliable, I could have focused on the frontend and gone about my day. Instead, it doubled my workload and lowered morale.

A lesson I tried to teach some engineers years ago is that ignoring technical debt is like dining with the devil; you’re risking your product’s future by exposing it to limitations that could eventually cause it to fail. This is what happens when founders pursue quick wins without thinking about long-term effects.

When I say **“**think in mirrors,” what do I mean? I’m talking about viewing your product as a mirror. Just as a mirror reflects your image, a product reflects the decisions, priorities, and quality of the team behind it. Your product reveals the strengths and flaws in your engineering, design, and execution. In the sections that follow, I’ll introduce four key things to watch for to help ensure your new product’s success and resilience.

There are many reasons startups fail, often because of flawed business models. However, one thing I usually criticize is making products that would be better as features within a larger company’s platform rather than standalone products. When a product can’t stand on its own or solve a real market problem, or if it lacks a unique selling point, no amount of clever engineering or design can make it successful.

Take ChaCha, for example, which was a human-assisted search engine. In my opinion, this product probably didn’t even need to exist. Its approach depended on expensive human labor and was quickly vulnerable to automation and competition from larger platforms. What it aimed to do could have been more efficiently integrated as a feature within an existing search engine, rather than as a standalone product.

In my view, execution should begin with tightening the business model, then focus on the customer experience, and finally address other technology priorities.

Before building anything, write your business model on a whiteboard and challenge it relentlessly. Call a few trusted friends or colleagues and let them quiz you with the most challenging questions until you can’t answer; that’s the goal. If you can answer those difficult questions confidently and back them up, you have something solid. If you can’t, you’ve just saved yourself weeks or months of wasted engineering effort.

*Thinking in mirrors here means understanding how your product truly fits in the market before investing heavily in development. If your product can integrate with a feature of a larger company’s product, the market will reflect that reality. *

I thrive on first impressions with a product. I’m at the point where I won’t forgive bad UX, not even if the UI looks beautiful. If the experience is confusing, clunky, or forces me to think unnecessarily, I’m out. No excuses. For me, seamless, intuitive flow is crucial. UX is empathy turned into design. It’s what makes a product feel like it understands me, rather than wasting my time.

A well-designed UX guides users clearly through what they need to do, without friction or confusion, and without making them guess. It respects the user’s time, attention, and mental effort. Honestly, that’s the bare minimum any product should aim for.

So when founders build, they need to ask themselves: How much empathy are you really designing with? If your UX can’t confidently answer that, the product will struggle, no matter how attractive the user interface appears.

Thinking in mirrors here means accepting that the mirror never lies and that your product reflects exactly what you put into it. Every step shows your intentions. A bad UX is a mirror telling users, “We didn’t think about you.” Designing in mirrors forces you to build with clarity, simplicity, empathy, and respect because every decision will be exposed the moment a user interacts with your product.

Many people say the team is the secret sauce — and while that’s true, it shouldn’t even be a secret. Every strong company starts with a solid foundation. Be very intentional about who you choose to build with. When I say deliberate, I mean treat your co-founder and first hires as the most important decisions you will ever make. If you get this wrong, the business is already on the path to failure.

The first instinct when starting something exciting is to bring in a friend or family member. But the real questions are: are they truly suited for the journey? Do they have the right expertise? Someone once told me, “Don’t go into business with your friends.” What she meant wasn’t that they’re bad people — it’s that friendship doesn’t automatically mean they’re compatible for business.

In addition, hiring the wrong kind of engineers, especially those who are not product engineers at their core and cannot wear many hats or ask many questions, poses a real risk.

The absolute truth is, many early team members leave well before a startup gains real traction. Some lack the stamina, passion, resilience, or long-term commitment needed for the journey. That’s why I don’t blame founders who go solo temporarily until they find the right people who match their energy and vision. Building with the wrong team is much riskier than building alone for a season.

Thinking in Mirrors here means your product directly reflects the people behind it. You can’t hide what drives it — the effort, skill, and care your team invests will be visible to the world through the product. If their input is mediocre, the result will be mediocre too. If they bring passion, thoughtfulness, and excellence, the mirror reflects that as well.

You cannot do away with good business operations because they are the lifeblood of your product’s success. Operations enforce discipline, ensure expectations are met, and connect product development with organizational execution.

Ask yourself: Are you genuinely following your industry’s compliance standards? Do you possess the required licenses? Is your support process designed to assist users truly?

Operations are the lifeline because a business depends on stability, consistency, and reliability. How you manage operations from the very start, even as you refine your business model, sets the tone for the company’s culture and structure as it grows. In short, operations don’t just support the business; they shape it.

Thinking in Mirrors here means that your operations always reflect your team’s care and discipline. If operations are struggling, then the mirror reveals it; examples include frustrated users, missed support tickets, and broken processes. If operations are excellent, the mirror displays stability, reliability, professionalism, and thoughtfulness; even when users barely notice, they can feel it.

We’ve reached the end of this article, and although there are still over 100 reasons why products fail or succeed, I’m happy to have shared some of my insights, research, and thoughts on the most common ones to watch out for over time. I’m truly passionate about products, and I enjoy exploring why certain things happen, especially with those that are just hitting the market.

Thanks so much for reading!

and…

À très bientôt !