I did something embarrassing a few weeks ago.

Despite a solid driving record for 40 years (not a single multi-vehicle collision), I managed to rip my front bumper nearly clean off — backing past a fire hydrant at low speed.

My truck has cameras and sensors all around it, specifically designed to prevent exactly this kind of mishap.

So what happened?

I got comfortable. I thought I knew what was around me, and after waiting 30 minutes in a narrow driveway for my passenger to arrive, lost track of the ONE thing that somehow wasn’t where my cameras, sensors or mirrors could see it.

That bright yellow fire hydrant was perfectly positioned in my blind spot.

This humbling experience reminded me of a critical truth about product development: no matter how experienced you are or what your track record looks like, you DO have blind spots — and they can be catastrophic.

You might be a brilliant engineer.

A visionary designer.

Or a marketing savant with decades of success.

And yet, there are aspects of your product that remain totally INVISIBLE to you — until it’s too late.

In I Need That, I explain how product makers consistently underestimate buyer resistance by a factor of three. This happens not because we’re foolish, but because our experience and expertise create blind spots.

The closer you are to your creation, the harder it becomes to see it objectively. And having been involved in visioning and creating it, you could not possibly be closer.

You know the reasoning behind every feature, but not the logic gaps.

You understand the technical constraints, but not what customers will think of their consequences.

You’ve made peace with the compromises, and forgotten what alternatives existed.

Your customers see none of that context — they see a product that either solves their problem intuitively, or does not.

Careful not to go speeding ahead, believing you can navigate whatever pops up. It’s impossible to see what you don’t know, until someone with an unobstructed sightline helps you.

Product Payoff: Slack avoided potential disaster by establishing a “customer experience team” that spent hours watching people use early versions of their product. One key finding: users had no clue what the “/” command did, despite the development team considering it ridiculously obvious. This single blind spot could have derailed adoption entirely. By identifying and addressing it early, Slack enabled an onboarding flow that helped drive their meteoric rise to a $27 billion valuation.

Action for today: Schedule a “blind spot audit” with someone who has never seen your product before. Ask them to use it while narrating their thoughts — and resist the overwhelming urge to explain or defend when they get confused. Record it on video to study later. The moments that make you most uncomfortable are precisely where your product’s fire hydrants are hiding.

Want to discuss strategies for uncovering your product’s blind spots before they rip off your metaphorical bumper? Tap that reply arrow and let’s chat about creating fresh perspectives on your familiar creation. Or reach out to my team of go-to-market specialists at Graphos Product.