# Working on products people hate

# Working on products people hate

**By:** Sean Goedecke
**Date:** March 27, 2026
**URL:** https://www.seangoedecke.com/working-on-products-people-hate/
**Tags:** good engineers

## Summary

Sean Goedecke reflects on his career building unpopular software at companies like Zendesk and GitHub. He argues that individual engineers have limited control over whether products become beloved or despised, despite their technical quality.

## Key Points

**The Reality of Team-Based Software Development**

Goedecke explains that "a very strong engineer can slightly improve the quality of software in their local area" but ultimately operates within larger company systems shaped by organizational incentives. Individual heroics get absorbed into the broader codebase.

**Value of Working on Disliked Products**

Rather than viewing unpopular work as failure, Goedecke sees it as valuable perspective-building. "Working on products people hate forces you to accept how little control individual engineers have" over user perception. This humility matters more than assuming talent alone determines outcomes.

**Professional Responsibility**

Engineers should prioritize balance between company sustainability and user needs. Reading criticism requires emotional resilience without resorting to dismissing users or abandoning responsibility through quitting.

**The Silver Lining**

Widely-used but unpopular products often deliver significant value. Making incremental improvements to "a widely-used but annoying product" represents meaningful impact, even without fixing structural problems.

**Inevitable Career Experience**

Goedecke concludes that "almost every engineer will work on a product people hate," making it sensible to avoid blame and recognize such work as normal career progression.