
Show HN: Why I share my failure at the risk of losing customers - harianus
https://blog.simpleanalytics.io/why-i-share-my-failure-at-the-risk-of-losing-customers
======
harianus
One of the things I don't like about Google is their decision to not be
transparent to their users about their mistakes. For example with Google Plus
[1]:

> Google did not tell its users about the security issue when it was found in
> March because it didn't appear that anyone had gained access to user
> information, and the company’s “Privacy & Data Protection Office” decided it
> was not legally required to report it, the search giant said in a blog post
> [2].

As the owner of Simple Analytics I think it's super important to build user
trust. It's impossible to not make any mistakes so if a company never shared
any mistakes, it's probably not telling you any.

Let's change this fellow hackers and share our mistakes. That's why I wrote a
blog post on a mistake I made last week where I lost some user data. Some
people would argue if it's smart, but I see this as a moment to show
transparency.

[1] [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/08/technology/google-plus-
se...](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/08/technology/google-plus-security-
disclosure.html)

[2] [https://www.blog.google/technology/safety-
security/project-s...](https://www.blog.google/technology/safety-
security/project-strobe/)

------
davismwfl
This should be the default method in which companies work, and honestly there
are a lot that do and it seems to have gotten better in my career. But there
will always be bad actors or those who wish to cover things up instead of
being direct about mistakes.

Good on you for being up front and honest with the customers who were affected
and for going the extra step and being willing to return funds. The offer is
all that is needed for most businesses to see that you care about the product
and their continued support.

In the U.S. years and years ago I read this same lesson from a small hospital
surprisingly. They had a surgery go wrong, like amputated off the wrong limb
IIRC, and admitted they screwed up directly and immediately to the family.
They quickly paid compensation and didn't try to sneak in legal terms to
prevent the family from suing. The family when interviewed said the main
reason they didn't sue was that the hospital was up front, immediately tried
to do what they could and didn't try to hide or sneak in terms preventing the
family from suing etc. IIRC, the hospital also invited the family to sit in on
meetings about steps they were taking to prevent similar mistakes from
happening again.

~~~
harianus
Thank you for relating this to caring about the product and it's continued
support.

The hospital you're describing sounds like a great example for others. It's
great if you make it public, you also need to show you're taking actions on
how to prevent it from happening (like they invite the family to their
meetings). I do think the suing nature in the U.S. plays a part in people
hiding their mistakes in for example healthcare.

Your hospital story makes me think of the book Black Box Thinking by Matthew
Syed which I red a few years ago. It's about how different the approach is in
the airplane sector versus the healthcare sector.

