years ago, a big boss of an evil hotel company I worked was doing a AMA and got asked “where do we draw the line on ethics?”. His answer was “at the end of the day, if you don’t feel comfortable telling your mother what you did today, then don’t do it”
I loved this answer and used this very often.
Then a few months later, he directly made us work on the dirtiest geopricing / yelding features I ever saw.
I guess the real question to ask during that day was “where do your mother draw the line on ethics?”
Thanks for asking.
I found the idea to be an unethical dark pattern, so I made my point, but in companies like these, it’s not enough. So I implemented a light experiment of what was asked, and it validated my hypothesis: it was not solving a real need and was actually not even improving revenue, and that it was indeed leading to a poorer user experience. Since the request was really pushed top down, I still had to move on with so I limited it to the specific population where it would make more money. Who has the most money to spend in cheaper countries? US tourists going to Latin America. Let’s make it more expensive for Americans to stay in a Colombian hotel than for a local. It pleased the small hotel owners, had a positive impact on local tourism… good enough.
Then I moved to a different team and they threw away my work went full on and delivered the whole shit.
tino@lemmy.world 3 months ago
years ago, a big boss of an evil hotel company I worked was doing a AMA and got asked “where do we draw the line on ethics?”. His answer was “at the end of the day, if you don’t feel comfortable telling your mother what you did today, then don’t do it” I loved this answer and used this very often.
Then a few months later, he directly made us work on the dirtiest geopricing / yelding features I ever saw. I guess the real question to ask during that day was “where do your mother draw the line on ethics?”
baggachipz@sh.itjust.works 3 months ago
That’s where he draws the line on ethics… for everyone else.
ThePantser@sh.itjust.works 3 months ago
You should have called his mother and explained it to her and asked if she agreed?
pulsey@feddit.org 3 months ago
maybe his mother died?
snooggums@piefed.world 3 months ago
Easy to tell her anything when she can’t disapprove!
merc@sh.itjust.works 3 months ago
So, you didn’t draw the line there either?
tino@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Thanks for asking. I found the idea to be an unethical dark pattern, so I made my point, but in companies like these, it’s not enough. So I implemented a light experiment of what was asked, and it validated my hypothesis: it was not solving a real need and was actually not even improving revenue, and that it was indeed leading to a poorer user experience. Since the request was really pushed top down, I still had to move on with so I limited it to the specific population where it would make more money. Who has the most money to spend in cheaper countries? US tourists going to Latin America. Let’s make it more expensive for Americans to stay in a Colombian hotel than for a local. It pleased the small hotel owners, had a positive impact on local tourism… good enough.
Then I moved to a different team and they threw away my work went full on and delivered the whole shit.
merc@sh.itjust.works 3 months ago
I’m glad you at least tried.