Feature factories optimize for output while starving genuine outcomes

Cagan describes the default operating model of most technology organizations as a feature factory, where product and engineering teams function as implementers of a prioritized roadmap set by executives or stakeholders, measured primarily by how quickly and reliably they ship what's been requested. This model treats teams as cross-functional but fundamentally passive, executing predetermined specifications rather than being asked to solve underlying business or customer problems.

The consequence, in Cagan's account, is chronic low motivation among skilled people who never get to apply judgment to the actual problem, along with a steady stream of shipped features that frequently fail to move the metrics that matter, since no one closer to the problem was empowered to question or improve on the original request. Speed of output becomes the visible metric while genuine impact quietly stagnates.

Takeaway: shipping fast means nothing if no one was allowed to ask whether you're shipping the right thing.