The Dishwasher Problem in Product Design
Key Points
- The “dishwasher problem” describes solutions that deliver invisible value—customers benefit but don’t credit the product because the core need (e.g., clean dishes) is taken for granted.
- Unlike many product challenges, this pain point enjoys near‑universal agreement on what the core outcome should be, making customer feedback consistently aligned.
- Product managers often mistake this consensus for an opportunity to add bells‑and‑whistles, creating overly complex “Goldberg‑machine” solutions that miss the actual value customers purchased.
- When a product over‑engineers the solution, the result is usually a modest reprimand rather than praise, since the core task is either unchanged or made harder to use.
- A better strategy is to focus on the shared, simple requirement and choose a clear market position—restoring previous functionality, matching competitors, or differentiating—without unnecessary frills.
Full Transcript
# The Dishwasher Problem in Product Design **Source:** [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAFL16E0dEg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAFL16E0dEg) **Duration:** 00:09:28 ## Summary - The “dishwasher problem” describes solutions that deliver invisible value—customers benefit but don’t credit the product because the core need (e.g., clean dishes) is taken for granted. - Unlike many product challenges, this pain point enjoys near‑universal agreement on what the core outcome should be, making customer feedback consistently aligned. - Product managers often mistake this consensus for an opportunity to add bells‑and‑whistles, creating overly complex “Goldberg‑machine” solutions that miss the actual value customers purchased. - When a product over‑engineers the solution, the result is usually a modest reprimand rather than praise, since the core task is either unchanged or made harder to use. - A better strategy is to focus on the shared, simple requirement and choose a clear market position—restoring previous functionality, matching competitors, or differentiating—without unnecessary frills. ## Sections - [00:00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAFL16E0dEg&t=0s) **The Invisible Value Dilemma** - The speaker outlines the “dishwasher problem,” where solving a clearly agreed‑upon need delivers hidden value that goes unrecognized, causing product managers to over‑engineer with bells‑and‑whistles instead of simply delivering the core solution everyone wants. ## Full Transcript
so your strategy for Building Products
differs by the kind of paino you're
solving I talked about this in a
previous video but I want to talk about
this just for one of the pain points I
identified and do a real deep dive on it
today that's the dishwasher problem the
dishwasher problem is what happens when
you solve a problem for someone and the
result is invisible value you generally
don't get credit for I don't give my
dishwasher a lot of credit for solving
the problem of washing dishes I probably
should give it more value but I don't
I'm a consumer and there's a lot of
other products in our lives that are
like that and that includes software
products so if you think about that kind
of pain point a few things emerge that
describe that paino and help you to pin
it down one of them is that almost
everyone agrees on the parameters of the
paino and that is not always true when
you're describing product problems
oftentimes customers will disagree with
each other and give you conflicting
feedback but with this kind of paino
almost always people agree on the core
issues they want solved please wash my
dishes great right like that's the part
that they want done and the Temptation
and the and the defect I see there is
that oftentimes product managers will
hear that and then won't listen to it
because they want to differentiate they
want to differentiate by adding bells
and whistles and Frills and we've all
seen and in fact I think movies and
media have Illustrated the problems that
come with a bells and whistles solution
to a dishwasher problem if you get an
oven that has lots of fancy buttons and
you don't know how to use it it's not
much value is it but some product
manager thought that it was value
because it had a special kind of timer
on it I guarantee you or maybe the timer
talked to your iPhone but that's not why
you bought the oven you bought the oven
to cook chicken that's not why you
bought the dishwasher your dishwasher
didn't need to have a degree reading on
your iPhone it just needed to wash the
dishes and so many times I see companies
I see product managers who misunderstand
that kind of problem you are not going
to get credit for solving this
problem you're only going to get a slap
on the wrist if you solve it badly and
that is why we joke about those sort of
overly complicated machines rub Goldberg
machines is another
word so what's a Better Way Forward A
Better Way Forward is to look at the
commonality which will be really high
across the problem
paino and to look at one of your three
options in terms of your positioning in
the market and what you have to do in
the space you either are repairing to
reach a previous state so maybe the
software used to work before and now it
has to work as well as it used to
because it was a bad release you're not
going to get credit for that that's a
dishwasher problem maybe you're trying
to reach parody with competitors you're
not going to get credit for that that's
a dishwasher problem maybe you are
trying trying to build in a non-
remarkable solution space people just
don't care a lot about it they want it
solved great but you're not going to get
credit for
it so let's let's talk about how you
build in that space we've talked about
the paino a little bit let's talk about
what it looks like to
actually build something whether or not
you're building to repair to reach a
previous state you're building for
parody with competitors maybe you're
just building in a non- remarkable Sol
solution space and it's a new
[Music]
product at the end of the day there are
a few things I want to call out here
number one you need to make sure that
you are focusing on the core
functionality think of it as a just
works test is it reliable is it low
friction is it no drama is it super easy
to onboard and use that is what people
will actually judge your product on it's
not going to be on the bells and
whistles it's on whether it's there all
the time and easy to
use number
two are you building for the full
product Gap this is one of those cases
where an MVP will not work a minimum
viable product is not going to solve
this you have to build for the entire
product Gap if I had a dishwasher it
would only wash my plates and only wash
cups I would not buy it even if it did a
great job at that because I need the
full problem solved and I expect the
full problem to be solved now this is
actually an interesting
sidebar at the end of the day part of
the reason these kinds of products exist
and these product opportunities exist is
because they are in mature markets and
so I'm I'm very aware that when the
dishwasher was first released people
made a much bigger deal out of it it was
a big deal to get a dishwasher in a home
it was not at all invisible value
but now it's a mature market and now it
is invisible value and you don't get
credit for solving it in the same way
customer expectations have changed in
certain you know digital spaces we used
to be over the moon as consumers when
two-day shipping was true and it was a
brand new thing I remember like a decade
plus ago it was like oh my gosh it
arrives in two days that's incredible
not anymore I just look at it I'm like
oh yeah it's going to arrive tomorrow at
10:00 a.m. fine bye I have no excitement
it is it has been washed out of
me and I think one of the things that
you need to be honest about is if
there's if there's not a ton of
excitement in the space and you are
building to solve a functional problem
that consumers need solved you're not
going to generate excitement from it
don't try it's just not going to
happen Okay so you have to build for the
full product Gap you have to make sure
you have a reliable low friction
solution and you have to make sure that
you are providing
expected value this is actually not much
of a space for surprising and delighting
customers you need to just provide what
they absolutely expect really really
well there's almost no room for credit
on the upside if you surprise and
Delight them because the product
category is so clearly described and the
gaps are so clearly described that
they've all been filled the surprise and
Delight that would actually add
functional value is almost certainly
already in the market today and that's
just one of the characteristics of this
value set another example I was at Prime
video my job was to start to build and
close uh artwork artwork gaps so like if
if a movie didn't have an image I needed
to make sure it had one I got almost no
credit for that because other companies
like Netflix had this figured out and I
needed to just make sure that the
artwork was there so people could have a
good browsing experience and pick a
title to
watch it didn't matter whether it was
going to be an incredibly detailed
handdrawn piece of artwork or not it
just needed to be there clear associated
with that particular title clearly
descriptive and we move on people were
not going to spend a lot of time on it
they just wanted to know and recognize
that Kung Fu Panda is Kung Fu Panda and
keep going with their
day so my job was to make things
reliable and that's characteristic of a
dishwasher problem and so my question to
you if you are building in the
dishwasher
space Have you admitted to to yourself
that this is not a glamorous thing to
build have you admitted that the product
Gap is probably fully described and all
you have to do is build to close it have
you admitted that rolling out is not
going to get anybody a lot of credit but
if you don't you'll get in trouble as a
company those are the kinds of questions
you should be asking yourself you should
be asking yourself if you have the
appetite to build in a space where you
will be creating value that is really
meaningful I appreciate that my
dishwasher washes the
dishes but not something I think about
much right it's invisible value and that
kind of circles back to the top and what
I hinted at when I talked about the
dishwasher problem and and invisible
value at the end of the day this kind of
problem is only solved when you are
willing to make the value invisible and
so my challenge to you if you're in this
space is one recognize it and then two
be willing to be the kind of PM that
builds or the kind of engineer or the
kind of entrepreneur that builds with
invisible value if you do it well people
appreciate it it's worth it right now
the some some Toyota trucks are having I
think the hux truck is having a real uh
Renaissance of appreciation and it's not
because it's a fancy truck it's not
because of a Toyota ad campaign it's
because they're built really
well and every now and then customers
will turn around and say oh wow this is
built really well I really appreciate
it but it's not a new new car it's not a
new Mercedes it's not fancy it's being
appreciated for the functional value it
delivers it's being appreciated for its
invisible value and that was a hard
example to find because there almost no
no examples out there of invisible value
that's actually genuinely being
appreciated uh so if that's you and you
built it Toyota congratulations if it's
the rest of us we have to assume that we
probably won't get notice for the work
even if it's really important and that
is a breakdown of the dishwasher problem