When You're In The Shit, All You See is Shit

My first Oculus Connect was in 2018. It was a big year for the VR team. We were launching the first-generation Quest headset — the first untethered VR headset on the market.

The decision to ship Quest had been contentious internally. There were people who didn't want us to ship it (for a variety of reasons).

Unlike others, I thought we should ship it but I wanted more time. I thought the OS could be better. We were racing to get as many features and fixes into the master build and then even more for the zero-day update (it would do a software update after unboxing).

It was tough. Every time I used the Quest, all I could see were the things we hadn't done. The details we hadn't perfected. The features that didn't make the release build. The compromises we had made to get the product out.

Sitting in the audience I watched as screens on stage lit up. Mark walked the audience through the features. More videos highlighted the content we would have available over the next year. I remember thinking "wow, this product is amazing."

It would be easy to dismiss this reaction as our comms and marketing team doing their job — their ability to make our products look good. But I had a different reaction.

I was too close to the product. I could only see what wasn't done vs. all the things we had done. When you're in the shit, all you see is shit.

All the people who said we shouldn't ship Quest were also too close to it. They believed they knew what the market did and didn't want. They were wrong. Quest was a hit and has defined the VR market to this day.

Perspective is essential when building products. This doesn't mean being dishonest with yourself. It does mean accepting that you may not be seeing things as clearly as you think. Ultimately, the market will decide if you made a good product.