> Simple example: feature X is rarely used (thus we should get rid of it)

Oh man, I remember a very specific example of this: many years ago now, Google Chrome pushed an update that got rid of the option on the menu bar for "Close Tabs to the Right". I remember looking into the Google issue tracker where people were complaining, and some PM provided a "data-driven" justification: when people opened the context menu, they only clicked on the "Close Tabs to the Right" option 1-2% of the time.

It's a great example of why data without context can give you the wrong answer. Of course the option is used relatively very rarely; you only need to clear out your tabs every once in a while, compared to creating new ones or managing tab groups! But it's still an essential task. It's like saying filing your taxes isn't important because you only need to do it 0.2% days of the year.

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ronjakoi 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I don't like that they have that data in the first place. But then again I don't use Chrome.

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zahlman 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

For what it's worth, I definitely don't organize my tabs in a way where "close to the right" would be helpful in cleaning them up.

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bluefirebrand 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I do all the time because the feature exists. I would treat it like a sliding line in my tabs bar. When I'm done with a tab for now it goes to the right, and eventually everything to the right gets closed once I haven't used it in a while

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fragmede 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I do. I open a search page, middle click a bunch of links, then want to close all of the ones to the right because I found one that told me what I needed and don't need the rest of them.

	▲	anonymars 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Probably a perfect example of why it's so useful for developers to talk to users Not only to understand the usage of features, but also use cases perhaps to design even better features

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skydhash 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It's useful when starting a thread of research of research as new tabs will be opened to the right (Ctrl+Clicking a link). So after it's done, close to the right can be quite useful.