So Tesla's sitting on $800 million worth of unsold Cybertrucks.
Ouch.
That's what happens when you design something because the boss thinks it looks cool instead of asking if anyone actually wants to buy it. The Cybertruck saga isn't just about those weird angles or the fact it looks like something a 10-year-old would draw if you asked them to design a "future truck."
It's not even about the recalls or the questionable handling. The real facepalm moment is that Tesla skipped the most basic step in product design: figuring out what people want before building it. Instead of researching what truck buyers need, Tesla gave us something that seems designed primarily to look impressive in Elon's Twitter feed.
It's like they forgot that design should solve problems, not create new ones like "How do I explain this purchase to my spouse?" or "Where am I supposed to park this monstrosity?" Tesla's not alone in this kind of expensive misstep.
Remember Google Glass? That $1,500 face computer launched in 2013 was supposed to revolutionize how we interact with technology.
Instead, it quickly earned wearers the nickname "Glassholes" and raised major privacy concerns. Google missed that people weren't ready to talk to their eyewear in public or be recorded without consent.
The product was shelved just two years later.
Or take the spectacular flame-out of Juicero, the $400 wifi-connected juice machine that squeezed pre-packaged juice bags. Investors poured $120 million into this startup before someone realized you could squeeze the juice packets with your hands just as effectively. Even giant Coca-Cola isn't immune. Remember New Coke?
In 1985, they changed their century-old formula based on blind taste tests but failed to understand the emotional connection people had with the original product.
The backlash was so severe they reversed course just 79 days later.
The question on everyone's lips now is, when do they announce an end of production? When does the Cybertruck officially join the great list of failed products?
Don't Fall in Love with your Own Idea
The pattern is always the same: companies fall in love with their own ideas and forget to check if customers share their enthusiasm.
They build products for idealized users who don't actually exist or solve problems nobody was complaining about. What makes Tesla's Cybertruck situation especially frustrating is that they used to be good at this. Early Tesla models addressed real problems with electric vehicles – they were too slow, too ugly, couldn't go far enough.
Tesla fixed those issues and people responded enthusiastically. But somewhere along the way, they started believing their own hype. The Cybertruck feels like it was designed to impress Twitter followers rather than actual truck buyers who need to, you know, use it for truck things. Smart companies test their assumptions early and often.
They talk to potential customers before investing millions in production. They're not afraid to kill bad ideas before they become $800 million inventory problems. The lesson here isn't complicated: design for real people with real needs, not to stroke executive egos.
Listen more than you talk. Test more than you assume. And maybe don't let one person's sci-fi fantasies dictate your entire product roadmap. Because at the end of the day, it doesn't matter how revolutionary you think your product is if nobody wants to buy it.
Just ask the warehouse manager staring at all those unsold Cybertrucks.
