Friction as a Feature: How Smart Tech Leaders Use it to Build Better Products, Teams, and Companies
- Priyanka Shinde
- 13 minutes ago
- 8 min read
Friction. The very word might make you wince, especially if you're a tech leader or a product manager. We’re trained to see friction as the enemy of progress, the obstacle to innovation, the thing that slows us down. We're obsessed with removing it, chasing after seamlessness in our products, teams, and workflows.
But what if we’ve been looking at it all wrong?
What if friction isn’t always a bug—but a feature?
A strategic advantage that can lead to stronger products, more resilient organizations, and more creative teams?
I was recently speaking with Bernie Yee, a veteran game developer and now CEO of a VR startup. He mentioned something that struck me: in building emotionally resonant digital experiences, friction was not the enemy. In fact, it was what made those experiences feel real.
That made me think — what if we applied that principle not just to digital design, but to how we lead teams, run companies, and build cultures?
The best tech leaders know this secret: the right kind of friction doesn’t hold you back; it pushes you forward. Curious how? Buckle up. We’re about to reframe friction from a problem to a powerful tool.
What Is Friction, Really?
Before we dig into how friction can benefit your company or product, let's get clear on what it actually is.
Friction, in tech, often refers to resistance—a slow response time, too many clicks in a user experience, or a lag in processes. For teams, it can look like disagreements, challenging feedback, or uncomfortable conversations. At a higher level, it might surface as delays or resistance to organizational change.
We’re conditioned to think all friction is bad.
But not all friction is created equal.
There’s good friction and bad friction. The key is knowing the difference.
Bad friction creates unnecessary barriers. Think red tape that delays decisions or a poor UX that frustrates users. This kind of inefficiency disrupts progress.
Good friction, by contrast, serves a purpose. It’s deliberate. It challenges assumptions, drives reflection, and pushes teams to improve. Good friction slows you down just enough to make smarter decisions, uncover risk, and build resilience.
The key isn’t to eliminate friction altogether but to identify and harness the right kind of friction.
The Difference Between Bad and Good Friction
Bad Friction | Good Friction |
Red tape slowing down decisions | Tough questions that challenge assumptions |
Poor UX creating confusion | Pause points to encourage reflection |
Silos blocking progress | Boundaries clarifying accountability |
With this distinction in mind, you’re ready to explore how good friction can drive meaningful improvements across your organization.
1. Friction Builds Better Products
Frictionless UX might sound like the ultimate goal. But there’s a danger in making things too seamless.
Some of the most trusted and beloved products use friction intentionally to improve user experience. For example, a confirmation screen before finalizing a purchase or deleting a file isn’t an error in the design. It’s an intentional pause that builds user trust and prevents mistakes.
AI-driven products can especially benefit from thoughtful friction. When a system feels too fast or too compliant, it can seem uncanny. Adding a slight pause, a clarification, or an extra step makes the experience feel more human and reliable.
How Friction Enhances Products
Prevents mistakes and improves user confidence.
Encourages thoughtful actions, creating moments of user reflection.
Builds trust by reducing perceived risks and uncertainty.
💡Takeaway for Product Leaders: Use friction as a trust signal. Add thoughtful pause points, especially when actions are irreversible, sensitive, or require user consent. Let your UX reflect empathy, not just efficiency. For example, if a user is submitting sensitive information or making irreversible decisions, add a layer of friction to ensure clarity and control.
2. Friction Builds Stronger Organizations
Let’s talk about companies. Specifically, the ones that grow fast — maybe too fast.
In high-growth environments, the pressure to “move fast and break things” often leads to the removal of checks and balances. Fast-moving organizations often pride themselves on efficiency, but speed can come at a cost. When everyone is rushing in the same direction without pushback, dangerous blind spots can emerge. You lose perspective. You lose challenge. You lose resilience.
For example, the role of a Technical Program Manager (TPM) at companies like Meta is to act as the connective tissue between product, engineering, and execution. When this role becomes diluted, as in some cases, teams lose the healthy tension that ensures alignment and accountability.
Strategic friction within organizations creates space for testing ideas, questioning assumptions, and surfacing weaknesses before they lead to failure. This kind of tension isn’t destructive; it’s constructive.
Why Strategic Friction Matters in Organizations
Encourages better decision-making by surfacing flaws in plans.
Reduces groupthink, fostering diverse perspectives.
Builds resilience, enabling teams to adapt under pressure.
When organizations suppress dissent or discourage debate, they get groupthink. And groupthink builds brittle systems that crumble under pressure.
💡 Takeaway for Org Leaders: Create structures where disagreement is safe and even encouraged. Build teams with complementary strengths. Pair product with program. Pair visionaries with pragmatists. Don’t optimize for harmony — optimize for productive tension.
3. Friction Creates Trust in Teams
Contrary to popular belief, trust is not about avoiding conflict. It’s about how teams handle conflict when it arises.
One of the biggest misconceptions I see in executive teams is the idea that alignment means agreement. It doesn’t. Real alignment comes after real conversation — including the tough ones.
When people feel safe to challenge ideas, offer dissenting opinions, or admit mistakes without fear of backlash, it strengthens the team’s foundation. Teams that welcome friction are teams that trust each other.
Friction, handled well, is a signal that people care.
Friction Signals Investment
Pushback means people care enough to raise concerns.
Conflict builds bonds, when resolved respectfully.
Open dialogue leads to shared ownership, fostering real alignment.
💡 Takeaway for Tech Leaders: Build psychological safety by rewarding candor, not compliance. Model vulnerability as a leader by showing your team that it’s okay to change your mind after listening to feedback.
4. Friction Drives Creativity and Innovation
Innovation doesn’t come from echo chambers. It comes from constraint, contradiction, and surprise.
Friction sparks creativity in ways that comfort zones never can. When things are too easy, teams get lazy. When things are too hard, teams get stuck. But just the right amount of friction? That’s where the magic happens.
Take VR experiences, for example. Bernie Yee, a VR innovator, shared how friction-based ambiguity made users feel emotionally invested in virtual pets. The slight unpredictability produced an experience that felt deeply real.
Friction forces people to think differently, break out of patterns, and come up with novel solutions.
Creativity Thrives on Tension
Constraints push teams to innovate with limited resources.
Conflicting ideas often converge into groundbreaking solutions.
Ambiguity nudges people toward deeper, more empathetic thinking.
💡 Takeaway for Founders & Innovators: Instead of removing all friction from your process, design with constraints in mind. Embrace edge cases. Push conflicting ideas together. Let creativity come from tension — not perfection.
How to Use Friction as a Feature Without Causing Chaos
Using friction strategically requires balance. Add too much, and you’ll create bottlenecks. Add too little, and you risk missing valuable insights or opportunities for growth.
The F.R.I.C.T Principle for Balancing Friction
Principle | What It Means |
Frame the Purpose | Clearly explain why a pause or pushback exists. |
Reinforce Meaning | Add friction where it matters most, at critical decisions or risk points–not everywhere. |
Invite Challenge | Create space for dissent and give people permission to speak hard truths. |
Connect Incentives | Align rewards with honesty, thoughtful risk, and strategic thinking. |
Tune the Flow | Calibrate friction so it supports momentum, don’t let it become a bottleneck. |
Realign Your Leadership Lens
Too often, leaders treat friction as a problem to solve — instead of a signal to explore.
Ask yourself:
What friction are we trying to eliminate — and should we?
Where are we missing valuable resistance?
Are we prioritizing speed over sustainability?
What would it look like to embrace a little healthy tension?
Many successful leaders at big companies go to smaller companies or start their own. At a startup, friction is unavoidable — and that’s part of the point. It forces clarity. It tests vision. It makes the work real.
Friction as Your Strategic Advantage
Friction isn’t the enemy of progress. It’s the guidepost that sharpens your systems, solutions, and strategies.
The bumps in the road aren’t slowing you down; they’re testing your strength, creativity, and decision-making.
Smart tech leaders and product managers don’t shy away from friction. They use it to build trust, foster creativity, and ensure resilience.
It’s time to stop fearing the struggle. Lean into it. Use it. And watch your products, teams, and companies become stronger than you imagined possible.
Looking to train your team on how to turn friction into fuel?
I offer custom workshops and offsites that help teams challenge better, execute smarter, and trust deeper.
Inquire about team coaching and training
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What does “friction as a feature” mean in product development?
“Friction is a feature” means intentionally incorporating resistance, pauses, or complexity into a user experience to enhance trust, reduce errors, or create meaningful engagement. It's the idea that not all friction is bad — when used wisely, it can make products feel more trustworthy, secure, or human.
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