Ever notice how some movies get panned by critics yet adored by audiences?

This gap compelled Seth Godin to write a recent post about Rotten Tomatoes scores.

Movies like The Boondock Saints and Greatest Showman landed embarrassing 26% and 56% critics’ scores respectively — while somehow earning 91% and 86% audience ratings.

How could the critics be so vastly wrong?

They weren’t.

They were simply judging as a different audience.

The critics were evaluating these films against universal standards of filmmaking and their own personal tastes, while obviously not being the kind of people these movies were made to delight.

The audience ratings were based on how well they delivered exactly what actual fans wanted.

This distinction holds a huge lesson for any product maker.

Are you creating for critics or fans?

Critics evaluate based on objective standards, technical excellence, and comparison against the entire field. Fans care about one thing: “Did this give me what I personally wanted?”

Both perspectives matter, but they serve different purposes. Critical acclaim might win industry awards, but fan loyalty pays the bills.

For your product, the “critics” might be industry analysts, professional reviewers, procurement committees, award judges, industry publications, or even competitors.

A restaurant faces food critics from local newspapers, Michelin inspectors, and professional bloggers (as well as the inevitable guests who don’t really belong in their kind of establishment).

Consumer products endure scrutiny from tech publication reviewers, shopping sites, and unboxing channels that evaluate against objective industry standards.

B2B solutions confront analyst firms like Gartner and Forrester who methodically compare features against established rubrics, often prioritizing comprehensiveness over specialized excellence.

Software products face rating sites that dock points for unconventional UI choices that new users might actually LOVE.

These professional evaluators serve a purpose, but they can miss the emotional connection and specific value that makes certain products inspire genuine devotion from their true, best audience.

In I Need That, I discuss how products succeed when they stop trying to please everyone and instead focus on delighting their specific audience. The products that create the strongest loyalty don’t try to minimize weaknesses—they maximize strengths that matter deeply to their core users, even if those same elements turn others away.

This is the opposite of how most product teams operate. We obsess over fixing every criticism instead of doubling down on what makes our superfans rave.

Product Payoff: Discord first launched to mixed critical reception, with tech reviewers criticizing its interface complexity and limited appeal beyond gaming communities. But the platform focused exclusively on delighting its core gamer audience, embracing design choices that bewildered outsiders while thrilling fans.

THEN, when mainstream users eventually discovered Discord, they adapted to its quirks rather than Discord compromising its distinct character to appeal to critics.

Action for today: Identify your product’s “Rotten Tomato gap.” What elements might professional reviewers or wrong-fit buyers criticize but your core users love?

Rather than fixing these “flaws,” consider amplifying them in your marketing. The strongest market positions often come from doubling down on polarizing features that create intense loyalty from your specific audience, even at the cost of broader appeal.

Does your product have features that divide opinion? Tap the reply arrow and tell me about your proudest “critically panned but fan-favorite” element.

Or reach out to my team of product marketing specialists at Graphos Product.