“For years this is what people asked they asked us to build like we're like please build me a system where I can talk to a human tutor we built it no one used it.”

Users Begged for Human Tutors — Duolingo Built It and Nobody Used It

Duolingo built on-demand human Spanish tutoring after years of user requests. When the button appeared, users would connect, see a real human face on screen, and immediately try to leave — too intimidating to speak a foreign language with a stranger watching. Jim's lesson: never take feature requests at face value; test the emotional reality, not just the stated preference.