Product development that starts from what users actually need and can operate, rather than from a technology the company has already committed to shipping.

Printed on About pages and keynote slides by companies shipping the exact product they were going to ship anyway, to signal that the automation arriving next quarter will be gentle.

• Reassurance Layer: The phrase appears most reliably in announcements about replacing people.
• Unfalsifiable Claim: No company has ever described its own innovation as machine-centric, so the term excludes nothing and commits to nothing.
• House-Cleaning Reality Check: Like buying a dishwasher, telling the family it was chosen with their feelings in mind, and calling the purchase "human-centric kitchen innovation."

Severance (Season 1): Lumon frames total control over its employees' inner lives as care, running wellness sessions and handing out waffle parties while the arrangement serves only the company.

Deciding what to build by starting from what users actually need.

“Our roadmap is grounded in human-centric innovation at every stage of the product lifecycle.”

“We watched twelve support staff use the tool and removed the three steps that confused all of them.”