Product sense is real.
But many PMs who claim to have it are using it as an excuse to avoid actual customer research.
I think I know what's the real deal:
But many PMs who claim to have it are using it as an excuse to avoid actual customer research.
I think I know what's the real deal:
Real product sense comes from pattern recognition across thousands of user interactions, not from reading case studies or doing framework exercises.
The PM with 10 years of experience who says "I just know" actually means "I've seen this exact failure mode 47 times before."
The PM with 10 years of experience who says "I just know" actually means "I've seen this exact failure mode 47 times before."
The biggest lie in product management: trusting your gut without feeding it data first.
That senior PM who makes seemingly instant good calls has already internalized 500+ customer conversations, watched multiple product cycles play out, run dozens of failed experiments, and burned through every bad assumption at least twice.
That senior PM who makes seemingly instant good calls has already internalized 500+ customer conversations, watched multiple product cycles play out, run dozens of failed experiments, and burned through every bad assumption at least twice.
Most PMs confuse product sense with personal preference.
"I think users would love dark mode" = personal preference
"Users abandon at this step because cognitive load spikes when we ask for 7 inputs at once" = product sense
One is opinion. The other is pattern recognition.
"I think users would love dark mode" = personal preference
"Users abandon at this step because cognitive load spikes when we ask for 7 inputs at once" = product sense
One is opinion. The other is pattern recognition.
The interview industrial complex turned product sense into performance art.
Designing an alarm clock in 45 minutes tests your ability to bullshit coherently, not your ability to recognize real user problems.
Meanwhile, actual product sense looks boring: spreadsheets of user behavior, session recordings, support ticket patterns.
Designing an alarm clock in 45 minutes tests your ability to bullshit coherently, not your ability to recognize real user problems.
Meanwhile, actual product sense looks boring: spreadsheets of user behavior, session recordings, support ticket patterns.
Companies that actually care about product sense don't test it with hypotheticals.
They ask:
- Walk me through a product decision where you were wrong. What signals did you miss?
- Show me how you changed your mind based on user data
- Explain a complex tradeoff you made and why
- What assumption did you validate that surprised you?
- Describe a time you shipped something users hated. What did you learn?
They ask:
- Walk me through a product decision where you were wrong. What signals did you miss?
- Show me how you changed your mind based on user data
- Explain a complex tradeoff you made and why
- What assumption did you validate that surprised you?
- Describe a time you shipped something users hated. What did you learn?
Product sense without evidence is just expensive guessing.
The PMs who ship successful products combine systematic user observation (not just interviews), technical constraints awareness (what's actually possible), and business model understanding (what creates value).
Not vibes. Systems.
The PMs who ship successful products combine systematic user observation (not just interviews), technical constraints awareness (what's actually possible), and business model understanding (what creates value).
Not vibes. Systems.
Stop calling it product sense. Call it what it really is:
Accumulated evidence from direct user contact, interpreted through experience, applied with intellectual honesty about what you don't know.
Everything else is just confident ignorance dressed up as intuition.
Accumulated evidence from direct user contact, interpreted through experience, applied with intellectual honesty about what you don't know.
Everything else is just confident ignorance dressed up as intuition.
The PMs who actually have product sense never talk about having product sense.
They talk about specific user behaviors, conversion funnel bottlenecks, and technical tradeoffs.
Because they're too busy building products that work to philosophize about abstract concepts.
They talk about specific user behaviors, conversion funnel bottlenecks, and technical tradeoffs.
Because they're too busy building products that work to philosophize about abstract concepts.
Want to build product sense the right way? Stop guessing, start shipping.
I've packed 135+ AI prompts for customer research, data analysis, and decision-making into one system.
For the ones who actually do the work:
prodmgmt.world/products/ai-pr…
I've packed 135+ AI prompts for customer research, data analysis, and decision-making into one system.
For the ones who actually do the work:
prodmgmt.world/products/ai-pr…
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