You know that feeling when you just know something's right? In product, we build up these instincts over time. Little bits of knowledge stack up from every user conversation, every failed experiment, every successful launch. Before you know it, you've got this sixth sense about what users need and where the product should go.
It's useful stuff. These gut feelings help us navigate the fog of product development, especially when we need to move fast. But something hit me hard on Friday afternoon as I was wrapping up an insanely plate-spinning Q4 - I've been keeping too much of this in my head.
I caught myself doing it again recently. Making calls about users and product direction based on accumulated knowledge. And while these decisions felt right, I realised I wasn't always giving my team the full picture in the midst of the chaos. Especially the newer folks who haven't yet been in the trenches with our users.
"Good enough" decisions stop being good enough when the reasoning stays locked in your head.
So what am I doing about it?
- I'm getting better at showing my work. Not just what I think, but why I think it. Those new team members? They bring amazing fresh perspectives, but they need the context behind our historical decisions. The weird edge cases. The past experiments. The user feedback that shaped our thinking. This takes time to do and easily falls to the bottom of the priority list, but it's so important.
- I'm focusing on building shared understanding. This isn't about defending decisions - it's about creating space for everyone to contribute their unique angle. When we take the time to explain our thinking, we open the door for others to challenge our assumptions in constructive ways and drive towards the best solution.
- And then there's the validation piece. We all know we're not our users, no matter how much time we spend with them. We should always have a plan to validate our instinctive decisions and assumptions. To learn and improve for the future, but to also give the team comfort and confidence. Not everyone will agree with the approach, that's fine, but we often need to move forward quickly and make the bet - just make sure there is the time to evaluate the decision later and recalibrate our instincts.
This isn't about throwing out intuition - it's about making it useful for everyone. As our team grows, success depends less on individual calls and more on building shared understanding.
So next time you're about to make one of those intuitive leaps, pause and ask yourself: Have I made my thinking clear? Have I shown how we'll know if we're right? Am I giving my teammates what they need to succeed?
The real value isn't in having the right intuition - it's in building a team that can turn that intuition into impact.
