From Metrics to Culture: 5 Ways to Sharpen Your Product Sense

Learn how product managers can refine their decision-making skills when facing conflicting data vs intuition, unsupportive leadership, and self-doubt.

In today's fast-paced product world, having a sharp product sense isn't just an advantage—it's a necessity. But how do you hone this crucial skill when faced with conflicting data, unsupportive leadership, or an over-reliance on gut feelings?

Drawing from the Reforge session on Product Sense that I did recently, today we explore the final five themes from attendee questions. If you caught the prior newsletter, you'll remember the first five themes. Today's build directly on those practices as we tackle:

6. Best metrics for measuring product success

7. Maintaining product sense without leadership support

8. Balancing intuition with data

9. Pitfalls of over-relying on product sense

10. Fostering a culture of strong product sense

Whether you're a seasoned product manager or just starting out, the actionable strategies from the last newsletter and today’s will sharpen your product sense and drive your career forward.

Please comment and let me know if there are questions you hoped I would cover that were left out.

Now, let’s dive in and level up your product management skills!

6. Best metrics for measuring product success

Are you measuring what truly matters?

Product sense is a blend of art and science covering internal and external factors. When choosing the right metrics, consider similar ingredients. It’s great if customers are signing up for your free trial at rates exceeding expectations. Yet, the happy face could turn into a frown if the same individuals aren’t converting to paid accounts during your desired timeframe.

Here's the secret: The 'best metrics' depend on your business's growth approach. Is the company thinking in hours, days, weeks, months, or years?

For example, in a recent Lenny’s Podcast, Archie Adams shared that Shopify runs experiments with cohort analysis after 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 years as the CEO’s vision is to build “the right things for commerce 100 years from now”.

Looking for specifics? Try these metrics we used at SimplePractice, a product-led growth organizations.

• Existing users: Retention, New account growth (free to paid), Increased adoption + engagement of revenue-generating features, Improved customer satisfaction via net promoter score, Activation of newly launched “a-ha” capabilities.
• Adjacent audiences: Rise in users (licenses) per account, Migration to higher paying tiers
• Market expansion: Pilot and experimentation of potential new offerings and challenging competitive ones.

For organizations focused on immediate targets, factor in specific business goals to achieve, aligned with the organizational and product strategy. I’ve written about these considerations previously.

Is longer term your company’s thing? The metrics are similar yet the analysis is over an extended period.

7. Maintaining product sense without leadership support

If you're not subscribed to Marketcartonist, add it to your list. You can sense my view towards organizations that don't prioritize learning and development during times of ups and downs.

Snarkiness aside, in today’s fast-paced environment, success comes from empowering teams to enhance and maintain their product sense. If leadership doesn’t recognize the value, focus on self-directed continuous learning - including cross-functional collaboration - while driving value for customers and the organization.

Here are my recommended steps:

1. Develop Your Intuition - Regularly using the company's product is crucial for understanding customer needs and pain points. This firsthand experience allows product managers to make informed decisions and take calculated risks, even without explicit leadership support.
2. Focus on Outcomes - When framing your product strategy, pose questions or problem statements that directly address key customer issues. Hearing quotes from customers makes the issues memorable for stakeholders and improves alignment towards meaningful solutions.
3. Continuous Learning - Listen to podcasts, read newsletters, and collaborate across functions. Technology and customer needs are never static. I described the importance of creating an hour of learning previously to help teams navigate changing market dynamics.
4. Demonstrate Critical Thinking - If someone says ‘be more strategic’ ask them to 'be more specific' and watch their brain short-circuit. Instead, critical thinking means ‘be more human’. Convey your thought process and rationale behind product decisions to gain stronger support for product discovery initiatives.

Remember: There are steps you can take on your own to build it up as well as maintain it. You're the driving force behind the freshness of your product sense.

8. Balancing intuition with data

The eternal product management dilemma - intuition vs. data. But what if you could apply both? Today’s your lucky day - introducing responses 8 and 9.

Here's what the experts say:

• Customer input is just one piece of the puzzle. Remember Henry Ford and Steve Jobs? They observed customers in their natural habitat to gather data, but they didn't just build what customers wanted - they innovated! (link)
• Beware of the "no forest, all trees" syndrome. It’s hard to think past the most recent customer interview or sales calls. That’s ok for generating tactical ideas, but don’t let a sapling ground you into tiny thinking. (link - by Jason Cohen of WPEngine, currently on the wrong side of WordPress )

When you doubt your intuition, get a GRIP.

• Gut Check: Explore the reasons behind your intuition. Is it driven by actual experience, an understanding of customers, and the market? Or hearsay?
• Review the Data: Consider the data quality, scope, and possible gaps. Does it capture the full story? Or are you observing garbage in - garbage out?
• Initiate an Experiment: Conduct a low-risk pilot to test your intuition on a small scale. Then learn and iterate.
• Perspective Matters: Contact respected and intriguing people. Share both the data and your intuition to gather viewpoints.

Remember: Your competitors can analyze data, but they can't replicate your instinct.

9. Pitfalls of over-relying on product sense

Every situation has two or more sides. Companies like Airbnb, Netflix, and Uber are known for data-driven decision-making. They seek decisions grounded in numbers rather than intuition. On the other hand, Patagonia and Basecamp take a different approach. What’s right?

Data may inform, but as long as a human is making the decision, it's ultimately a judgement call. If you're just going by the data, then you're confirming, not deciding... A decision is a point of view seen through a million lenses, many of which are invisible even to the one deciding. (link)

and, my favorite…

Strategy is taking intuition to fruition. (link)

But beware! Over-relying on product sense can lead to:

• Innovation without Evidence: Are you creating "innovation theatre" instead of real customer value? At one of my prior employers, we introduced AI capabilities simply to check it off the to-do list without adding any customer value.
• Risk of Stale Intuition: Is your product sense up-to-date with current market trends? The education market learned this one the hard way when customers stopped paying for new textbooks.
• Failure to Account for Regulatory Complexity: Are you balancing intuition with compliance in regulated industries? I’ve been at multiple organizations putting off prioritizing accessibility only to face legal action.
• Misreading Customer Needs: Are you truly understanding your customers, or just assuming you know what they want? Even though smaller accounts may not request SOC 2 compliance, scaling to larger organizations will stall.

Remember: Balance is key. Use your product sense, but don't forget to validate your assumptions!

10. Fostering a culture of strong product sense

Want to build a team of product superstars? Here's your blueprint!

• Encourage Customer Empathy: Make user research a habit. Get your team talking to real customers to help them understand customer needs, including unexpressed ones!
• Blend Data Intuition: Teach your team to balance gut feelings with hard data. As you’ve seen above, encouraging data-driven and customer-sensitive decision-making creates a solid approach.
• Foster Cross-Functional Collaboration: Break down those silos! Different and diverse perspectives lead to better products. Promote shared goals and ensure communication flows freely across departments.
• Promote Continuous Learning: Encourage teams to stay updated, attend industry events, and learn continuously to keep product instincts sharp and adaptive. No L&D budget? Find out your customers’ favorite newsletters and podcasts.
• Create Experimentation Environment: Empower teams to rapidly prototype, test, and iterate based on customer feedback. This approach reinforces product sense refinements through real-world tests.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You've just unlocked the secrets to supercharging your product sense. We've explored five game-changing aspects of product sense:

6. Choosing the right metrics

7. Thriving without leadership support

8. Balancing intuition and data

9. Avoiding common pitfalls

10. Building a culture of strong product sense

But here's the real secret: Developing product sense is a journey, not a destination. Keep learning, keep experimenting, and keep pushing the boundaries.

Now it's your turn: What product sense challenges have you faced? What strategies worked for you? Share your experiences in the comments below!

Want to amp up your product leadership skills? Book a complimentary call and let's brainstorm about your product management journey together!