Your Intuition Isn't Enough

The Meeting Where Good Ideas Go to Die

We've all been in that meeting. You have a strong gut feeling about what the product needs next. You make a passionate case. But then someone else, often the highest-paid person in the room, has a different opinion. The discussion stalls, and the best idea doesn't win; the most powerful opinion does.

For a long time, the core job of a product manager was to have good intuition and tell a convincing story. That's still important, but on its own, it's no longer enough. The best product managers today don't just have opinions; they have proof.

Your Gut Feeling is a Starting Point, Not a Conclusion

Great product management isn't about ignoring your intuition. Your gut feeling is your superpower. It's what helps you spot opportunities and understand users in a way that data alone never can.

But a gut feeling is just a hypothesis. It's the starting point of your work, not the end of it. The work is to take that feeling and ask a simple question: "How can I prove this is true?"

This is the shift from just being a product manager to being an evidence-driven one. You're not just a source of ideas; you're a builder of a case.

So, What's "Evidence"?

Evidence isn't just a fancy word for "data." It's simpler than that. It's anything that helps you prove your point. It's the collection of proof you bring to the table to show that your idea isn't just a guess.

This includes things like:

• What users are actually doing: The numbers from your analytics that show where people are getting stuck or what features they use most.
• What users are actually saying: Direct quotes from customer interviews or feedback sessions where they describe their problems in their own words.
• What the support team hears all day: The top three issues that your support reps are tired of answering.
• What the sales team is losing deals over: The missing feature that a competitor has, which comes up in every other sales call.

When you combine a powerful story with this kind of proof, your argument becomes almost unstoppable. You're no longer just sharing an opinion; you're presenting a conclusion based on reality.

How to Start Building Your Case

You don't need a degree in data science to do this. It's about changing a few key habits.

1. Stop Asking "What?" and Start Asking "Why?": When you get a feature request, your first question shouldn't be "What should we build?" It should be "Why are they asking for this?" Dig until you find the real problem underneath the request. The real problem is where the best solutions are found.

2. Make Friends with Your Data Person: Your analytics team can be your most powerful partner. Don't just send them requests for dashboards. Sit with them. Tell them the story you're trying to understand, and ask them what data might help you prove or disprove it. They are the experts in finding the "what," but they need you to guide them with the "why."

3. Ask "How Do We Know?" Constantly: Make this the most common question your team hears from you. When someone says, "Users will love this," ask, "How do we know they will?" This simple question forces everyone to move beyond assumptions and look for real evidence. It's not about being difficult; it's about being rigorous.

Conclusion

The goal here isn't to kill your intuition. It's to arm it. When you back up your product sense with solid proof, you do more than just win arguments. You build trust with your team, you make better decisions, and you dramatically increase the chances that you're building something people actually want and need. That's the whole point of the job.