Product Taste Intuition

Product Taste & Intuition

Help the user develop product taste and intuition using frameworks from 10 product leaders.

How to Help

When the user asks for help with product taste:

1. Understand their current exposure - Ask about the products they use and analyze regularly 2. Identify gaps in their intuition - Determine where their product judgment feels weakest 3. Suggest deliberate practice - Recommend specific activities to build taste over time 4. Help them trust their gut - Guide them on when to rely on intuition vs. data

Core Principles

Intuition is a hypothesis generator

Dylan Field: "I think intuition is like a hypothesis generator and you're constantly generating these hypotheses and others are generating hypotheses as well." Intuition isn't about being right - it's about generating good hypotheses quickly that you can then validate.

Taste is the differentiator in an AI world

Alex Komoroske: "In this cacophony, how do you stand out? You stand out by having good taste. I think taste is the most important thing." As AI makes production easier, taste becomes the critical differentiator that separates great products from "slop."

Taste is a developable skill

Guillermo Rauch: "Taste, sometimes I think we think of as this inaccessible thing that, 'Oh, that person was born with taste.' I see it as a skill that it can develop." Taste is built through "exposure hours" and deliberately analyzing the best products in the world, not innate talent.

Build taste through self-observation

Julie Zhuo: "The number one advice... is it's just really about observation and it's about curiosity and can start by first observing yourself." Build product sense by noticing your own reactions to products, then validating those observations qualitatively and quantitatively.

Be a voracious user of products

Kayvon Beykpour: "The best cheat codes for getting better at building products is just being a voracious user of products... There's just no replacement for that." Building great consumer products relies on "muscle memory" developed by using many products deeply.

Taste means knowing what to remove

Great taste isn't just about what to add - it's about knowing what to cut. The ability to simplify and focus is a core expression of product taste.

Questions to Help Users

• "What products do you use daily that you think are exceptionally well-designed? What makes them great?"
• "When was the last time you analyzed a competitor's product in detail? What did you learn?"
• "When you use a new app, what do you notice first? What bothers you?"
• "How often do you experiment with products outside your industry or domain?"
• "When your intuition and data conflict, how do you decide what to do?"

Common Mistakes to Flag

• Treating taste as innate - Believing some people just "have it" rather than developing it deliberately
• Not using enough products - Limited exposure leading to limited intuition
• Ignoring your own reactions - Not paying attention to what delights or frustrates you as a user
• Over-relying on data - Never making decisions based on judgment when data is unavailable
• Copying without understanding - Adopting patterns from successful products without understanding why they work

Deep Dive

For all 11 insights from 10 guests, see references/guest-insights.md

Related Skills

• problem-definition
• running-design-reviews
• positioning-messaging

Developing Product Taste - All Guest Insights

10 guests, 11 mentions

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Alex Komoroske

Alex Komoroske

"In this cacophony, how do you stand out? You stand out by having good taste. I think taste is the most important thing."

Insight: The guest argues that 'taste' is the most critical differentiator in an era of AI-generated 'slop' and provides a definition for it.

Dylan Field

Dylan Field

"I think intuition is like a hypothesis generator and you're constantly generating these hypotheses and others are generating hypotheses as well."

Insight: The guest discusses intuition as a 'hypothesis generator' and a core superpower for making product decisions, which is a distinct skill from general strategy.

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"Taste is your point of view on things and how do you develop your point of view... build your repertoire. Understand what is the greater context, what is the canon that led to this thing, and where do you disagree or agree philosophically?"

Insight: Dylan Field provides a deep framework for what taste is (a point of view), how to develop it (building a repertoire and reflecting on 'why'), and why it is the ultimate differentiator in an era of AI-

Guillermo Rauch

Guillermo Rauch

"Taste, sometimes I think we think of as this inaccessible thing that, 'Oh, that person was born with taste.' I see it as a skill that it can develop."

Insight: The guest argues that taste is not an innate trait but a developable skill built through 'exposure hours' and analyzing the best products in the world.

Julie Zhuo

Julie Zhuo

"The number one advice... is it's just really about observation and it's about curiosity and can start by first observing yourself."

Insight: The guest outlines a specific methodology for building 'product sense' through self-observation and qualitative/quantitative validation that goes beyond simple roadmap prioritization.

Kayvon Beykpour

Kayvon Beykpour

"The best cheat codes for getting better at building products is just being a voracious user of products... There's just no replacement for that."

Insight: The guest emphasizes that building great consumer products relies on 'muscle memory' and 'taste' developed by being a voracious user of products.

Karri Saarinen

Karri Saarinen

"Then we think you can much more use your intuition or thinking to do those decisions so you don't have to use data or metrics to back those things up."

Insight: A significant portion of the interview focuses on building a culture that relies on intuition and customer empathy rather than data-driven experimentation and A/B testing.

Seth Godin

Seth Godin

"I define good taste as knowing what other people want just before they do."

Insight: The guest provides a specific, actionable definition of 'good taste' (knowing what people want just before they do) and discusses how to build it by relentlessly improving specs and focusing on user d

Shreyas Doshi

Shreyas Doshi Live

"Taste is about the ability to identify what is really good, without needing to see its results."

Insight: Shreyas spends a significant portion of the interview defining 'taste' not as design, but as the ability to identify quality and truth without needing to see results or social proof.

Naomi Gleit

Naomi Gleit

"A PM cannot outsource their perspective or delegate their thinking through people and process."

Insight: The guest discusses the importance of a PM developing a 'first-party perspective' and not outsourcing their thinking to the team or process.

Tamar Yehoshua

Tamar Yehoshua

"You need to understand motivations in people for building products... why does somebody want to click on a button, why does somebody want to join your team?"

Insight: The guest emphasizes the importance of 'reading the room,' understanding human motivations, and having an intuitive 'feel' for the product that goes beyond metrics.