For the better part of a decade, the dominant mantra in product management has been ‘be data-driven.’ We’ve been told to instrument everything, A/B test every change, and let the metrics guide our decisions. And for good reason—data helps us avoid bias and understand user behavior at scale.
But I’m seeing a growing sentiment that we may have overcorrected. Are we becoming ‘data-obsessed’ at the expense of real product sense? By focusing exclusively on optimizing existing metrics, we risk getting stuck on a local maximum—making tiny, incremental improvements while missing the opportunity for a game-changing leap. The most iconic products weren’t born from an A/B test; they came from a deep, almost intuitive understanding of a human need.
This isn’t a call to abandon data, but a proposal to rebalance our toolkit. True product sense—that blend of empathy, market knowledge, and technical fluency—is what allows us to make bold, visionary bets. Data should inform that intuition, not replace it. It’s the difference between navigating with a GPS telling you the next turn and using a map and compass to chart a new course entirely.
So, my question for the community is this: How do you create space for intuition and qualitative insights when the pressure for quantitative validation is so high?