What Great Product Leaders Get Right (That Most Don’t)
Build less. Solve more. This is your guide to product thinking—the mindset that turns good ideas into products people truly need
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Now, let’s dive into today’s insights…
If you have ever nodded along in a meeting when someone mentioned “product thinking” but felt unclear about what it meant, you are not alone.
After years of building products across verticals, I have realized something: we all say we value product thinking, but few of us can define it simply. My goal with this article is to help you define and embody what product thinking really means.
What Really Is Product Thinking?
At its heart, product thinking is about this: understanding the problem deeply before rushing to build a solution.
While project managers might ask, “How do we deliver this efficiently?”, product thinkers ask, “Should we even build this at all?”
The sweet spot lies at the intersection of:
What users actually (painfully) need.
What drives business value?
What’s technically possible?
When these three align, the result isn’t just a good product — it’s one that people actually want to use and will consistently pay for.
Why Products Fail — And How Product Thinking Prevents It
Historically and to date, teams have spent months building features no one touches. This is not because they didn’t work hard, but because they built the wrong thing.
The root causes usually sound like this:
“We didn’t talk to users — we assumed.”
“We prioritized what was easiest to build.”
“We confused building something with making progress.”
I have found that the first step towards a sustainable solution is to lead with curiosity, not certainty. This leads me to consider how you might start cultivating habits that sharpen your judgment.
Three Habits That Sharpen Product Decisions
After multiple wins (and a few painful but important misses), I’ve come to rely on three mental habits:
1. Obsess over the problem, not your solution
Getting too attached to an idea clouds your judgment. Talk to real users. Observe them. Listen for the frustration behind the words. Understand their world better than they do. Do not ask leading questions. Be humble.
2. Focus on outcomes, not features
People don’t want dashboards — they want faster decisions. They don’t want notifications — they want peace of mind. When you shift from "What should we build?" to "What should our users achieve?", your priorities are instantly clear.
3. Test assumptions early
Every feature starts as a hypothesis. Do not wait until launch to find out if you are wrong. A sketch, a mockup, or even a quick conversation can save months of work.
5 Tools to Build Your Product Thinking Muscle
The Problem Statement
Fill in the blanks:
“Our users struggle to ___ because ___. If we solved this, they’d be able to ___.”
It’s simple, but it clears the fog.
Five Whys
Keep asking “why?” until you reach the root cause. The first answer is rarely the real issue.
The Mom Test – I’ve previously recommended a book that covers this.
Ask about past behavior, not hypothetical intent. “What did you do the last time this happened?” reveals more than “Would you use this?”
Hypothesis Statements
“We believe that doing ___ for ___ will lead to ___. We’ll know it worked when ___.”
It keeps your team grounded in outcomes.
Minimum Viable Tests
Don’t build the product. Test the idea first with either a landing page, a prototype or even a manual version of the service.
The Results of Product Thinking
This is what progress then looks like when product thinking becomes second nature:
You start product reviews with problems, not solutions.
You know which user/business problems your product solves — and which it doesn’t.
You can explain the “why” behind every feature.
You feel uneasy when people suggest ideas without understanding the problem.
You define success through outcomes, not just delivery.
This is the real superpower of product thinking.
In my experience, great product thinkers don’t just build better products — they build fewer products. They are excellent at saying no (with clear, compelling reasons). They are laser-focused on solving real problems for real people.
Sometimes the best thing you can do as a product leader isn’t to launch something new — it is to not build at all.
Start Here
The good news is - you don’t need a new title to apply product thinking. You can start in your next product review by asking:
“What user problem are we solving?”
“Which of these options delivers the most value?”
“What’s the smallest way we can test this?”
It’s not magic. It’s discipline. And it compounds.
ICYMI: Product leadership is an art—and mastering it is crucial, as your team and product’s success rely on your strategic direction. These past issues show how to build the right mindset for leadership and define a clear product vision.
If you think shipping features is enough, this article will show you why focusing on solving real problems is the real game changer.
A strong product vision sets great products apart and every leader must know how to craft a vision that drives execution and delivers standout experiences. This article shows you how 👇🏾
