Christian Idiodi

Just because somebody can use your product doesn't mean they will buy it. Just because they can use it doesn't mean they will choose it. What people say is often different from what they do.

Most people don't hate product managers. They hate what they've experienced — PMs who aren't competent enough to earn trust. The discipline has to elevate itself to earn the right to make decisions.

There's nothing better for learning how to solve a problem than actually trying to solve it. You get all the research, the failure, the mistakes, the evidence — and you know the difference between what people say and what they do.

The best time to learn how to be a VP is when you're not a VP. That's when you can practice, make mistakes, and get feedback without the mistakes impacting everyone. We promote people into incompetence because we never let them practice first.

To build trust fast with a new hire: introduce them to the most influential person in the company and ask that person to teach them. You're extending borrowed trust, forcing a relationship, and making the leader accountable for their growth.

Value is the most important and most overlooked of the four product risks. When teams are handed roadmaps, they assume value. Your actual job is to question whether we should be building this in the first place.

If I can't find enough people who love the problem and are willing to help me solve it, that's my signal: this is not a problem worth solving. Recruiting is itself the biggest validation signal.