Harnessing Data for Strategic Product Mapping: A Balanced Approach

Published 2015-08-15 · Updated 2026-06-23 · By Alan Wizemann

Topics: Board/Advisory, Consumer Goods, Enterprise, Startup

People often ask whether all product decisions should be based on data, and the short answer is no. Over the years, I have seen several product managers that get mired in data, second-guessing their instincts and causing them to go in a direction that is safer, but less impactful. In my opinion, you should use data to learn about what your users are doing, to see trends on what is working and what isn't, so that you can make your product better based on real analysis and feedback. Initial ideas, features and product direction should be based off data analysis, but the best ones usually come from gut instincts or realizations from the product manager or team – the kind of insight that no dashboard will ever hand you. Because of this, I think it is vital that these ideas have a clear path that is unobstructed to get to the product manager, or even the lead of the product organization (Director, VP, Founder, etc).

Data is key to a great product and, at its core, the reason why product teams can be successful. If you look at the best product organizations and their use of data, you can see that it drives changes to make their products better. The better the data, the better the reaction to the users is to make the product as best as it can be. My advice would be to always know, understand and be able to analyze the data yourself (or have the best analyst you can find) so you can fact check any ideas that you might have, to see if there is support for the changes or features you want to introduce. Then, quickly react to new data after the change or feature introduction to see if it was the right call. It's all about speed; the faster you can iterate on what the data supports, the more successful you will be.