Becoming evidence-guided | Itamar Gilad (Gmail, YouTube, Microsoft)

Brought to you by Ezra—The leading full-body cancer screening company | Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security | LinkedIn Ads—Reach professionals and drive results for your business—Itamar Gilad is a product coach, author, and speaker with over two decades of experience in senior product roles at Google, Microsoft, and various startups. He is also the author of Evidence-Guided: Creating High-Impact Products in the Face of Uncertainty and publishes a popular product management newsletter. In today’s episode, we discuss:• What it means to be “evidence-guided”• How to think about your KPIs as metric trees• How to prioritize ideas using the “confidence meter”• The GIST model for roadmapping• Common mistakes with ICE• Advice for using evidence to challenge gut-driven founders—Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/becoming-evidence-guided-itamar-gilad-gmail-youtube-microsoft/#transcript—Where to find Itamar Gilad:• Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/ItamarGilad• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/itamargilad/• Website: https://itamargilad.com/—Where to find Lenny:• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com• Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/—In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Itamar’s background(04:35) How his time working on Gmail shaped his philosophy of “opinion-based” development(08:35) Lessons from developing Gmail’s tabbed inbox (13:40) A brief overview of Itamar’s book, Evidence-Guided(14:30) Balancing founder creativity with an evidence-based approach(17:32) Advice on how to push back against founders(19:36) Signs you aren’t as evidence-guided as you may think(21:13) Itamar’s GIST model for becoming more evidence-guided(23:51) How to set overarching goals using his “value exchange loop”(28:45) North star metrics vs. KPIs(33:47) Using “ICE” to assess the value of ideas(37:39) Itamar’s confidence meter(44:28) Speed of delivery vs. speed of discovery(46:14) How to apply Itamar’s frameworks based on company type and stage(49:09) First steps in becoming more evidence-guided(50:21) Next steps in testing(55:41) The task layer in the GIST framework(1:02:54) Thoughts on roadmapping(1:04:56) How OKRs fit into the whole picture(1:07:11) Lightning round—Referenced:• Itamar’s presentation slides: https://itamargilad.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Podcast-Slides.pdf• What differentiates the highest-performing product teams | John Cutler (Amplitude, The Beautiful Mess): https://www.lennyspodcast.com/what-differentiates-the-highest-performing-product-teams-john-cutler-amplitude-the-beautiful-mess/• Evidence-Guided: Creating High-Impact Products in the Face of Uncertainty: https://itamargilad.com/book-evidence-guided/• The co-founders of Google in Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/profile/larry-page-and-sergey-brin• Kanban: https://www.atlassian.com/agile/kanban• Jira: https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira• The ultimate guide to OKRs | Christina Wodtke (Stanford): https://www.lennyspodcast.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-okrs-christina-wodtke-stanford/• Amplitude: https://amplitude.com/• The ultimate guide to A/B testing | Ronny Kohavi (Airbnb, Microsoft, Amazon): https://www.lennyspodcast.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-ab-testing-ronny-kohavi-airbnb-microsoft-amazon/• ICE framework: https://growthmethod.com/ice-framework/• Sean Ellis on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanellis/• RICE scoring model: https://www.productplan.com/glossary/rice-scoring-model/• Idea Prioritization with ICE and the Confidence Meter: https://itamargilad.com/the-tool-that-will-help-you-choose-better-product-ideas/• Assumptions Mapping: https://designsprintkit.withgoogle.com/methodology/phase2-define/assumptions-mapping• What is Dog Fooding, Fish Fooding a Product?: https://matt-rickard.com/fishfooding-dogfooding-product• SVPG books: https://www.svpg.com/books/• The Lean series: https://theleanstartup.com/the-lean-series• Dreaming Spanish: https://www.youtube.com/c/DreamingSpanish• ElevenLabs: https://elevenlabs.io/• Lennybot: https://www.lennybot.com/—Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.—Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. Get full access to Lenny's Newsletter at www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe