Intuition vs. validation

Often times in product teams you'll have 2 or more opposing sides on what the next step in a project should be..

Side A:

The problem is clear, let's not waste time, we should start with 1,2&3, that should achieve the goal.

Side B:

Yes the problem is clear, but we're not really sure if 1,2&3 will achieve the goal, let's test & see if the answer to that goal is 4,5&6 or maybe 8,9&10.

-Both sides agree on moving with Side B-

Good..

Side B - after spending time and effort trying out different ways to find the best answer (researching, prototyping, testing, etc..), ends up with Side A's intuition "1,2&3" being the best answer. Now Side A will put on the I-told-you-so hat on for several weeks, emphasizing on how that was a waste of time..

But was it a waste of time though?

After spending time and effort into prototyping and testing hypothesis, yes we might find ourselves back to where we started with our first intuition, but that's okay, because now it's validated with process ✅

Product teams should embrace and encourage the culture of validation, even if it means spending some extra time on whatever they're working on. Even if your ✨ intuition✨ is sharp, test it out, confident steps are much more impactful 🎯