> I define high-quality product sense as the ability to [generate good product ideas and intuit product success] without having extensive data (i.e. without run

> I define high-quality product sense as the ability to [generate good product ideas and intuit product success] without having extensive data (i.e. without running lengthy research upfront) Finding these people is possible at the point of hire, but it's a function of previous extensive research, not some inborn talent. Heuristics about whether a product will be successful come from somewhere. You have to understand your market before you can understand if a product fits the market. What you're talking about is hiring people who already have that market understanding from past experience (which you allude to in the last section of the blog), or who have understanding in an adjacent market that is transferable. They've done their initial guess-and-check somewhere else, and you get to hire them after they've refined their skills. Steve Jobs had to make the Lisa and the Newton before he could make the iMac and iPad. There are no born product geniuses.