The role of the product manager is changing faster than ever. What was once a fairly siloed role has transformed into a high-impact leadership position within the most innovative companies.
Despite the constant evolution of the role, there are some things that never change. Here are some of our favorite product and product management quotes from the top product leaders over the years. We hope these quotes leave you feeling inspired and energized.
“Building a good customer experience does not happen by accident. It happens by design.” – Clare Muscutt, Founder and Director at CXMperience / @ClareMuscutt
“It’s a mistake to conflate success with shipping a large quantity of features.” – Julie Zhuo, VP of Product Design at Facebook / @joulee
“Building a great product is a creative, chaotic process which you won’t get right every time, so you have to also be learning from success and failure.” – Gibson Biddle, former VP of Product at Netflix / @gibsonbiddle
You can market your ass off, but if your product sucks, you’re dead.
— Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee) April 2, 2014
“If we focus on collecting stories in our customer interviews, opportunities will emerge from those stories.” – Teresa Torres, Product Discovery Coach at Product Talk / @ttorres
“Great products do less, but better.” – Fabricio Teixeira, Designer at Work & Co, Founder of UX Collective / @fabriciot
“Any damn fool can make something complex, it takes a genius to make something simple.” – Pete Seeger, Product Director at Docusign
“No matter how beautiful the visual design is, if it fails to help our users achieve their goals, it’s bad design.” — Crystal C. Yan, Product at Remitly / @crystalcy
“All things aside, there is one role that all product managers play, and that is of a problem solver. That’s what the product manager role is all about – finding out problems, figuring out the best ways to solve them, and increasing the business value in the process.” – Josh Fechter, CEO and Co-founder of Squibler / @joshuafechter
“A good design shows respect for your customer and you’re either respectful of their time or respectful of what it is that they desire, and so it makes it a very fundamental element to everything that you do.” – Penny Wilson, Designer and Owner of Penny Wison Design
Instagram still doesn’t have an iPad app.
Twitter still doesn’t let you edit tweets or search DMs.You can launch with less than you think. You may not even need it, ten years later!
— Sahil Lavingia (@shl) February 4, 2020
“If you keep your eye on the profit, you’re going to skimp on the product. But if you focus on making really great products, then the profits will follow.” – Steve Jobs, former CEO of Apple
“A good way to be unsure about something is to ask for one more opinion. More opinions often lead to indecision, not clarity. If necessary, ask for a few, add your own, make a call, and move on. Nearly all decisions are temporary, but stalling is permanent time lost.” – Jason Fried, Co-founder and CEO of Basecamp / @jasonfried
“Instagram still doesn’t have an iPad app. Twitter still doesn’t let you edit tweets or search DMs. You can launch with less than you think. You may not even need it, ten years later!” – Sahil Lavingia, Founder and CEO at Gumroad / @shl
“Always have empathy for your customers.” – Jesse Owens II, Product Director of Digital Payments at MasterCard / @JesseEOwensII
“Customers are who we build our apps for, so we want to give them what they want and need while empathizing with their struggles and frustrations. For me, it’s not necessarily the mantra of the customer is always right, but do everything with the customer in mind.” – Jason Pace, Senior Product Manager at Alkami Technology
