As a product manager, I have a habit of decomposing emotions. The past year became the year when I started actively writing my blog and launched two YouTube channels. I’ve always had a certain thoughtfulness that accompanied me during mobile games. Now I’ve had to develop the habit of analyzing YouTube thumbnails, the first three seconds of my favorite creators’ videos, and the behavior of public figures on social media.
In my view, self-empathy, the ability to articulate feelings and express what sparks interest, is a tremendously underrated skill for product managers — and really anyone who works with people. While we demand proficiency in SQL, Python, user interviews, and prototyping tools from Figma to Lovable, truly strong specialists look inward — and get 80% of the answer.
Yes, I believe that 80% of the answer is the question itself, and the ability to view yourself as an object of research is what allows you to choose that question. You can research anything, drown yourself in data until even the sky and even Allah consist of data — but without a meaningful question, they’re just numbers. But run an experiment on yourself — and you’ll get a hypothesis:
- Did other people also not understand how to pass this moment?
- Is this button also hidden behind the camera notch on iPhones?
- Is it obvious to everyone that the 🐝r icon means beer?
If you conduct a dozen user interviews where you let people say whatever they want… well, you’ll find out they want more, better, cheaper, and different. Good luck with that insider information.