Product Agility Phil Hornby: Empower to Succeed: How to Make High‑Quality Decisions in Product - Productized 2025 TalkInTen
Nov 19, 2025
Phil Hornby, founder of For Product People, helps product teams make better, evidence-informed decisions. He discusses the significance of high-quality decisions and distinguishes them from merely achieving good outcomes. Hornby emphasizes the blend of quantitative data and qualitative insights, alongside expert judgment, to guide choices. He presents practical tactics like decision logs and Amazon-style memos, while cautioning that AI should inform rather than replace human accountability. Overall, it's about creating a systematic approach to decision-making that teams can confidently commit to.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Empowerment Is Decision Quality
- Empowerment means the ability to make decisions that stick, not just freedom to act.
- High-quality decisions increase the odds of good outcomes but don't guarantee them.
Combine Data, Research And Judgement
- Use evidence-informed decisions combining quantitative data, qualitative insight, and expert judgement.
- Make tacit product intuition explicit so it can be scrutinised alongside data.
Surface Your Product Judgement
- Bring your product opinion and intuition into the decision record so others can see the rationale.
- Accept some choices are opinion-driven and document why you believe they’re the best in context.
