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20VC: Why "Founder Insight" is Overrated, Why Big and Bold Product Visions Can Be Dangerous & Why Getting To Product Market Fit by Accident Can Lead to Danger with Hubert Palan, Founder & CEO @ ProductBoard

Jan 29, 2021

In this insightful discussion, Hubert Palan, Founder and CEO of ProductBoard, dives into the pitfalls of relying too heavily on 'founder insight' and advocates for mental flexibility among founders. He warns of the dangers posed by big, bold product visions and shares when to consider launching a second product. Palan also emphasizes that achieving product-market fit by accident can spell trouble, encouraging founders to conduct thorough analyses to understand their success. With practical advice, he draws from his journey and experiences in product management.

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INSIGHT

Background Importance

Hubert Palan's CS and MBA background provided a foundation in technology and business.
This combination was crucial for his later success in product management and founding ProductBoard.

ANECDOTE

ProductBoard Origin

At GoodData, Hubert Palan realized traditional product management tools lacked customer focus.
This led him to found ProductBoard, a customer-centric product management system.

INSIGHT

Founder Insight Overrated

Founder insight, while important initially, is overrated for long-term success.
Flexibility and the ability to pivot based on market feedback are more crucial.

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Hubert Palan is the Founder & CEO @ ProductBoard, helping product managers understand what customers need, prioritize what to build next, and rally everyone around the roadmap. To date, Hubert has raised over $64m for ProductBoard from the likes of Sequoia, Index, Kleiner Perkins, Bessemer and Credo Ventures to name a few. Prior to founding the company, Hubert was VP Product Management @ GoodData where he played an instrumental role in their scaling from 6 to 300 people.

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How Hubert made his way from Eastern Europe to SF, made his way into the world of product management and came to found ProductBoard?

2.) Why does Hubert believe that "founder insight" is overrated? What strategies and tactics does Hubert give to founders to be more mentally plastic and flexible? How does one know when to persist when things are not working vs when to give up? What is the decision-making framework?

3.) Why does Hubert believe that "big and bold product vision can be dangerous"? How does Hubert think about when is the right time to release a second product? What are the core elements to tackle when thinking about a second product? Where do many make mistakes here?

4.) Why does Hubert believe that, "if you get to product market fit by accident, you could be in trouble?" What does Hubert advise in terms of studying if and how you got to product market fit? How can one use post-mortem analyses here effectively?

5.) Why does Hubert believe that transparency is so necessary today with the team? Should founders be transparent when it comes to M&A, fundraising etc? Where are the limits? What makes it so hard to instil effectively? What do many founders misunderstand?

Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode

Hubert’s Favourite Book: Elad Gil's High Growth Handbook

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