Brought to you by <a href="http://www.ezra.com/lenny" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ezra</a>—The leading full-body cancer screening company | <a href="https://vanta.com/lenny" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vanta</a>—Automate compliance. Simplify security | <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/podlenny" target="_blank" rel="noopener">LinkedIn Ads</a>—Reach professionals and drive results for your business
—
Itamar Gilad is a product coach, author, and speaker with over two decades of experience in senior product roles at Google, Microsoft, and various startups. He is also the author of Evidence-Guided: Creating High-Impact Products in the Face of Uncertainty and publishes a popular product management <a href="http://itamargilad.com/newsletter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">newsletter</a>. In today’s episode, we discuss:
• What it means to be “evidence-guided”
• How to think about your KPIs as metric trees
• How to prioritize ideas using the “confidence meter”
• The GIST model for roadmapping
• Common mistakes with ICE
• Advice for using evidence to challenge gut-driven founders
—
Find the full transcript at: <a href="https://www.lennyspodcast.com/becoming-evidence-guided-itamar-gilad-gmail-youtube-microsoft/#transcript" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.lennyspodcast.com/becoming-evidence-guided-itamar-gilad-gmail-youtube-microsoft/#transcript</a>
—
Where to find Itamar Gilad:
• Twitter/X: <a href="https://twitter.com/ItamarGilad" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://twitter.com/ItamarGilad</a>
• LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/itamargilad/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.linkedin.com/in/itamargilad/</a>
• Website: <a href="https://itamargilad.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://itamargilad.com/</a>
—
Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: <a href="https://www.lennysnewsletter.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.lennysnewsletter.com</a>
• Twitter/X: <a href="https://twitter.com/lennysan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://twitter.com/lennysan</a>
• LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/</a>
—
In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Itamar’s background
(04:35) How his time working on Gmail shaped his philosophy of “opinion-based” development
(08:35) Lessons from developing Gmail’s tabbed inbox 
(13:40) A brief overview of Itamar’s book, Evidence-Guided
(14:30) Balancing founder creativity with an evidence-based approach
(17:32) Advice on how to push back against founders
(19:36) Signs you aren’t as evidence-guided as you may think
(21:13) Itamar’s GIST model for becoming more evidence-guided
(23:51) How to set overarching goals using his “value exchange loop”
(28:45) North star metrics vs. KPIs
(33:47) Using “ICE” to assess the value of ideas
(37:39) Itamar’s confidence meter
(44:28) Speed of delivery vs. speed of discovery
(46:14) How to apply Itamar’s frameworks based on company type and stage
(49:09) First steps in becoming more evidence-guided
(50:21) Next steps in testing
(55:41) The task layer in the GIST framework
(1:02:54) Thoughts on roadmapping
(1:04:56) How OKRs fit into the whole picture
(1:07:11) Lightning round
—
Referenced:
• Itamar’s presentation slides: <a href="https://itamargilad.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Podcast-Slides.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://itamargilad.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Podcast-Slides.pdf</a>
• What differentiates the highest-performing product teams | John Cutler (Amplitude, The Beautiful Mess): <a href="https://www.lennyspodcast.com/what-differentiates-the-highest-performing-product-teams-john-cutler-amplitude-the-beautiful-mess/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.lennyspodcast.com/what-differentiates-the-highest-performing-product-teams-john-cutler-amplitude-the-beautiful-mess/</a>
• Evidence-Guided: Creating High-Impact Products in the Face of Uncertainty: <a href="https://itamargilad.com/book-evidence-guided/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://itamargilad.com/book-evidence-guided/</a>
• The co-founders of Google in Forbes: <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/larry-page-and-sergey-brin/?sh=6fb417386f32" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.forbes.com/profile/larry-page-and-sergey-brin</a>
• Kanban: <a href="https://www.atlassian.com/agile/kanban" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.atlassian.com/agile/kanban</a>
• Jira: <a href="https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira</a>
• The ultimate guide to OKRs | Christina Wodtke (Stanford): <a href="https://www.lennyspodcast.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-okrs-christina-wodtke-stanford/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.lennyspodcast.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-okrs-christina-wodtke-stanford/</a>
• Amplitude: <a href="https://amplitude.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://amplitude.com/</a>
• The ultimate guide to A/B testing | Ronny Kohavi (Airbnb, Microsoft, Amazon): <a href="https://www.lennyspodcast.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-ab-testing-ronny-kohavi-airbnb-microsoft-amazon/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.lennyspodcast.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-ab-testing-ronny-kohavi-airbnb-microsoft-amazon/</a>
• ICE framework: <a href="https://growthmethod.com/ice-framework/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://growthmethod.com/ice-framework/</a>
• Sean Ellis on LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanellis/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanellis/</a>
• RICE scoring model: <a href="https://www.productplan.com/glossary/rice-scoring-model/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.productplan.com/glossary/rice-scoring-model/</a>
• Idea Prioritization with ICE and the Confidence Meter: <a href="https://itamargilad.com/the-tool-that-will-help-you-choose-better-product-ideas/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://itamargilad.com/the-tool-that-will-help-you-choose-better-product-ideas/</a>
• Assumptions Mapping: <a href="https://designsprintkit.withgoogle.com/methodology/phase2-define/assumptions-mapping" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://designsprintkit.withgoogle.com/methodology/phase2-define/assumptions-mapping</a>
• What is Dog Fooding, Fish Fooding a Product?: <a href="https://matt-rickard.com/fishfooding-dogfooding-product" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://matt-rickard.com/fishfooding-dogfooding-product</a>
• SVPG books: <a href="https://www.svpg.com/books/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.svpg.com/books/</a>
• The Lean series: <a href="https://theleanstartup.com/the-lean-series" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://theleanstartup.com/the-lean-series</a>
• Dreaming Spanish: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/DreamingSpanish" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.youtube.com/c/DreamingSpanish</a>
• ElevenLabs: <a href="https://elevenlabs.io/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://elevenlabs.io/</a>
• Lennybot: <a href="https://www.lennybot.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.lennybot.com/</a>
—
Production and marketing by <a href="https://penname.co/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://penname.co/</a>. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email <a href="mailto:podcast@lennyrachitsky.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">podcast@lennyrachitsky.com</a>.
—
Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.
Get full access to Lenny&#8217;s Newsletter at <a href="https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&#38;utm_campaign=CTA_4">www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe</a>

Lenny Rachitsky

Becoming evidence-guided | Itamar Gilad (Gmail, YouTube, Microsoft)

Brought to you by Ezra—The leading full-body cancer screening company | Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security | LinkedIn Ads—Reach professionals and drive results for your business — Itamar Gilad is a product coach, author, and speaker with over two decades of experience in senior product roles at Google, Microsoft, and various startups. He is also the [&hellip;]