It’s been nearly 20 years since Intuit rolled out the Design for Delight program. With Scott Cook’s customer centric innovation at its core, we lived and breathed deep customer empathy, go broad to go narrow (fall in love with the problem not the solution) and iterate early and often with customers. I couldn’t agree more how important that is at this moment and yes, product leads that experience. Always insightful Elena.
Couldn't agree more! I see this first-hand while rebranding our product and marketing.
I feel there’s still this stereotype that product and marketing are separate worlds. In reality, the best outcomes happen when both teams build the story together.
Totally agree that product can’t hide behind feature velocity anymore. In some sense though, this shift isn’t new. It has always been about taste. The best PMs have long obsessed over how something feels: the pacing of an interaction, the restraint in what not to build, the tone a user absorbs without realizing it.
What’s changing is that taste is finally being recognized as strategic, not decorative. As distribution channels get noisier and cheaper to access, taste becomes the differentiator. It’s how a product signals trust, personality, and longevity.
So yes, brand is a product job now. Maybe it always was.
Thanks for this and well timed to share with a client who is running their product from the marketing dept.
I'm also a lovable customer btw ... https://www.thedeanmachine.co/
Couldn't agree more!
If Product wasn't counting this part in their thinking, big loss then and big loss now
Product must touch every single part which will help it make better.
Branding must get
productized !
It’s been nearly 20 years since Intuit rolled out the Design for Delight program. With Scott Cook’s customer centric innovation at its core, we lived and breathed deep customer empathy, go broad to go narrow (fall in love with the problem not the solution) and iterate early and often with customers. I couldn’t agree more how important that is at this moment and yes, product leads that experience. Always insightful Elena.
Never heard of Design for Delight. Will check that out. Thanks for sharing!
Couldn't agree more! I see this first-hand while rebranding our product and marketing.
I feel there’s still this stereotype that product and marketing are separate worlds. In reality, the best outcomes happen when both teams build the story together.
It's okay for the roles to be clearly delineated. But product and marketing should be attached at the hip from day one.
Totally agree that product can’t hide behind feature velocity anymore. In some sense though, this shift isn’t new. It has always been about taste. The best PMs have long obsessed over how something feels: the pacing of an interaction, the restraint in what not to build, the tone a user absorbs without realizing it.
What’s changing is that taste is finally being recognized as strategic, not decorative. As distribution channels get noisier and cheaper to access, taste becomes the differentiator. It’s how a product signals trust, personality, and longevity.
So yes, brand is a product job now. Maybe it always was.
Love it