What is a Product Sense? A Deep Dive into the Heart of Product Management

iPhone

Years ago, before the age of iPhones, there was a true belief that phones were built for functionality. They were built for only basic functions like calling and messaging. iPhone was designed on the premise that people value aesthetics as much as they value functionality. The product sense in the creators of the iPhone was that people value aesthetics as much as they value functionality. It is true because in a real-life scenario, if you are going to buy a house, you will not be looking at it just as a functional aspect of your life. You will look at it from an aesthetic perspective as well. Aesthetics are the reason why people maintain their assets so well.

Facebook

When Facebook was expanding, a couple of key points of repulsion from the members were to keep it as a closed, premium group and not invite everyone from the whole world. But the product sense by the creators was that everyone loves to share information about themselves. 

Newsfeed

Newsfeed was initially perceived as very intrusive. Whatever you were doing was being shown to everyone without you even knowing about it. The product sense here was, that people are okay to discuss content about what is going on in the lives of people who are with them. 

Snapchat

Snapstreak is a feature on Snapchat that is built on the premise that people like to know how long they have been in touch with their friends, just the way we like it in real life as well.

TikTok

The product sense here is that a few seconds of TikTok videos give a sense of instant gratification by dopamine release, which leads to more consumption of the product.