Stop Shipping Trivia: The PMM guide to uncover real product insights
Originally published in Product Marketing Alliance on April 8, 2026. Estimated reading time: 7 minutes.
What is an insight?
You may, as a product marketer, already dabble in these so-called insights as part of your job scope. Sometimes it’s through a formal specialization, such as competitive intelligence. Other times, it’s primarily through a manic expectation of staying plugged into everything that’s happening with your users, market, and customers.
But wait, there’s more.
As a product marketer, you don’t just wash your hands off after uncovering these insights. You’re left with the burden of shipping these insights to multiple internal audiences. Everyone from PMs to Sales to Marketing. Plus, ensuring that they actually put it to use.
That brings me back to the opening question - “What is an insight?”
The best answer I subscribe to comes from “Any Insights Yet” by Chris Kocek - “An insight is a constellation of data points, observations, and human truths, coming together to solve a particular problem and inspire a new product design, business model, or innovative marketing campaign that gives your brand a long-term competitive advantage.”
That’s substantive and will serve as our north star. Using this ‘insight’ definition, let’s try answering a few different questions, namely…
What are we solving for as a product marketer?
What are the different researchable ‘data points’ we have access to?
Knowing those two, what is an insight for a product marketer?
How do we surface these insights?
How do we validate them?
Finally, how do we share these insights to make a difference?
Here we go, one by one.
1 / What are we solving for as a product marketer?
Reflect back on the insight definition from Kocek above. What does the product marketer solve for?
It’s easy to keep this at the primary (and first-order) level to come up with catchy answers like distribution, attention, and whatnot. But if we’re the players on a bigger team, playing the same game, what’s driving us falls into 4 categories. At an immediate level, we’re addressing (i) product issues and working towards specific (ii) product outcomes. Summing these up across a portfolio of products or adding everything up across teams, we’re tackling (iii) business issues and collectively hoping to achieve a defined set of (iv) business outcomes.
2 / What are the different researchable ‘data points’ we have access to?
The definition of ‘data points’ we’ll use here goes beyond numbers. I’m talking about all valuable research-friendly inputs spanning the ‘quantitative and qualitative’ realms. Keeping that in mind, there’s a wide swath of data points we can tap into, but a good starting exercise would be to map them out. That’s exactly what I try to do below while being as exhaustive as possible. You can pay attention to…
TRENDS: direct, adjacent, opposing, emerging, historical, predictive
RAW NUMBERS: user & product analytics, market, brand, media, benchmarks
OBSERVATIONS: contextual, anecdotal, contradictions
RECURRING TRUTHS: human/behavior patterns, social, economic, universal principles, cultural constants
PERSPECTIVES: stakeholders, cultural, interdisciplinary
GAPS: conflicting info, unanswered questions, research opportunities, unmet needs, innovation spaces
IMPACTS: immediate effects, broader implications, unintended consequences
CONNECTIONS: cross-topic linkages, systemic relationships, influencing factors
HYPOTHESES: assumptions, proposed explanations
FORECASTS: scenarios, what-if analysis, future projections
CONSTRAINTS: risks, barriers, challenges
ETHICS: sustainability, moral questions
SIGNALS OF CHANGE - Use CIPHER by Amy Webb: contradictions, inflections, practices, hacks, extremes, rarities
3 / Knowing the above two answers, what is an insight for a product marketer?
Here’s where I’ll rework Kocek’s definition to align with the “product insight” a product marketer typically seeks.
An insight for a product marketer is a pattern or constellation of relevant researchable points to address at least one of the core drivers: (i) product issues, (ii) product outcomes, (iii) business issues, or (iv) business outcomes. This sets up nicely for tackling the next question on how to discover them.
4 / How do we surface these insights?
There’s sadly no magic bullet or repeatable formula that I can offer to summon these insights. What I’ll share here are the different moves, if we can call it that for a moment, to shape these insights into ones that are valuable and actionable. For every move below, I’ll include either a prompt, a suggestion, or both to get you thinking in the right direction.
MOVE 1: Spot the repeats
What’s the pattern or tectonic shift behind the trends? How can the product or business use it?
What themes or conclusions repeat within and across your sources?
Have you discovered your own new patterns?
MOVE 2: Dig for the real “why”
Keep asking “why?” (Why this, not that?) until the answer stops changing.
Interrogate language: take a closer look at expressions and the ideas they’re hiding.
MOVE 3: Find the misfits
Create conflict: put two opposing truths side by side and ask, what’s the ‘BUT’ between them?
What are the inconsistencies and contradictions in your analysis so far?
Which data points do not fit together, and what beliefs are unlikely or impossible?
MOVE 4: Change the vantage point
Revisit the situation and reframe the question from a different angle.
Step away from the subject and ask questions that sit one level outside the core topic.
What would someone with no history or stake in this situation notice and conclude?
MOVE 5: Explore the futures
Ask “what if” to expand the space of possible explanations and outcomes.
What kind of future can you anticipate based on the patterns you’ve discovered so far?
What’s an unorthodox move to escape an inescapable premise or situation?
MOVE 6: Combine info and ideas
Associative thinking: connect seemingly unrelated concepts or disciplines to generate new hypotheses.
Which ideas fit together, and what can you build by combining them?
Is there any new way to combine different kinds of information, even if none of it is new?
MOVE 7: Challenge what you think you know
Park what you know: periodically set aside what you think you know and look for what you don’t.
Truth test: If you think this is true, how can you be sure? Could it be otherwise?
Re-examine assumptions: What assumption can you overturn? Where might there be a flawed belief?
What are your preconceptions? Have you removed them?
What are the gaps in the current thinking?
What’s sparking curiosity to investigate further? Any single event or observation?
MOVE 8: Refine the insight
How can you ambush the current constraints in the way everything’s operating?
Talk to the person who developed the prior insights to get a sense of their thinking.
Draft insights (quantity first): write many rough “insight to action” pairs before judging quality.
Edit to refine: shorten, remove clichés, strengthen verbs/adjectives, and write the way you speak.
Insight journal: keep a running journal of observations on how you’d change the status quo you uncover.
5 / How do we validate them?
Here’s the rub. Let’s say you have a sizable set of insights, and you may start wondering, do any of these have merit? What if you want to step back and do a quick gut check before you share your insights? Say no more! Here’s a list of questions to test every insight and determine whether it has any merit at all.
The TRUE question to validate your insight…
Is it a pattern or constellation of relevant researchable points that addresses at least one of the core drivers: (i) product issue, (ii) product outcome, (iii) business issue, or (iv) business outcome?
If you want to cut it a layer deeper, here are additional questions by category to further validate the insight's strength. Obviously, you want the response to be ‘YES’ to as many of these questions as possible.
Evidence
Is it an abductive reasoning claim: the best explanation given the evidence you have?
Is it a well-connected idea?
Actionability
Does this lead to a meaningful action that would plausibly move a core driver?
Can you reasonably close the gap between where you are and where you want to be (re: core driver)?
“Strategic Value”
Will it drive competitive advantage for a meaningful duration - ex: hard to copy and margin-enhancing?
Does it connect back to a core product or business attribute?
Novelty
Does it change your perception or introduce a materially different viewpoint?
Does it replace an old story with a more accurate and useful one?
Is it a deep (often unspoken) truth about behavior?
When you share it with colleagues, does it stop them from saying “So what?”
“Expressive Quality”
Is it clear, focused, and concise?
Is it non-obvious, unexpected, and unconventional?
“High Bar Checks” - only for the spiciest insights
Does it upend an existing concept?
Is it an unpredictable leap to a related but different story?
Is it really a high-quality fresh thought?
6 / How do we share these insights to make a difference?
“Having knowledge but lacking the power to express it clearly is no better than never having ideas at all.” - Pericles
That quote ought to serve as a punch in the gut after a long effort to compile and validate insights. The final milestone of communicating these insights and making them land may dictate the success of everything you’ve been working on so far. It may, fairly or unfairly, affect perception. Stated differently, the final 5% of sharing insights sadly has 80% of the impact on perception!
Given these horrible odds, how do we piece it all together in our favor?
I’d like to propose the concept of “TL;DR Insights.” You read it right! Your final presentation on the insights will have to celebrate brevity, while your supporting docs and longer assessments celebrate your meticulousness.
I’m assuming it’s a short slide deck in this scenario. But the advice can also apply to other formats, like a Slack message for the leadership team, a one-page write-up shared with cross-functional team leads, a readout in an all-hands meeting, and I can go on adding to this list!
Before I share the structure, it’s worth pondering on the who and the what.
Who are you presenting to
Who needs to know about these insights?
Who can take action with this information?
What to share
Lining up the answers to the following two questions can help you identify what to share in your presentation!
What are the most important insights I can share?
What are the decisions your stakeholders need to make?
Leaning on the above responses, identify three to five major insights to install as the backbone of your presentation.
Structure of TL;DR Insights
TITLE: Your main insight as the title or the first few lines on a slide
CONTENT: Your top 3 to 5 relevant researchable points to support that insight
Only if needed - EXPAND: Supporting slides that expand on each relevant researchable point.
Additional Resources
1 / “The Art of Insight: How to Have More Aha! Moments” by Kiefer and Constable
2 / “Any Insights Yet?: Connect the Dots. Create New Categories. Transform Your Business.” by Kocek
3 / “What the heck is INSIGHT & How to find it?” by Tran
4 / “Finding Insight: Discovering the Non-Obvious Obvious Connection to Why People Do What They Do” by Spaulding and Tull
5 / “Seeing What Others Don't: The Remarkable Ways We Gain Insights” by Klein
6 / “Product Research Rules: Nine Foundational Rules for Product Teams to Run Accurate Research that Delivers Actionable Insight” by Bilgen, Lombardo, and Connors
7 / “The Six Disciplines of Strategic Thinking: Leading Your Organization into the Future” by Watkins
8 / “The Consumer Insights Revolution: Transforming market research for competitive advantage” by Phillips, Barry, Gans, and Schardt
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