Itamar Gilad

Author and Product Coach at Independent

Former Google PM who worked on Gmail, YouTube, and Google+, now an author and product coach known for developing the evidence-guided development framework, the confidence meter for prioritization, and the GIST framework, drawing lessons from both Google's greatest successes and failures.

The Scientist The Craftsperson

Dimension Profile

Strategic Vision 60%

Execution & Craft 70%

Data & Experimentation 90%

Growth & Distribution 25%

Team & Leadership 40%

User Empathy & Research 50%

Key Themes

evidence-guided versus opinion-based development Google+ as plan-and-execute failure case study confidence meter for idea prioritization GIST framework for product planning Gmail tabbed inbox as evidence-guided success avoiding the build trap through experimentation

Episode Summary

Itamar Gilad contrasts evidence-guided development with the plan-and-execute model, using Google+ (where 1000 people built a product nobody wanted) and Gmail's tabbed inbox (which succeeded through iterative testing) as case studies from his time at Google. He introduces the confidence meter for scoring ideas from 0 to 10 and the GIST framework to help teams stop jumping from goals to tasks and instead do the hard work of validating ideas through cheap experiments.

Leadership Principles

→ Most product failures come from the plan-and-execute model where someone senior picks an idea and the team just builds it — Google+ wasted 1000 people this way
→ Use a confidence meter to score ideas from 0 to 10 based on supporting evidence — most ideas start at 1 or 2, and you should never fully build anything below an 8
→ The Gmail tabbed inbox succeeded because the team tested with real users in small experiments before committing to a full launch — evidence guided every step

Notable Quotes

"Google+ is the poster child of the plan-and-execute model. Someone very senior decided this was the idea, 1000 people worked on it, and it still failed. No amount of execution can save a bad idea."
— On why opinion-based development fails even at the best companies

"Most ideas are at a 1 or 2 on the confidence meter. You should never fully build anything below an 8. The job of product development is to move ideas up the confidence scale cheaply."
— On how to use the confidence meter for prioritization

"The Gmail tabbed inbox is a perfect example of evidence-guided development. The team tested with real users, measured the results, iterated, and only then committed to a full launch."
— On how evidence-guided development works in practice

Want to know how you compare?

Take the Assessment