Building great products requires more than technical skills and market research. It demands a fundamental shift in how teams approach problems, make decisions, and work together. Pankaj Prasoon, a product strategist and author with over two decades in the tech industry, has learned these lessons through both boardroom successes and early-stage company challenges. His experience leading products, cloud, and AI initiatives at scale has shaped a clear philosophy on product excellence.
Three Principles That Define Product Excellence
Most product advice sounds good in theory but falls apart when deadlines hit and stakeholders start asking for everything at once. Prasoon has seen enough product launches go wrong to know what separates teams that build successful products from those that just build products.
His three principles aren’t revolutionary, but they work when teams actually follow them. The first rule might sound obvious, but it’s the one most teams ignore when they’re excited about their latest idea:
Fall In Love With The Problem, Not The Solution
Teams love their own ideas. That’s the problem. “Too many teams build features no one asks for,” he says. “Great products start with understanding the customer’s pain point, deeply and continuously.” Most product failures happen because teams assume they know what customers want without actually checking. Prasoon remembers a painful lesson from his Microsoft days that taught him to stay humble about customer needs. “We spent six months building a new feature. We were so proud of it. But when we finally showed it to the customer, the first thing one of them said was, ‘That’s interesting. But what I really need is…'” The gap between what they built and what customers actually wanted was embarrassing. “Trust me, it was a lesson. And it taught me everything about staying close to the problem, not just the product.”
Build Fast, But With A Purpose In Mind
Speed kills bad products, but it also kills teams that don’t know where they’re going. Prasoon used to think faster was always better until he watched his teams burn out building features that went nowhere. “Velocity matters, but so does the direction. And I’ll be honest, in my early days, I got this completely wrong. I would continuously push my team to shift faster and faster, thinking speed alone was the win.” The result was a lot of activity but not much progress. “We were building without a clear destination. It felt chaotic rather than productive,” he admits. Real velocity comes from knowing where you’re headed before you start running. “The best teams move quickly and with clarity, measuring, iterating, and aligning every release to business outcomes. Speed should represent progress, not chaos.”
Create Systems, Not Silos
Great products don’t happen when engineering builds one thing, marketing promises another, and sales tells customers something completely different. Prasoon has seen too many good ideas die because teams couldn’t work together. “Products don’t live in isolation. They succeed and thrive when cross-functional teams operate as one.” Getting different departments to actually collaborate takes more than putting them in the same meeting. “From engineering to marketing, from finance to design, everyone must share the same vision and metrics. That’s how you scale sustainably.” When teams measure success the same way, they stop working against each other. “This mindset allowed us to move as one team across geographies and disciplines.”
These principles sound simple because they are. The hard part is sticking to them when everything gets complicated. “Product excellence is a mindset. Obsess over the problem, move fast but with clarity, break silos with systems,” Prasoon explains. Most teams know what they should do. The challenge is doing it consistently when pressure builds and shortcuts start looking tempting. Prasoon’s advice for teams struggling with product development cuts straight to the point: “What’s one problem you’re truly obsessed with right now? Start there.” The best products come from teams that genuinely care about solving specific problems, not from trying to build something for everyone.
Connect with Pankaj Prasoon on LinkedIn to explore more about product excellence.
