By Teresa Torres · producttalk.org · @ttorres on X · LinkedIn
Teresa Torres and Petra Wille examine the sudden popularity of "taste" as a prized human skill in the AI era. Teresa argues the term is rarely defined, hard to teach, and can disguise personal preference as expertise, echoing the "founder mode" fad. Petra concedes that experienced product people do build real pattern recognition, but questions whether chasing taste is a worthwhile investment. Both trace the idea back to product sense and the myth of the lone visionary like Steve Jobs. They conclude that the durable skills are discovery, customer understanding, collaboration with AI, and evidence-grounded judgment, since taste without evidence is just opinion.
01Key takeaways
- Be skeptical when a buzzword like taste is used without a clear definition or way to build it.
- Ground product judgment in customer evidence rather than personal preference.
- Treat your taste as a hypothesis to test through discovery rather than a final verdict.
- Invest in continuous customer discovery skills, which compound and transfer across AI-era changes.
- Learn to collaborate with AI tools critically, checking their outputs against real user needs.
- Recognize that product sense develops over time through repeated practice and feedback, never finishing.
02Key sections
- What taste is and why it's trending
- The hosts introduce taste as a supposed differentiator as AI takes over design, delivery, and discovery. They question why the concept has suddenly become a buzzword.
- The problem with defining taste
- Teresa argues taste is rarely defined clearly and cannot easily be taught, making it a vague label that is hard to act on.
- Taste versus preference
- The conversation warns that appealing to taste can become a cover for "my preference trumps yours," shifting focus away from customers.
- Will AI eat taste too?
- The hosts consider whether AI will also automate or commoditize the judgment people currently associate with taste.
- What to invest in instead
- They recommend discovery skills, human interaction, effective AI collaboration, and evidence-based critical thinking as more reliable investments.
03From the post
“Listen to this episode on: Spotify | Apple Podcasts Is "taste" the must-have skill of the AI era — or just the latest tech buzzword? In this episode, Petra Wille and Teresa Torres unpack the growing hype around taste as a differentiating human trait in a world where AI is eating”
04Frameworks mentioned
Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.