Why is data literacy and storytelling so important in product management? In this podcast hosted by Mark Bailes, Amplitude former VP of Product Ibrahim Bashir will be speaking on leveraging data literacy and storytelling in product management. As data availability and access have grown, the challenge has shifted to making sense of the data and taking effective action. Ibrahim shares insights on interpreting data, avoiding common biases, and using qualitative and quantitative insights to drive product decisions.
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Show Notes
- Data literacy has always been valuable for product managers, but the challenge has evolved from accessing data to making sense of the abundance of data.
- Creating a culture where data is used to make meaningful decisions should be the focus, not just procuring data tools.
- Blending qualitative and quantitative analysis is powerful – using “macro to micro” analysis to validate high-level insights at a detailed level.
- Differentiating between directional insights and precision insights is key for making the right decisions.
- Change management is critical when introducing new data tools and processes – the tools are secondary to changing the culture.
- Product operations should be a partner in creating a data-driven culture, not just the “bad guy” enforcing new processes.
- Understanding the life cycle of metrics and having good data pipeline monitoring is crucial to avoid misinterpreting data.
- AI could be leveraged to capture the analytical expertise of the organization and apply it to interpreting new data.
- Focusing on the “P zero” metrics – the core workflows that drive the majority of value – is more important than tracking everything.
- Aligning product strategy to the overall business strategy is key to avoid optimizing for the wrong things.
- Storytelling serves as a superpower, adapting to different organizations and audiences.
- The presentation and format of insights is as important as the content itself for effective decision-making.
- Cherry-picking data to tell a desired story or withholding data to avoid tough decisions can weaponize information.
- Product managers need empathy to navigate the explosion of data volume and complexity.
- Knowing what’s worth exploring and interpreting in the data is more valuable than trying to make sense of everything.
- Shadowing data analysts and scientists can help product managers develop intuition for interpreting data.
- Validating qualitative insights with quantitative data, and vice versa, can uncover important disconnects.
- Focusing on the “heavyweight” decisions that are hard to unwind requires more rigor in data analysis and interpretation.
- Avoiding the trap of building for a customer segment or behavior that is no longer relevant is crucial.
- Creating a data-driven culture starts with product leadership modeling the use of data in decision-making.
About the speaker
Ibrahim Bashir has been building and shipping software for over 20 years. He was mostly recently an executive at Amplitude, where he served as the VP of product. Before that, he scaled new products at Box, service infrastructure at Twitter, and the Kindle business at Amazon. Ibrahim also writes about the discipline of product management and craft of cross-functional leadership; you can consume his latest musings via his Substack newsletter Run the Business.
About the host
I am passionate about using technology to solve problems and I take great pleasure in helping others to achieve their goals. I live these values every day working in Product.