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Evidence-Guided: Creating High Impact Products in the Face of Uncertainty
Research shows that most of what we build creates little or no value for our users and the business. To break away from this harsh reality, you need to adopt a different system, one that combines human judgment with evidence.
In this book, Itamar Gilad presents an actionable model to bring evidence-guided development into your organization. Combining tried-and-tested methods with tools created by the author, Evidence-Guided offers a systematic approach—the GIST model (Goals, Ideas, Steps, and Tasks)—to help you create high-impact products. You'll learn how to choose the right outcomes, prioritize ideas, build and learn at a fast pace, and collaborate more effectively with teammates, managers, and stakeholders. The book provides principles, models, tools, and processes, all demonstrated through real-world examples and infused with nuance gained through years of practice.
The methods presented in Evidence-Guided can be used by individual contributors, team leads, and managers. They apply to companies of all sizes and life stages. If you’re looking to build high-impact products, this book is for you.
About the AuthorItamar Gilad is an internationally acclaimed author, speaker, and coach. He held senior product management and engineering roles for two decades at Google, Microsoft, and a number of startups. Since 2017, Itamar has been teaching and coaching evidence-guided product development to hundreds of companies and thousands of product people. He is the creator of the GIST model, the Confidence Meter, and other widely-used frameworks and tools. Itamar is a regular speaker at industry events, and he publishes a popular product management newsletter.
Praise for Evidence-GuidedIn this must-read book Gilad offers a simple, yet powerful, blueprint for product development inspired by the scientific method. It will help you move away from opinions and politics and embrace evidence-based development. A critically important book for anyone designing and building products.
— Nir Eyal, author of How to Build Habit-Forming Products
Itamar Gilad gives us the motivation and realistic processes that elevate product development from opinion-based to evidence-based, with real-world examples and experiences.
— Ronny Kohavi, Best-selling author of Trustworthy Online Controlled A Practical Guide to A/B Testing,
Evidence-Guided is a masterpiece, it shows how to gain confidence and hit your product goals to have impact in a systematic and empowering way. It brings together so many areas of best practice in a way that just makes sense.
— Phil Hornby, Founder and product coach, for product people
In this book, Itamar Gilad presents an actionable model to bring evidence-guided development into your organization. Combining tried-and-tested methods with tools created by the author, Evidence-Guided offers a systematic approach—the GIST model (Goals, Ideas, Steps, and Tasks)—to help you create high-impact products. You'll learn how to choose the right outcomes, prioritize ideas, build and learn at a fast pace, and collaborate more effectively with teammates, managers, and stakeholders. The book provides principles, models, tools, and processes, all demonstrated through real-world examples and infused with nuance gained through years of practice.
The methods presented in Evidence-Guided can be used by individual contributors, team leads, and managers. They apply to companies of all sizes and life stages. If you’re looking to build high-impact products, this book is for you.
About the AuthorItamar Gilad is an internationally acclaimed author, speaker, and coach. He held senior product management and engineering roles for two decades at Google, Microsoft, and a number of startups. Since 2017, Itamar has been teaching and coaching evidence-guided product development to hundreds of companies and thousands of product people. He is the creator of the GIST model, the Confidence Meter, and other widely-used frameworks and tools. Itamar is a regular speaker at industry events, and he publishes a popular product management newsletter.
Praise for Evidence-GuidedIn this must-read book Gilad offers a simple, yet powerful, blueprint for product development inspired by the scientific method. It will help you move away from opinions and politics and embrace evidence-based development. A critically important book for anyone designing and building products.
— Nir Eyal, author of How to Build Habit-Forming Products
Itamar Gilad gives us the motivation and realistic processes that elevate product development from opinion-based to evidence-based, with real-world examples and experiences.
— Ronny Kohavi, Best-selling author of Trustworthy Online Controlled A Practical Guide to A/B Testing,
Evidence-Guided is a masterpiece, it shows how to gain confidence and hit your product goals to have impact in a systematic and empowering way. It brings together so many areas of best practice in a way that just makes sense.
— Phil Hornby, Founder and product coach, for product people
- GenresBusinessDesignNonfiction
250 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 18, 2023
136 people are currently reading
506 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
September 25, 2023
Greatly actionable.
This book does what it says: brings the tried and tested product methodologies from the field and unites them under one very actionable framework called GIST. The book also gives you ammunition to drive change in your organization in different contexts, and also counterargues the most common excuses not to be evidence-driven.
Even if you think GIST might not be for you, the philosophy behind it is universal and applicable to most companies.
A great read if you're working in Product, a must read if you're leading a product company.
One of the best practical Product Management books I've read.
This book does what it says: brings the tried and tested product methodologies from the field and unites them under one very actionable framework called GIST. The book also gives you ammunition to drive change in your organization in different contexts, and also counterargues the most common excuses not to be evidence-driven.
Even if you think GIST might not be for you, the philosophy behind it is universal and applicable to most companies.
A great read if you're working in Product, a must read if you're leading a product company.
One of the best practical Product Management books I've read.
October 29, 2023
One of the product books I'll very likely refer other people. I thought I had a good idea on evidence based development, but this book really opened my eyes on what more is possible and also how much more iterative and adaptive things can be.
Superb!
Superb!
December 1, 2024
Evidence-Guided is a practical guide for creating products that truly matter to users and businesses. Gilad introduces the GIST model—Goals, Ideas, Steps, Tasks—to help teams focus on clear objectives, generate and test ideas, and work efficiently.
The book emphasizes making decisions based on real evidence rather than just opinions, aiming to reduce wasted effort and improve outcomes.
It's filled with real-world examples and tools that can be applied in various company settings.
Reading it as an engineering manager it provided a structure guide for better cooperation with my product parnters
The book emphasizes making decisions based on real evidence rather than just opinions, aiming to reduce wasted effort and improve outcomes.
It's filled with real-world examples and tools that can be applied in various company settings.
Reading it as an engineering manager it provided a structure guide for better cooperation with my product parnters
June 15, 2024
Highly recommended!
I've been reading Itamar's blog for ~5 years already and most of the material in the book available for free on his blog. It's nice too see that all that useful information materialized in book format. I think that a methodical approach to explain things in order will help many more people to appreciate power of OKR's and GIST.
I've been reading Itamar's blog for ~5 years already and most of the material in the book available for free on his blog. It's nice too see that all that useful information materialized in book format. I think that a methodical approach to explain things in order will help many more people to appreciate power of OKR's and GIST.
January 5, 2025
Sehr gutes Buch. Nicht einfach blind Ideen folgen, sondern effizient Ideen weiter testen und testen, bis man eine perfekte Idee hat. Und das mit dem sehr eingängigen und toll dargestellten GIST Model.
February 4, 2024
Super helpful frameworks for testing and validating product ideas iteratively. I also love the proposed approaches to creating really transparent roadmaps and connecting product/engineering work to strategic goals.
December 2, 2023
Easily one of my favorite product books. I started out with the online resources, went through the free ebooks and ended up reading the book as hard paper. In a truly inspirational and actionable manner, Itamar is showing ways on how to implement the GIST framework into any product organization.
November 26, 2023
If you are looking to create an organization and culture that creates products driven by data, this is a fantastic read. The framework makes sense and the book contains many helpful guides/heuristics for judging quality of evidence.
December 20, 2023
Such a great book for people in product! Insightful, instructional and to the point. I loved how it didn't just present the GIST framework but also tackled the challenges and tweaks that may be needed for product development in different industries and different company development stages, as well as how to introduce evidence guided approach at a company.
April 22, 2025
Evidence-Guided is a masterclass in product development under uncertainty. Drawing from his extensive experience at Google and other tech companies, Gilad lays out a practical framework for making smarter product decisions without relying on guesswork or intuition alone. His approach is structured around the GIST model (Goals, Ideas, Steps, and Tasks), which strikes a perfect balance between agile delivery and evidence-based validation. The book feels like a breath of fresh air in a landscape oversaturated with vague platitudes and outdated methodologies.
What sets Evidence-Guided apart is its deep respect for reality. Gilad doesn't promise silver bullets. Instead, he encourages product teams to embrace ambiguity while steadily reducing it through continuous learning. He provides concrete tools like the Confidence Meter and ICE, which help teams make informed bets rather than blind leaps. The writing is clear and concise, yet full of insightful anecdotes and case studies that make the material come alive.
Perhaps most valuable is the book's applicability. Whether you're a product manager, founder, or part of an innovation team, Gilad’s guidance is instantly usable. It's rare to find a framework that’s both strategic and tactical, and rarer still to find one explained so well. The book challenges many commonly held assumptions about roadmaps, MVPs, and user feedback, but does so with data and logic that are hard to argue with.
In a world where uncertainty is the norm, Evidence-Guided provides a compass. It helps product teams shift their mindset from "we think" to "we know enough to act." Itamar Gilad has delivered a modern classic in product thinking - pragmatic, actionable, and deeply empowering.
What sets Evidence-Guided apart is its deep respect for reality. Gilad doesn't promise silver bullets. Instead, he encourages product teams to embrace ambiguity while steadily reducing it through continuous learning. He provides concrete tools like the Confidence Meter and ICE, which help teams make informed bets rather than blind leaps. The writing is clear and concise, yet full of insightful anecdotes and case studies that make the material come alive.
Perhaps most valuable is the book's applicability. Whether you're a product manager, founder, or part of an innovation team, Gilad’s guidance is instantly usable. It's rare to find a framework that’s both strategic and tactical, and rarer still to find one explained so well. The book challenges many commonly held assumptions about roadmaps, MVPs, and user feedback, but does so with data and logic that are hard to argue with.
In a world where uncertainty is the norm, Evidence-Guided provides a compass. It helps product teams shift their mindset from "we think" to "we know enough to act." Itamar Gilad has delivered a modern classic in product thinking - pragmatic, actionable, and deeply empowering.
August 14, 2024
This book is a game-changer. I initially read it quickly in preparation for interviewing Itamar on our podcast, The Product Weekend Podcast (if you're curious), but I’ve since revisited it more thoroughly. As a Product Manager, I've often faced the frustration of developing products based on anecdotal evidence or following what others were doing, hoping it would all come together. Spoiler: it didn’t.
I suspected there had to be a better approach, and then I discovered this book through Lenny’s Podcast. I immediately bought it, and it completely shifted my perspective. The book stands out because of its practicality—it doesn’t just offer abstract theories; it provides step-by-step guidance on what to do and how to do it. It’s exactly what I needed.
Now, I’m eager to apply the insights and strategies as I deepen my understanding of them. This isn’t just a book you read once and shelve—it's a workbook, a resource to return to repeatedly. There’s so much to absorb and digest here, offering a whole new way of thinking and working. I know it will continue to be an invaluable tool as I navigate the complexities of product management.
Thanks Itamar!
I suspected there had to be a better approach, and then I discovered this book through Lenny’s Podcast. I immediately bought it, and it completely shifted my perspective. The book stands out because of its practicality—it doesn’t just offer abstract theories; it provides step-by-step guidance on what to do and how to do it. It’s exactly what I needed.
Now, I’m eager to apply the insights and strategies as I deepen my understanding of them. This isn’t just a book you read once and shelve—it's a workbook, a resource to return to repeatedly. There’s so much to absorb and digest here, offering a whole new way of thinking and working. I know it will continue to be an invaluable tool as I navigate the complexities of product management.
Thanks Itamar!
April 10, 2025
Not much new here
Felt more like yet another book on OKRs, though I did like the addition of “context” for the OKRs. The confidence meter is interesting in theory, but the scale seems arbitrary it’s not linear or exponential, but the weight of the different pieces of evidence increase by differing factors. Also, it seems to be additive in a way as you accumulate more evidence, but I’m not convinced a handful of lesser-weight evidence equates to a higher confidence test.
At the end of the day, the idea outcomes over outputs isn’t new. Aligning around Goals and OKRs isn’t new. You’d probably be better finding a book about product discovery techniques that goes more into the validation tests.
Felt more like yet another book on OKRs, though I did like the addition of “context” for the OKRs. The confidence meter is interesting in theory, but the scale seems arbitrary it’s not linear or exponential, but the weight of the different pieces of evidence increase by differing factors. Also, it seems to be additive in a way as you accumulate more evidence, but I’m not convinced a handful of lesser-weight evidence equates to a higher confidence test.
At the end of the day, the idea outcomes over outputs isn’t new. Aligning around Goals and OKRs isn’t new. You’d probably be better finding a book about product discovery techniques that goes more into the validation tests.
September 25, 2024
Short, practical and somewhat optimistic ;)
I wish some of my bosses read it at least once, some hardships could be well avoided, if not all of them.
To quote another quote from the book "Show me the data, if there is no data and we rely on our opinions, we will rely on mine" (paraphrasing and butchering, I know, I won't find that quote now).
In any case, GIST or something else, it is a well-polished, short book with practical ideas one can try to implement, I liked it even though my ADHD brain decided to lay it aside for some time.
Check Itamar's website evidenceguided.com/bookresources
I wish some of my bosses read it at least once, some hardships could be well avoided, if not all of them.
To quote another quote from the book "Show me the data, if there is no data and we rely on our opinions, we will rely on mine" (paraphrasing and butchering, I know, I won't find that quote now).
In any case, GIST or something else, it is a well-polished, short book with practical ideas one can try to implement, I liked it even though my ADHD brain decided to lay it aside for some time.
Check Itamar's website evidenceguided.com/bookresources
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 3, 2025
Wyciągnąłem z tej książki sporo nowych informacji, mimo że praktykuję podejście Autora już od wielu lat. Najbardziej spodobał mi się rozdział szósty (adaptacja GIST w organizacji) oraz drugi (wyznaczanie celów).
Zabrakło mi większej liczby praktycznych porad dot. ICE (pierwsze z brzegu - pokusa rozbudowywania modelu o dodatkowe parametry). Publikacji dobrze zrobiłoby też dodanie dodatkowych use case'ów (realnych, z doświadczenia innych product managerów).
Ogólnie lektura jest rzeczowa i dobrze napisana, choć nieco sztywna w formie;)
Zabrakło mi większej liczby praktycznych porad dot. ICE (pierwsze z brzegu - pokusa rozbudowywania modelu o dodatkowe parametry). Publikacji dobrze zrobiłoby też dodanie dodatkowych use case'ów (realnych, z doświadczenia innych product managerów).
Ogólnie lektura jest rzeczowa i dobrze napisana, choć nieco sztywna w formie;)
April 1, 2025
Not the best product book I have read, thats for sure. Wouldn’t make it even into top 5 most likely. But in nutshell, not bad. Focused most on prioritization of backlog and value drivem approach. Despite being in a phase of new engagement where i could relate, i didnt really get s feeling something unique stucked with me from this book…
February 26, 2024
Libro de referencia para toda persona de producto preocupada por entregar valor conjuntamente (usuarios y empresa). Una metodología que ayuda a conectar objetivos, ideación, discovery y ejecución de una manera sencilla y efectiva a toda la organización. Totalmente recomendable a todos los niveles.
May 5, 2024
Concise, practical and with lots of examples. I found the proposed blueprint quite useful, with actionable insights, flexible enough to be adapted in various business scenarios. Overall a must read for Product Managers liking Marty Cagan vision of product development.
May 21, 2024
The ideas in this book are fantastic, therefore 5 stars. I am taking one star off because the book is not so easy to read; its a bit repetitive when the author repeatedly applies the ideas to different "segments" of Product Management (e.g. B2B vs. B2C)
July 3, 2024
I found it useful to break the bad habit to take decision on next projects to work based on opinions, guesses or just because the C line say it. I rated it with 4 stars because some steps didn't seem to me that practical to apply them.
August 19, 2025
La mejor forma de llevar todo el ciclo de un producto controlado y sin RoadMap estricto.
Se puede combinar con todo lo que quieras de discovery.
Suplemante KPIs Tree y Opportunity Solution Tree
En el Delivery puede unirse con scrum y kanban
Se puede combinar con todo lo que quieras de discovery.
Suplemante KPIs Tree y Opportunity Solution Tree
En el Delivery puede unirse con scrum y kanban
December 25, 2023
Excellent book: actionable, clear, exemplified. A solid action guide to build an evidence-guided decision-making practice in your product work.
February 1, 2025
Very nice
May 11, 2025
If you work at product, read it. Fantastic!
November 13, 2025
A must-read for product teams who want to maximize resource efficiency and see the results of their work.
March 22, 2025
For me eye opening from the book was message to focus on creating outcomes instead of outputs. I work in coorporation, book insights and advices sound usefull for interconnecting various goals followed by many departments.
Author suggests simple framework for product development and builds on many highly effective known methods (okr, north star, kpi's)
Author suggests simple framework for product development and builds on many highly effective known methods (okr, north star, kpi's)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 15, 2024
There is an abundance of product management frameworks, most of which are just theories created by "experts" sitting on their desks and barely tested against the realities of product discovery and development. Evidence-Guided goes beyond being just another framework by offering a holistic view of how to develop products from ideation to the hands of the end user, while making these products both valuable to end users and also viable for businesses. Especially the last 3 chapters are impressive where the author provides tips on how to navigate certain situations while implementing the framework in different types of business settings based on real-life examples.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews