“I think Jessica Hische got it right: intuition is just data you're accessing without needing to understand the path to it. Data tells you what's already happening; intuition is what you reach for when you're trying to invent what doesn't exist yet.”

“I don't think data-driven is the right frame. I say be data-informed: let numbers sharpen your intuition, not replace it. When Crazy Egg started, we built heatmaps because we couldn't see where people clicked, not because a dashboard told us to. Use data to test what you already believe, especially once you have signal; before that, your conviction is the only map you have.”

“I use a micro/macro switch: data gives you the zoomed-in view, customer conversations give you the zoomed-out one, and the best decisions come from reconciling when they disagree. The heft of the decision matters too—two-way doors are cheap enough to trust intuition; big strategic bets need both.”

“I use intuition to pick the direction and data to prove it wrong. Early on, gut is all you have, but the moment you can put a prototype in front of five users, the debate should stop being about taste.”

“Intuition is your compass when the path is unknown, especially in early ideation where no data exists yet. Once you have users, data becomes the CEO at the table: every gut feeling becomes a hypothesis with an expected outcome and a 90-day review. Good luck.”

“I stopped framing it as intuition versus data years ago, especially for high-stakes innovation. My gut tells me where to look, the data proves what I find, and the story makes people care enough to act.”

“I use intuition to frame the first bet and data to sharpen it. For Sources, I started with a strong hunch about source provenance, then ran experiments and usability tests to prove what actually built trust before scaling.”

“I treat intuition as a hypothesis, not a verdict. My gut is useful when it comes from pattern recognition built on experience, but I always make it prove itself through a tiny experiment rather than trusting it blindly.”

“At Nextdoor, I sequenced a four-year business product rebuild by what the data said was broken, but the actual shape of each phase came from judgment: what could ship fast enough to earn the next release. I use data to name the problem and intuition to decide the order of attack.”