The Daydreamer's Guide to Product Sense
How to See Products as They Are—and as They Could Be
The Two Lives of Every Product
Every product lives two lives: the one we experience today and the one it could become.
Most people only see the first life—the version that exists now. But there’s power in seeing both: holding the tension between reality and possibility.
As children, we did this instinctively. We questioned everything. We imagined how things could work differently. Somewhere along the way, many of us stopped doing that. I never did.
Instead, I turned it into a lens—a way of engaging with the world.
When I interact with a product, I see two realities:
The present reality: shaped by constraints, compromises, and deliberate decisions. This is the world of trade-offs—the adult’s perspective where practicality often overshadows possibility.
The imagined future: a world of hidden potential, where unrealized magic could transform the experience. This is the child’s perspective, where anything feels possible, and questions flow freely.
Great products emerge when someone can seamlessly toggle between the current state and what’s possible, bridging practicality with imagination.
This duality isn’t just for designers or product managers. It’s a mindset anyone can adopt. After all, we’re all users of countless products every day. Each interaction is a chance to ask: “What could this become?”
But imagination alone isn’t enough. The real magic happens when we bridge the gap—when we capture these observations and turn them into insight. This is where breakthrough products are born: in the space between what is and what could be.
From Observation to Insight
Seeing both lives of a product is just the start. The real breakthroughs come from capturing these moments and turning them into an archive of possibilities.
For me, this means journaling daily. My entries aren’t elaborate—just quick captures of thoughts, ideas, and patterns:
A sketch of how a flow could work differently after experiencing friction.
A screenshot of a feature that solves a problem elegantly.
A few bullet points about a pattern I noticed, hinting at deeper needs.
They’re nothing fancy—just fragments of reality and possibility, saved before they fade. But over time, these fragments tell a larger story.
What do I capture? Moments that make me pause:
When a product interaction reveals hidden opportunities.
When I notice myself creating a workaround—a signal that the current solution isn’t right.
When patterns reveal unmet needs hiding in plain sight.
These observations often sit quietly in my notes for months, collecting and connecting in the background. But when the right problem arises, they become invaluable—like having a conversation with my past self about ideas I once glimpsed but wasn’t ready to use.
At its core, this practice is about keeping that childhood wonder alive. Not just seeing the world as it is, but collecting glimpses of how it could be. The more we nurture this way of seeing, the more naturally we transform possibility into reality.
Different Ways of Seeing
To uncover the gap between reality and possibility, I rely on four distinct lenses.
Each reveals something unique, offering a new way to frame problems and uncover opportunities.
1. The Curious Child: Why are things the way they are?
This lens questions basic assumptions that others take for granted. By stripping away learned behaviors, it helps uncover opportunities hidden in plain sight.
Example: Why are all notifications treated equally on smartphones? Could we rethink urgency and relevance in how they're delivered?
Prompt Questions:
Why do we accept this as "just how it works"?
What if we challenged this core assumption?
Could there be a fundamentally different approach?
Try it: Pick a product or feature you use daily and question its most basic design choices. You’ll be surprised how many “that’s just how it works” moments can spark new ideas.
2. The Frustrated User: What’s getting in our way?
This lens treats friction as a signal. Every clunky or frustrating interaction points to an unmet need or opportunity for improvement.
Example: At self-checkouts, weight detection errors and unclear prompts frustrate users. What if they could skip the process entirely and just walk out, with items automatically detected and charged?
Prompt Questions:
Where do people pause or hesitate?
What makes this interaction feel unnatural?
Which parts of this experience require extra effort?
Try it: Notice your own moments of frustration with products. Instead of working around them on autopilot, write them down—they often cluster around valuable opportunity spaces.
3. The Observer: How do people really behave?
This lens highlights the gap between how systems are designed to work and how people actually use them. Real-life workarounds often reveal unexpected pain points or opportunities.
Example: Commuters lifting their phones high for better signal highlight connectivity struggles in transit areas. This behavior points to a clear need for better infrastructure or signal-boosting tools.
Prompt Questions:
What workarounds are people creating?
Which features are being used differently than intended?
What patterns emerge across different users?
Try it: Watch how people use everyday products. Each workaround is a clue to an unmet need, especially if the behavior repeats across users.
4. The Problem Solver: How might we bridge these worlds?
This lens synthesizes the insights from the other three to imagine transformative solutions that close the gap between reality and possibility.
Example: Observing friction in finding parking spaces in cities led to products predicting open spaces with real-time data, transforming a frustrating process into an effortless experience.
Prompt Questions:
How could we eliminate this friction entirely?
What would a more natural solution look like?
How might we turn this workaround into a feature?
Try it: Use your observations to imagine not just fixes but experiences that feel seamless and transformative. Focus on what could be, not just what's wrong now.
From Daydreams to Reality
The most powerful product insights often come from reconnecting with our childhood imagination.
Take Apple’s AirTags. They transformed a universal frustration—losing things—into something almost magical: a digital game of hot and cold.
This wasn’t just clever product design. It was the result of seeing two realities at once: the adult problem of tracking belongings and the childlike joy of playful discovery. The best solutions emerge when we blend practicality with imagination to create something transformative.
The magic of great products lies in their ability to solve problems while sparking joy. It’s not just about what they do—it’s about how they make us feel.
Every interaction holds the seed of its future evolution. Every frustration is a clue to something better. But spotting these opportunities takes practice—learning to see what others miss, capturing ideas before they fade, and imagining how things could be.
And this practice doesn’t just lead to better products—it helps you tell better stories about them:
For users: Capturing the moment they think, “Finally, something that truly understands my frustrations and can solve my problems, making life easier.”
For teams: Revealing how small, thoughtful changes ripple outward, solving challenges they didn’t realize they could overcome.
For markets: Painting a vision of the future your product enables—a world where moments of magic feel inevitable.
Great products don’t just solve problems—they tell stories about what’s possible. And those stories inspire action.
By using the four lenses—Curious Child, Frustrated User, Observer, Problem Solver—you can build a habit of uncovering hidden possibilities. And the more you nurture this way of seeing, the more naturally you’ll transform daydreams into reality.
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Keep Iterating,
—Rohan
