I have worked at a few startups. Over a few years, I've wondered to myself each time - what does true "product insight" look like in a start-up?
Here is my attempt at distilling this vague concept into concrete points.
True product insight is a clear roadmap on what to build over the next 2 years because you can see the future, have a clear understanding of the current state of technology and are able to ship fast.
Bad product insight is unclear thinking, 20 customers asking you for 20 different things, uncertain tech stack without any clue on how long things will take.
It's a spectrum and it's often unclear in a lot of start-ups.
Marrying the vision of a company, where you want to take it and the insight it'll take for a product to succeed is not easy. For VCs to properly screen this is also not easy (any sufficiently smart-sounding individual could claim to have it). The only differentiator is whether that investor has lived in the entrepreneur's shoes to recognize such opportunities.
For the ones who can distinguish and can resonate not just with the problem but have a satisfying solution built - there are riches to be made.