YouSaid · the spoken record

Gérald Marolf

lines on the record: 60
first: 2025-12-19
most recent: 2025-12-19
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“So, running and coming from running and having run culture as a base is just a great starting point because we simply can't fuck up. You cannot give people a product that they cannot do their half marathon in. And then, yes, we have the Reddits where we'll have long debates because, I mean, this year we launched a four-hour marathon shoe. If I would ever run a marathon in below four hours, I would probably be dead. So there is an audience who needs different kinds of shoes. But the hardcore audience thinks that everything needs to be, obviously, as tailored to the fastest and most performance. But we're also trying to work even within running towards different audiences. And then that triggers outside of running also different communities.”
2025-12-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20Product: On Running's CPO on How to Create Emotion Through Product | Why 99% of Products Fail and How to Create Cults Around Products | The Biggest Product Mistakes On Have Made & Lessons Learned with Gérald Marolf · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I personally love that bipolarity. You probably also have a MacBook Pro in front of you and you have absolutely no clue of the power the machine actually has and could be used for. And aspiration is one, but then it's also, it's good to have great product even though you don't use it at its full extent. I don't see any negative to that. Anyone should go and get the greatest cashmere out there if they fancy cashmere. They probably don't need it to stay warm. We really strive for the factors that are not just always straightforward, which is not just style and aesthetics, but it is also, to some extent, a view on how product ages, what durability means, how colors play with each other, and how it gives you an opportunity to also differentiate yourselves in your everyday life.”
2025-12-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20Product: On Running's CPO on How to Create Emotion Through Product | Why 99% of Products Fail and How to Create Cults Around Products | The Biggest Product Mistakes On Have Made & Lessons Learned with Gérald Marolf · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, I don't think so. Because simple will result in more storytelling needs and less word of mouth. I think simple is great if you have a trackpad or airpods, but I'm not sure that simple these days will break through in many cases. Consumer electronics might be different. I don't know. I'm not up to speed there. But for us, I think simple gives you less opportunity to be an expert yourself. It gives you less opportunity to tweak, to learn, to explore, and to also give it its own life.”
2025-12-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20Product: On Running's CPO on How to Create Emotion Through Product | Why 99% of Products Fail and How to Create Cults Around Products | The Biggest Product Mistakes On Have Made & Lessons Learned with Gérald Marolf · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And the hardest part is to not lose the thought because you start with the consumer and you start with, well, here's something where.”
2025-12-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20Product: On Running's CPO on How to Create Emotion Through Product | Why 99% of Products Fail and How to Create Cults Around Products | The Biggest Product Mistakes On Have Made & Lessons Learned with Gérald Marolf · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You can iterate very rapidly. I think the moment I switched from non-physical to physical product, I had to completely relearn that. Once it's in your hands, I cannot change it. I cannot touch it. I cannot just send you another pair of laces in the morning. Why do you choose the pair of shoes you choose? Is it just because you're too lazy to actually tie them up or because the leather you would need to polish or whatever? I cannot change it. I cannot influence it anymore. You let it go way earlier. Whereas if you do a, I don't know, a homepage on bing.com, you might want to hide something and then some people find out and then you can actually emphasize and you have an echo chamber you can work with where when you do physical product once it's gone it's gone but your question is it's interesting because it's often at the very start of a brief”
2025-12-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20Product: On Running's CPO on How to Create Emotion Through Product | Why 99% of Products Fail and How to Create Cults Around Products | The Biggest Product Mistakes On Have Made & Lessons Learned with Gérald Marolf · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“A big question for my time in tech, that was much easier because. User experience that is nonlinear or a digital product that is slightly disturbing creates a lot of energy immediately, but you take way less risk.”
2025-12-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20Product: On Running's CPO on How to Create Emotion Through Product | Why 99% of Products Fail and How to Create Cults Around Products | The Biggest Product Mistakes On Have Made & Lessons Learned with Gérald Marolf · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because it's impossible to engineer because we're all different. How do you stimulate curiosity? Why do you create a button on a gaming console that makes a sound? There's no rationale for that, but it triggers something that you can own and that stimulates you in a positive or negative way, but it creates some kind of emotion. And I think the more you go into commodity product and footwear, I think to some extent is that because we all need to wear shoes every day, the harder it gets, but also the more exciting it is, because that's then the true challenge to engineer something where you touch it, you step into it, and you're like, huh, okay, there's even a bit more than what I expected. It's not just the color I choose, but there's something more behind it. That's what we're trying to engineer for.”
2025-12-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20Product: On Running's CPO on How to Create Emotion Through Product | Why 99% of Products Fail and How to Create Cults Around Products | The Biggest Product Mistakes On Have Made & Lessons Learned with Gérald Marolf · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes. And I think that is probably the idea or the red threat even behind it. What is nicer about perfume is that it even costs less to make than the actual packaging, which for us is slightly different. But every great product you should probably trigger somewhat of that slight discomfort of challenging yourself of is it the right thing for me? And not all footwear does that. But when it does that, you're already one step ahead in actually falling in love with the product itself.”
2025-12-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20Product: On Running's CPO on How to Create Emotion Through Product | Why 99% of Products Fail and How to Create Cults Around Products | The Biggest Product Mistakes On Have Made & Lessons Learned with Gérald Marolf · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, why do you buy a smell, right? It activates a lot in the human brain and it becomes part of you. But you leave a lot to the consumer when you do fragrances. And you probably leave too much to the consumer because how much they use it, how often, and then you lose the smell of it. But first things first, I think you mostly fall in love with the product packaging, the bottle, whatever it is. And that was already there, 80s, 90s, before everyone started to create all the beauty and everything behind that. I think the fragrance industry was pioneering basically that.”
2025-12-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20Product: On Running's CPO on How to Create Emotion Through Product | Why 99% of Products Fail and How to Create Cults Around Products | The Biggest Product Mistakes On Have Made & Lessons Learned with Gérald Marolf · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Think the idea of good product, at least for me started with something slightly weird, which is perfume. Perfume for me was the unlock in terms of that, why do you sell something that is just the smell and create a bottle and something around it that people actually crave for it?”
2025-12-19 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20Product: On Running's CPO on How to Create Emotion Through Product | Why 99% of Products Fail and How to Create Cults Around Products | The Biggest Product Mistakes On Have Made & Lessons Learned with Gérald Marolf · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source