Explain-It-to-Prove-You-Understand-It
Force yourself and others to explain decisions; if you can't articulate it, you probably don't understand it.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 85%
The best test of understanding is trying to explain something to someone else. Söderström pushes a norm where leaders owe an explanation for every decision — not agreement, but a real 'why.' Insisting on articulation exposes when there's genuinely nothing there, and once something is explained the knowledge becomes shared and the whole org gets more effective.
Origin
Söderström's personal leadership practice at Spotify, which he frames as 'Socratic debate' and provocatively as '0% art, 0% magic, 100% science.'
Core principles
- 01The best way to understand something is to try to explain it to someone else
- 02Leaders owe an explanation, even to those who won't get their way — seniority is not a reason
- 03Inability to explain usually means you don't understand it, and often that nothing is there
- 04Explaining converts private instinct into shared, reusable organizational knowledge
- 05'Art' and 'magic' are just labels for what we can't yet explain
How to run it
- 1
Require explanations, not authority
Establish that decisions must be justified with a real reason. Ban 'because I'm more senior / I've seen this before / you're not smart enough' as acceptable rationale.
Pro tip Promise employees that even when they don't get their way, they're entitled to understand why — that's the contract, not universal agreement.
- 2
Use explanation as a self-test
Go around explaining your own reasoning to people (even unprompted) specifically to check whether you actually understood it, not to appear smart.
Pro tip Condense and re-condense — writing something out and rewriting it more tightly forces the gaps into the open.
Watch out Sometimes a real instinct genuinely can't yet be verbalized — but far more often the inability to explain means there's nothing there.
- 3
Treat 'art/magic' as a to-do, not a verdict
When someone calls a decision art, magic, or pure instinct, push them to explain it anyway. Provoke with '0% art, 0% magic, 100% science' to force the attempt.
Pro tip Genetics, quantum physics, and even creativity were all 'magic' until they became explainable — assume the same of your product instincts.
- 4
Bank the explanation as shared knowledge
Once a product judgment is articulated, it's no longer locked in one head — the organization can reuse it, multiplying its value.
In the wild
Söderström asks his leaders — and asks them to ask their leaders — to always explain themselves rather than say 'I have a feeling there's something there.' PMs cite this as why he brings clarity to a room.
→ Decisions get pressure-tested, weak instincts are exposed as empty, and validated reasoning becomes shared org knowledge.
Common mistakes
Deciding by seniority instead of explanation
Justifying a call with rank ('I'm more senior, you're not smart enough') skips the test that reveals whether the reasoning is sound and leaves the team unable to understand or reuse it.
Accepting 'it's just instinct' as the final answer
Labeling something art or magic ends the inquiry; most often the person can't explain it because they don't understand it and there is actually nothing there.
Is it for you?
Best for
Leaders building a culture of rigorous, non-hierarchical decision-making where reasoning is shared and testable.
Not ideal for
Genuine time-critical calls where demanding full articulation would stall an obvious decision.
From the transcript
“the best way to understand something is to try to explain it to someone else.”
“it's 0% art, 0% magic, and 100% science.”
“if you can't explain it yourself, you probably don't really even understand it yourself.”
“even if they don't agree, they should be entitled to understand why you're making the decision.”
From the episode
Lessons from scaling Spotify: The science of product, taking risky bets, and how AI is already impacting the future of music
Gustav Söderström (Co-President, CPO, and CTO at Spotify)