Light, Heat, and the Signals from Distant Objects

We often judge a signal by two qualities: light and heat.

Light is clarity. It's easy to read—clean metrics, articulate feedback, obvious patterns.
Heat is intensity. It's urgent, emotional, and usually signals internal pressure or customer frustration.

Product Managers are trained to pay attention to signals that have both. Bright signals and hot signals. The kind that show up in dashboards or meetings with execs. They flash. They sizzle. And they’re hard to ignore. They’re clear

But not all signals arrive that way.

Some come from farther out, after the sun goes down. Fainter. Cooler. And ripe with insights.

Twilight is the threshold between day and night when visibility fades and perception changes.

Civil twilight is when everything’s still pretty clear. You can read the landscape. This is where KPIs live, where your Net Promoter Score rises or falls, where users articulate their needs in crisp, quotable sentences. Signals are well-lit and easy to parse.

Nautical twilight is different. Shapes begin to blur. You can’t navigate by sight alone—you need reference points. This is when signals become comparative. A growing subset of users starts dropping off, but only when filtered by role or behavior. A phrase shows up in support tickets—not frequently, but consistently. The light is dimmer here. You need tools. You need to triangulate.

Then there’s astronomical twilight—the edge of darkness. You can’t rely on the horizon anymore. But if you give your eyes time, stars begin to emerge. These are your early indicators. Your “dark signals.” A workaround passed quietly among reps. A user behavior that doesn’t fit any known path. Feedback that doesn’t make sense—yet. Nothing is on fire. But something is shifting.

Product work often lives in the daylight—where it’s easiest to see and feel. But insight lives in the twilight.

You just have to learn to see in the dark.