The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
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
19 Dec 2025
Chapter 1: Why do most great products fail to create emotion?
This is 20 Product with me, Harry Stebbings. Now, 20 Product is the monthly show where we sit down with the best CPOs in the world to uncover what it takes to build incredible products and product teams. Now, sometimes I use the show to satiate my own loves and passions, and I love on running.
Chapter 2: What lessons did perfume teach about desire and product?
And so I jumped at the chance to have Gerald Maroff, CPO at On Running on the show. Gerald oversees the full range of On's shoes, apparel and accessories to make sure they deliver performance, comfort and style so incredible athletes like me can play at our top, top level.
Chapter 3: What is the brutal reality of building physical versus digital products?
Before on, Gerald spent over a decade building consumer brands with collaborators like Microsoft and Ferrari. This was a phenomenal off-the-cuff discussion. I always want it to be the best show for you. So let me know what I can do to make it better.
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Chapter 4: Why is simple design considered overrated in product development?
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Chapter 5: What mistakes have been made by listening too much to customers?
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You have now arrived at your destination.
Chapter 6: How does Roger Federer's influence shape On Running's product strategy?
Gerald, I am such a fan of On. I think the product suite that you have today is one of my favorites. I was so keen to make this happen. So thank you so much for joining me today.
Thank you for having me, Harry. It's a pleasure to be here.
It's a bit of a weird start, but when did you realize you first loved the craft of product? And what does product and good product mean to you?
I 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 a smell and create a bottle and something around it that people actually crave for it?
Chapter 7: What was the most controversial product launched by On Running?
What was it about that that you found captivating specifically?
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.
Chapter 8: Are counterfeits beneficial or detrimental to fashion brands?
And that was already there, 80s, 90s, before everyone started to create all the beauty and everything behind that. I think that the fragrance industry was pioneering basically that.
Is perfume any different to other physical product in the way that it's the way that it makes you feel when it's on? Would you not say it's the same for running shoes, for example, the way it makes you feel when you're wearing them?
Yes, and I think that is probably the idea or the red thread 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.
When you think about falling in love with the product, is that what you mean when you talk about the relationship value with the consumer that you think products should create?
Yeah, because it's impossible to engineer because we're all different. How do you stimulate curiosity? Why do you create the button on a gaming console that makes the 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, OK, 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.
What irrational product decisions do you think you've made that have engineered the most emotion from consumers? And what did you learn?
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