Ken Norton, a seasoned product leader at GV, emphasizes the critical importance of decisively saying "no" in product management to eliminate ambiguity and maintain team focus. Drawing parallels between product development and cycling, Norton highlights how failure is an unavoidable part of both, providing valuable insights for future endeavors. Throughout his career, including roles at Google and founding a cloud integration platform company, Norton learned the necessity of clear communication and setting priorities to prevent decision debt and missed expectations. This discipline of saying "no" is not about dismissing ideas but about prioritizing effectively to ensure progress on key objectives. Norton also discusses the role of product managers as mediators who must facilitate decisions and communicate the implications of inaction, often needing to "fill the empty chair" by representing absent stakeholders' viewpoints. His experience underscores that effective product management requires a balance of firmness and flexibility, adapting communication styles to diverse audiences while maintaining clarity and focus on the end goals.