Finding Your Sweet Spot When Managing Product Managers

A good manager balances being involved in the details and giving their people more freedom. This is often easier said than done though. As a product leader, is this a skill you already master?

3 Blind Spots in Your Product Leader Interviews (Company Side)

Hiring a product leader is never easy. You are looking for a partner to join your team and take a significant leadership role. In most cases, you have never been in this position yourself before, so interviewing could be a challenge. Here are a few things to consider when you seek your next product leader.

3 Blind Spots in Your Product Leader Interviews (Candidate Side)

Finding your next job as a product leader is not necessarily easy. This is especially true if you are interviewing as a product leader for the first time, even if you had done the job before. Here are a few things that if you pay attention to would make it much easier for you to get your dream job.

The Power of Not Understanding

One of the places where product leaders add the most value is by connecting the dots. Seeing a broad picture and making sure everything fits together is one of our superpowers. But what happens when the dots don’t connect? It’s your responsibility to call it out, even if you don’t fully understand why.

It’s Never Black or White

As product leaders, we need to make so many decisions. Moreover, these decisions are hardly ever straightforward or simple. Here are a few techniques to help you decide nonetheless.

When Your CEO Needs a Strategy Now

If you are the new product leader of your company, your company might be in product leadership debt. In such situations, you would typically be asked to come up with a strategy and roadmap ASAP, but you are still just learning the domain. Here is how to give the CEO what they need while staying true to your professional standards.

Insight From Marty Cagan’s Coach the Coaches Workshop (Part 2)

In part two of this summary, I am moving to talk about strategy and leadership insights. As these are topics close to my heart, I had a lot to say – so here are my thoughts backed by SVPG’s insights on these topics.

It’s Ok to Make It About You

As servant leaders, and especially in product management which is the master of leadership without authority, we are used to always working for the greater good. But sometimes, our success depends on things that we need just because we need or even want them. Here are a few examples where it’s perfectly fine to make things personal.

How to Help Your Organization Decide

Complex decisions tend to be stuck in endless discussions. People see things differently, and hard decisions are harder to make on your own. As a product leader, you play a key role in helping align everyone and leading towards a decision. Here are the steps you will need to take in order to get there.

How to Find Your Strategic Anchors

Strategic thinking is hard by definition. It deals with many unknowns, as well as multiple dimensions and variables at any given time. The only way to move forward is to identify the real anchors and build around them. Here’s how to do that.

3 Steps to Upgrading Your Hiring Skills

Hiring the right people is so important, but how can you be sure that you are making the right choice? It all starts with understanding what you really need, in levels much deeper than the job description. Here is a simple method to help you choose the best people.

3 Ways to Simplify Complex Decisions

Complex decisions are a natural part of a product leader’s life. Sometimes it is our own decisions that we need to make simpler, and sometimes we need to help management or our teams make better decisions. When a decision is facing a deadlock, here are three simple ways to resolve it and move forward.