The Executive Brief
I’ve met some really exceptional and talented product leaders in my career.
And I’ve met some duds.
Today I’ll share my observations of what makes a rockstar product leader from my 20+ years in the product management & software engineering industry.
I’ve noticed some common behaviors and approaches that the best leaders share and hopefully you can benefit from these 10 key insights.
But before you dive into it, here are a couple of the most interesting bits in technology from the past week.
Google unveiled Gemini Code Assist, its AI coding tool, at its “Cloud Next” conference. The tool is a direct competitor to GitHub’s Copilot product. Gemini Code Assist’s differentiator is its support for up to a million tokens which means it can factor in much more context into its code suggestions.
Talk about Technical Debt! The municipal transportation agency in San Francisco still uses floppy disks! And they have no current plans to update their systems. Tech Debt is a problem almost every CTO faces. So check out this story (link above) for some perspective the next time your security team asks about updating old software libraries!
Poll of the Week
Let us know how we are doing! We’re always looking to improve our content, so your voice is important. Take a moment to respond to the poll or leave us a comment.
Rockstar Product Leaders
Recently I did a post about Rockstar Engineering Leaders. This time I’m going to focus on their counterparts in Product.
An outstanding product leader can have an enormous impact on product, engineering and even the company’s bottom line. So this is a critical position to get right for most businesses.
Here are 10 attributes I’ve noticed about rockstar product leaders:
They are always looking for the highest ROI problems to solve. And they’re constantly re-evaluating whether they are truly solving them. They also will typically set up an appropriate mechanism in the company to do this (e.g. a Product Steering Committee).
They lead not just product but the business and engineering sides too by pulling those teams together and pushing to solution problems. They love ideating on solutions with all 3 groups together. They don’t seek credit — just answers to problems the business has to solve for its customers.
They know the tricks for communicating effectively with both the business and engineering teams. They speak both languages (which can be rare). And they know how to be the bridge between the two groups when it’s necessary. Communication is a strong suit.
They don’t assume what they inherited in terms of products or strategy is what they should automatically continue to focus on. They are constantly asking if they are well aligned to and driving success for the business. They know that things constantly change.
They are mostly positive. Perhaps 80/20 positive to negative. They don’t ignore problems, but they don’t dwell on them either. They are solutioning, always. And they know their role is to rally the troops to always keep looking ahead.
They have the strength to be honest with the CEO if the company direction seems misguided or unrealistic. And they can be a great helper to the CEO in moving the ship in the right direction during tough times.
They break down the walls between Product & Engineering and create a “one team” atmosphere. Of course, the two teams have different roles to play but the best product leaders still make the two groups feel like one organization.
They have a deep and intimate connection to the customers, but they don’t automatically do everything customers say or discount the opinion of customers. They are good at finding the sweet spot.
They can build a great roadmap that gets people excited and yet is realistic and doable. None of this constant redesigning of the roadmap that you see in many companies. Sure, they are flexible, but all too often average product leaders use flexibility as an excuse to run a chaotic roadmap.
Rockstar product leaders almost always have some special or unique skill. Here are some that I’ve noticed: strategy, general organization, discovery, requirements writing, and domain/customer knowledge or expertise.
Closing Thoughts
These are some of the common traits I’ve seen in A-player product leaders.
Of course, there are likely others but these seem to be critical characteristics that appear in the toolbox of the most competent product experts — the ones that have a real and lasting impact on their businesses.
If you’re new to your product leadership journey or just thinking about taking your career to the next level, you may want to consider how to cultivate these traits in yourself.
I’ll write more on cultivating these traits in the future!