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Mind the Product

Product Development

What are Product Features? Definition, Examples, and 5 Types

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How to Prioritise Your Work for Impact- Nacho Bassino (Product Leadership Coach)

B2B product management

Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Machine Learning (ML)

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Why teams often struggle with OKRs: A conversation with Jeff Gothelf

Lessons from my first year as a Prod Ops Manager

How Google makes AI work at Enterprise scale – Miku Jha (Director, AI/ML and Generative AI, Google Cloud)

5 ways to invent and simplify as an AI/ML product manager

Jörg Malang

<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/executive-product-management-300x217.jpg" alt="Succeed as an Executive Product Manager" width="300" height="217" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-3773" srcset="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/executive-product-management-300x217.jpg 300w, https://www.mindtheproduct.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/executive-product-management.jpg 575w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Modern product management is a relatively young discipline.  There remains a lot of room for a final definition of what product management is and how it can be best organized.
At the same time, it is necessary to stake a claim as quickly as possible. Firstly, the career path for product managers needs properly establishing. Secondly, product management needs to be positioned as a &#8216;serious&#8217; function at board and executive levels. The latter is also important to give product managers a sponsor at the right level.
What does it take for ambitious product leaders to become the peers of executives?
<ol>
<li>Leave your comfort zone 
Depending on your background, your comfort zone might be engineering, design or something else. To a certain extent you need to speak the language of executives to be taken seriously. And – I hate to say this – forget a little bit about your idealism. I experienced this when I was chief product officer at XING AG. There were many situations when I felt uncomfortable because peers asked me to also push business topics. Trying to focus on my function made me appear less senior than I was.</li>
<li>Care about strategy 
Challenge the company planning for future  years. And if there is no planning yet, start working on it. Lead the process. Don&#8217;t let go. In one of my previous companies I was much too willing to accept what was available when I joined. Only after a senior corporate director came on board, did I realize what big unacceptable gaps in strategy I had previously ignored. By then valuable time was lost.</li>
<li>Sell the value you are adding 
The digital transformation is your chance. Never has there been more uncertainty about changes and how to address them. In a consultancy project for a client of mine I changed my attitude. Before, I felt uncomfortable because I was too different from the &#8216;mainstream&#8217;. My client helped me to make my value proposition even clearer by telling me why they had hired me for their project.</li>
<li>Stay focused on your customers 
See everything you do as service to your customers. Position yourself as the voice of the user. A good CEO will always appreciate customer insights. At Nokia, we were debating a lot around product &#8211; almost without a focus on our users. Nokia was a company with a certain distance from its customers at that time. During one presentation there was a product manager who had grounded her work in user interviews. And she became well respected by the VP.</li>
<li>Deliver 
Walk the talk. Be concrete, show prototypes, traction and excited users. Focus on quality and compromise on areas that are of minor importance. I am saying this after having produced thousands of PowerPoint slides. One person&#8217;s goal in enacting change at his company was to reduce the number of different security gloves used. He tried various methods, but only got a breakthrough when he put all the different glove models on the table of the board room. As they piled up on that table the executives were shocked and right away approved the cost-cutting proposal. This example shows how important it is to do things that are tangible and experiential.</li>
</ol>
Some of you might lose interest in an executive role after having read that. But reality bites. And it&#8217;s more than okay to only focus on delivering great products. Entering the executive ranks requires a change of attitude. Not everyone is up for that. Pick your battles!

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Guest Post

Building Consumer-Grade Experiences for the Enterprise By Ciara Peter

What Makes a Great Product Manager by Graham Siener

The GIST Framework by Itamar Gilad

Scaling the Product and the Team by Rachael Shah

Decisions, Debt, and Other Dilemmas by Janna Bastow

Hacking Your Product Career by Gibson Biddle

How Medicine and Research Translates to Patients by Shree Patel

The Future of Product Management by Richard Harrison

Data Science and Digital Businesses by Ali Gulez

You Need A Product Strategy by Sam Odio

Five Ways of Becoming a Respected Product Leader in the C-Suite

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Five Ways of Becoming a Respected Product Leader in the C-Suite

Jörg Malang

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