post

Footer About

Footer Contribute

Footer Get Involved

Footer Links

Mind the Product

Guest Post

Building for change: When transformation and product management meet

Product Development

What are product features? Definition, examples, and 5 types

B2B product management

Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Machine Learning (ML)

Building Product Teams

Business Strategy

Data Driven Product Management

Digital Transformation

Diversity and Inclusion

Minimum Viable Product

OKRs

Prioritisation

Product Design

Product Research

Product Development Process

Product Ethics

Product Discovery

Product Leadership

Product Management Career

Product Strategy

Stakeholder Management

🌎 <a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/world-product-day/" style="color:#FFFFFF;text-decoration:underline;">Happy World Product Day!</a> Be sure to celebrate product, yourself, and your peers today! 🎉

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

Louron Pratt

<p>In this <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/membership/leader/dashboard#events" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MTP Leader panel</a></span>, our line-up of experts joined Emily Tate, Mind the Product’s Managing Director, to discuss how to navigate tricky work relationships.</p>
<p>Our expert panellists included:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/bennewelldallas/">Ben Newell</a>, VP Product at StitchFix</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/hilary-reynolds-product-london/?originalSubdomain=uk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hilary Reynolds</a>, Senior Director of Product at CBRE</li>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/productpartho/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Partho Ghosh</a>, Senior Director of Product at Hootsuite</li>
<li>Moderated by <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/thedailyem/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Emily Tate</a>, Managing Director at Mind the Product</li>
</ul>
<p>Watch the video in full or read on for the summary:</p>
<h2>In brief</h2>
<ul>
<li>You need to adapt how you communicate with business leaders to collaborate effectively</li>
<li>Transparency and instilling a culture of experimentation can aid business decisions and overall communication</li>
<li>Cultivate relationships with your team to manage effectively and better understand their take on the product vision</li>
</ul>
<h2>Approach collaboration initially</h2>
<p>Product leaders working with a leadership team can’t change communication styles or personalities, so you have to adapt, says Ben: “Spend time with them to identify how they communicate and the things that are important to them.”</p>
<p>Hilary adds that you need to be clear on what you need from leadership. It’s important to understand your goals when entering a new business, she says, and to have conversations about your cultural differences if you notice a frustration or mismatch in personalities.</p>
<p>Sometimes relationships with leadership team members may not go as well as planned. Knowing when to back off and give a relationship time to heal is just as important as collaborating. “You’re not going to win every battle,” Ben says. “Take a step back and let that relationship build without engagement.”</p>
<h2>Dealing with executives</h2>
<p>Partho believes that you can instil a culture of experimentation to the C-suite. “Bring this mentality to the higher levels of the business. It can aid the larger decisions that are being made,” he says.</p>
<p>Transparency is also key when answering questions and setting expectations, Hilary says. It becomes more difficult to maintain as you work up through the levels of a business, but it is important in order to establish relationships and set the right expectations.</p>
<p>“When dealing with founders of an organisation, recognise that the product is their baby and they have put everything into it,” says Ben. Try to find a common ground and agreement when discussing product features. Be aware of how tactical they are and have an open conversation about what you as a product leader can and can’t do.</p>
<h2>Managing laterally</h2>
<p>Hilary says you should cultivate relationships in order to manage laterally. This takes time, effort, and intention. It isn’t something to avoid if you aim to be a successful product leader. Work on these relationships is sometimes as simple as spending more time with your team in the office to learn more about them. Partho adds that vision and goal are key assets in order to manage laterally. “Have that mindset of where you are, where you want to go and learn what their idea of the product vision and goal is,” he says.</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: bold;">Some of the content referenced above is exclusive to Mind the Product members. Not yet in the club? </span><span style="text-decoration: underline; font-weight: bold;"><a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/membership/compare/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Learn about Prioritised and MTP Leader membership today.</a></span></p>
<h2>What to read next</h2>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/category/product-leadership/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Discover more insights on product leadership and working with teams.</a></span></p>

core/freeform

Making product magic with cross-functional collaboration by Ebi Atawodi

10 years Wiser: Lessons learned from scaling Wise by Nilan Peiris

Breaking down misconceptions to create healthier teams by Adrian Howard

Creating courageous product teams with Yi-Wei Ang

Mastering perspective – zoom in, zoom out as a product leader by Navya Rehani Gupta

Building healthy and high performing teams with West Monroe

The importance of psychological safety for remote teams by Diana Stepner

Common transformation pitfalls by Marty Cagan

Building a digital product organisation, brick by brick by Nils Michaelis

Product, dance, and pockets of brilliance by Pippa Topp

How to navigate tricky work relationships

ProductTank Ahmedabad

ProductTank Bangalore

ProductTank Berlin

ProductTank Oslo

ProductTank Des Moines

ProductTank Bangkok

ProductTank Abu Dhabi

ProductTank Helsinki

ProductTank Pune

ProductTank Kraków

ProductTank Cardiff

ProductTank Mumbai

ProductTank Johannesburg

ProductTank Tauranga

ProductTank Bielefeld

ProductTank Vilnius

ProductTank Timisoara

ProductTank Stockholm

ProductTank München

ProductTank Düsseldorf

ProductTank Birmingham

ProductTank Norwich

ProductTank Heidelberg

ProductTank Malmö

ProductTank Barcelona

ProductTank Newcastle Upon Tyne

ProductTank London

ProductTank Perth

ProductTank Málaga

ProductTank Tokyo

ProductTank Braunschweig

ProductTank Edinburgh

ProductTank Pittsburgh

ProductTank Vienna

ProductTank Bristol

ProductTank Washington

ProductTank Raleigh

ProductTank Brno

ProductTank Paris

ProductTank Orlando

ProductTank Montréal

ProductTank Hong Kong

ProductTank Charlotte

ProductTank Exeter

ProductTank Manchester