Table of Contents
Table of Contents
From Individual Contributor to Product Leader
Let’s assume a product leader has been a rock star Product Manager before: she knows the craft, can guide others, and has previously delivered great outcomes. Without that, it’s hard to imagine becoming a product leader. Yes, the world has seen some outstanding coaches in sports who haven’t necessarily been great performers themselves — but still, in Product Management relevant prior experience is a must.
The trick is, what brought you here won’t get you there: In several aspects, changing the role into leadership will bring new challenges. Let’s consider three main areas:
Lead People and Processes
Probably the most significant change comes with becoming the manager of others. For the Product Leader, these will be the Product Managers, Product Marketing, Product Operations, UX, and whoever might be part of the product organization, depending on the structure of the company. Suddenly, any achievement as an individual contributor PM becomes less relevant in favor of many different aspects related to people, processes, and strategy. For example:
From working with a team in some dedicated product area
To leading and coordinating a team of Product Managers, each working in their area
From working with an agile coach to improve collaboration in the team
To motivating, coaching and mentoring other product managers
From working with colleagues and teams recruited by others
To hiring and onboarding new team members
From running discovery inside a specific product area
To driving and aligning discovery for multiple teams
From setting specific goals for the next product release
To providing strategy so others can align their goals
From analyzing product data to improve the product experience
To driving alignment to build product analytics across multiple teams
From doing the product management job with given frameworks
To constantly driving for excellence inside the product management team
To emphasize, we would say that the Product Leader will have two main products:
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Firstly, the team that needs to be mentored and coached.
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Secondly, the product strategy to ensure strong alignment across the organization.
Further Reading
Moving from Individual Contributor to Product Leader
What you need to think about if you’re crossing the leadership chasm.