Brainrants on Product Leadership

In support of Leading The Product, Ivy Hornibrook and I did an hour-long interview that Brainmates turned into three linked posts:

[1] Rich Talks About Bad and Good Product Management includes discussion of

• Not tolerating bad management if it’s making you miserable

• Senior executives who help too much and frequently interrupt their own teams

• Australia’s shortage of seasoned product managers and mature product culture (but we’re improving!)

[2] Rich Spills the Beans on How to Progress Your Product Management Career touches on

• A product leader’s need to delegate product-specific decisions in order to free up time/energy for leading the team

• Building constructive cross-functional relationships

• Looking first at bad organizational structures, before assuming that individuals are poor at their jobs

[3] People Need Reminding that Shipping Isn’t the Mark of Success covers

• Product Managers need to learn how to skillfully manage executives

• Sometimes, a product leader has to stand on a chair and shout that “This is bad for customers, this is bad for the company, this is bad for the product.”

• Sales-led companies run into the wall in a very predictable way

Thanks Brook McCarthy for turning my ramblings into something readable.