Product Cafe: What makes a Product Leader truly successful? 🎯
Hey everyone!
Welcome to this week's edition of Product Cafe. Every week, we curate everything interesting around product management and send it right into your inbox 📩.
What pops your mind when you think of Bill Gates? Microsoft founder, a millionaire, a Harvard dropout, and the list goes on and on. But, what excites me more is his Leadership style. Of course, we all know Bill Gates is a transformational leader. But something I read in the past has stuck with me forever. Even now, I try to incorporate it as a CEO of a company. Here it goes.
Intellectual stimulation. Yes, it is intellectual stimulation. Instead of him always coming up with ideas, he encourages and empowers people to come up with creative ideas and use them in situations where it is needed. He believed that with more creative minds comes more ways to solve problems. Though it sounds simple, you cannot just imagine the difference it creates.
Saying that this week's Product Cafe is all about Product Leadership. Let's get started!
Product Good read 📚
Why do some product leaders succeed and others don't?
What is greater than hearing from an expert who has done it himself? Let's see what Des Traynor, the Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Intercom, has to say about this week's Product book I have brought to you all. (Btw, the book is "Product Leadership" by Richard Banfield, Martin Eriksson, and Nate Walkingshar)
The popular narratives around great products focus on the idea, the simplicity, and the design. Still, they rarely expose what was happening on the product team throughout the process. This book offers a unique look into how great product teams and product leaders work. If you build products, you need this book.
"Product leadership" is one of my favorites and presents interviews with almost a hundred product managers from all over the world. This is all it talks about
The themes and patterns of successful teams and their leaders, and ways to attain those characteristics.
Best approaches for guiding your team through startup, emerging, and enterprise stages of the company's evolution.
Strategies, and tactics for working with customers, agencies, partners, and external stakeholders.
Read the summary of the book here 👇🏼
Curated list ✨
Becoming Product Leaders
Moving from an individual contributor to a product leader and managing a team could be weary at times. All you need to do is pay no heed to all the agitation in your mind and take the leap. But understand the difference in the responsibilities, outcomes, and skills required for a successful transition.
James Wang, in his article on "Becoming a Product Leader," shares his experience on how to nail this.
Read the full article here —> Becoming a Product Leader
What makes a Product Leader truly successful?
If you think that brilliant ideas and getting the job done are all you need to become a great product leader, you're probably mistaken. Then what is it?
Jessica Hall, in this video, shares the secret to leading top product teams that go far beyond.
Watch the video —> The Surprising Secrets of Exceptional Product Leaders
3 types of Product Leaders
While talking about Product Leadership, how could we miss out on Shreya's Doshi's popular tweet, the types of Product Leaders that resonated with most of us? So check this out, and you'll thank me later.
Top resources for Product Managers
Keeping up with the industry happenings and learning consistently could be overwhelming considering the efforts and times. However, staying on top of your game is more than important. That is where blogs come in handy. Here is a treasure trove of top Product management blogs by experts that can help you upskill yourself in comparatively lesser time.
Top pick from our collection 🔥
How to measure Product Management success (Without numbers)
In Product management, it is always tricky to judge the work based on numbers. Although sales and Marketing have clear numbers tied to their performance, there isn't a specific number to measure a PM's performance. The success of a product manager is closely related to the value s/he adds to the organization. Here are two explicit guidelines for determining the Product manager's success.
That’s a wrap!
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