First, let us clarify the term product leadership. It comprises full responsibility about product related topics as outlined in picture 1.

Picture 1: Product leadership

Some 20 years ago Product Management was far away from having product leadership. The mission of Product Management was mainly to plan the product and to support Sales in selling the product. Market expertise of Product Management was limited, trust into Product Management was limited as well as the scope of action.

The situation has changed fundamentally. Product Management learned its lessons and adopted the practices of market intelligence including assessment of customer needs, market segmentation and competitor analysis. It is familiar with technologies, has a good feeling for promising trends and is keen to explore innovations. It is unbiased towards incentives for new customer contracts or amazing development tools. It is able to bridge the interests of customers with the interests of the own company. Why not extend the scope of Product Management with full responsibility for all major product related topics? Welcome to product leadership.

Agile development techniques are another trailblazer for allocating product leadership responsibility to Product Management because of the permanent interactions of the development side and the customer side with Product Management as its main representative. Thus, the role of Product Management was upvalued with attitudes like coordination, giving feedback, motivation and inspiration.

Product leadership responsibility has following boundaries:

• Product Management has technical rather than staff responsibility. Substantial responsibility paired with limited formal power. Convincing and winning together with high team spirit are the goals.
• Business critical decisions concerning topics such as the product strategy, roadmap and pricing are taken in board meetings on Management level. Product Management draws up the decision proposal. Subject matter expertise and precise argumentation are key. Networking, communication and presentation techniques complement.

Product leadership rewards with the following advantages:

• Faster decision making. The amount of clarification, alignment and decision meetings is reduced.
• More distinctive and recognizable products because of less compromises. This promotes a favorable image by customers.
• Clear competence scopes. High obstacles to pursue personal agendas.
• Stakeholders’ focus on customers rather than personal interests. Struggles for power are prevented.

In summary, product leadership by Product Management increases you competitiveness which is essential for sustainable business success.

I trust that after reading this blog you are keen to take the product leadership road. Before you start to introduce it please be aware:

• Product leadership requires experience concerning the enterprise, the industry and the whole field of Product Management. The longer Product Managers have stayed with your organization, the better.
• Product leadership requires strong personality. Abilities to convince, motivate, network and others are mentioned above.
• Product leadership requires Management commitment. A respective corporate culture is extremely helpful and can be established in the course of a Change Management project.

Here are my recommendations:

Take action to furnish your Product Management with product leadership responsibility. Do it step by step. Select carefully your Product Managers and give them the best qualification.

RealSkills is your best choice for qualifying your Product Managers through inhouse training courses and consulting about generic and specific Product Management topics. I look forward to your feedback or inquiry - ressenig@realskills.de.