Redefining Product Leadership: What We Can Learn from Rock Stars

My career coach, Sabrina Braham, shared an article with me titled “Majority Of Americans Would Rather Fire their Boss Than Get A Raise”. It’s from 2012, so I did what anyone would do, I asked ChatGPT if there were more recent figures. ChatGPT apologized in its own way and shared it couldn’t find any more recent data, but added it could be because it’s brain (aka “knowledge”) only reflects data up to September 2021.

We’ve all been in that situation where you really enjoy your team and the work you’re doing, but your manager or others up the food chain just don’t get it. They yell, only focus on profits, or micro manage everything you do. Their reasons for behaving in such ways is often unclear. As I shared in a prior newsletter, it might be they believe that is the only way to lead. Or, they are simply not nice people.

Should managers or leaders be nice? Isn’t niceness one of the squishy soft skills that convey the person is a push over? If you’ve been following my newsletter, you know I don’t believe that to be the case. I’ve shared before that soft skills are the new hard skills. You can coach a person to be a better product manager. It’s extremely difficult to stop someone from being a jerk, manipulative or passive aggressive - especially when the work environment looks the other way and fails to acknowledge such behaviors occur. Why does that happen? Often because the more senior leaders are concerned a “top” performer will leave or the business accepts such behaviors in support of “radical candor”.

Digging back into the data again, a 2022 survey by Pew Research Center noted 58% of Americans say they have or have had a boss who made their work life difficult. Of those who had a difficult boss, 32% said they’d quit their job as a result. You might wonder if the stats continue to hold true given the rocky times we’re facing today. I believe they do.

I’ve been at a number of product events recently where conversations turned to fractional work, joining or launching a startup, or simply taking time off due to a lack of opportunity in one’s current situation. We came up with a few potential factors.

1. It might be due to COVID resetting our work - life balance or current economic times influencing companies to try to ‘do more with less’, leading people to say goodbye and finally pivot to pursue their passions.

2. When looking for a job, both Generation X (1965 to 1980) and Generation Z (mid-1990s to early 2010s) favor continuous learning, skill development, and salary - all factors which are directly informed be one’s manager.

3. Leaders doubling down on their own opinions or those of “experts” to navigate rocky financial times, resulting in employees feeling little or no empowerment due to a lack of trust and stilted communication from higher ups.

As a leader, what are some of the ways you can help your employees feel valued?

In a recent Harvard Business Review article, to successfully lead - especially during times of change - you need to start with yourself and your own behaviors. As the article highlights, a person’s natural instincts are to rely on the skills which made them successful in the first place. Yet when faced with new technologies or other factors upsetting the status quo, one must be open to evolving their approach. If leaders don’t adapt their behavior or acknowledge alternative approaches, they are contributing to their own demise and the company’s problems.

At the recent Product-Led Summit, I pointed out leaders should realize they are not alone. Their team is there to help them and the business. By bringing in a chorus of voices from those around them, rather than only listening to one soloist (themselves), a leader can learn new approaches and show they value their team’s input.

I provided the following guidance:

• Step 1 - Ask for feedback. Reach out to people around you, including your team. Invite others to speak up and contribute. They will respect you for seeking their input while shaping your own views.

• Step 2 - Audit Yourself. Think about when you speak up vs. hold back. If you find your own psychological safety (e.g. your willingness to take risks) is low, take action as others on your team likely feel the same.

• Step 3 - Compare Notes. Connect with others. Seek guidance, and learn, what others have done when faced with similar situations. You'll likely find out no one has it all figured out. This realization can make it easier for you to try new approaches.

• Step 4 - Continue Learning. Don't shy away from challenges or learning. This step also aligns nicely with the article’s closing remark “Behavior change is hard, but it’s a skill leaders who want to succeed amid near-constant organizational change need to develop.”

To put it another way, you need to put your ego aside and listen to those around you. By doing so you are acknowledging the talent found in your team. And, as I’ve said before, we’re stronger when we work together. Steve Jobs left us with a powerful reminder:

Still don’t believe me, HBR or Steve Jobs? How about listening to rock stars?

There have been many amazing tours this year from Taylor Swift to Beyonce to Elton John and Metallica. It’s reminded us is that it takes a lot of hard work, and you’re never too old, to be great.

I bring this up, because one of the benefits of experience is gaining the ability to laugh at yourself. When I was younger, I wanted to be taken seriously and to be seen as a professional. If I made a mistake, I hoped no one saw it. If my work was not acknowledged, I took it personally. Now I’ve learned, that’s just life - I’m human and humans make mistakes. If you try new things, you’re going to fail. And, if you don’t fail, that means you weren’t trying.

What is more important is to give it your all. Call upon the individuals around you, especially your team, to figure out the path with you - and to have fun while on the journey.

As Aga Bajer says, the three pillars of thriving companies are Fun, Meaning, and Belonging.

If you want to improve, have FUN and be content to be thought foolish. When we accept—or even welcome—the possibility of being perceived as foolish, we free ourselves from the pressure of acting and being a certain way. We’re free to learn. To be curious. To change. To take risks - and potentially to be great.

To BELONG, you need to feel supported for who you are today and who you aspire to become. For example, you can apply the following steps with your team.

• Connect: Learn about each other before digging into work. See the human being behind the job title.

• Contribute: Encourage a learning culture of authenticity, vulnerability, and freedom to challenge the status quo.

• Clarify: Create clarity of purpose because working on the same mission liberates and empowers people.

• Differentiate: Embrace uniqueness as being the same can be limiting and honestly quite tiring.

• Advance: Encourage each other to be accountable for progress, improvements, and achieving results.

Great leaders also appreciate MEANING. You must create an environment where people feel safe to learn from their impact. Give campfire conversations a try by bringing people together, asking meaningful questions, and giving everyone a chance to share without judgment creates connections. Acknowledging new people and other 'moments that matter' are excellent opportunities to cultivate a shared sense of value and impact too. Another idea is to continue with the rockstar theme by trying out these questions at your next all hands.

How to create the future together through backcasting

When I worked in emerging media at Razorfish, developing a strategy brief was always a collaborative effort. The strategy brief begins by providing the business context for the project, outlining the key objectives the experience work should aim to achieve, followed by insights into the target audience and market landscape.

The brief then introduces a set of experience challenges that should be resolved as part of the design process in order to deliver elements that balance the needs of the target audience with the client’s business goals.

The input I received from others always made my work shine brighter. That was especially the case when I was predicting the future. I would dive into trend research, conduct customer interviews, talk with third parties, explore startups on the fringe and spend lots of time understanding the client’s past / present / future vision.

I remember going on and on about Twitter. Then when I came back from SXSW and couldn’t stop talking about Foursquare, that was the proof the head of design needed to think I was totally crazy.

Capturing and sharing micro-moments was still a new thing, one that hadn’t entered the mainstream yet - but I just knew it would be and wanted our clients to be part of the journey. Together, with other colleagues, we produced a proposal that captured the excitement one gets by sharing how they feel or what they are doing right now and how brands could be part of the journey. The story telling won over our head of design and our clients. It was a team accomplishment.

Jaryd Hermann, another Product Leader, described the term “backcasting” in his recent newsletter. His description reminded me of my work at Razorfish.

In order to envision the future one needs to stop thinking about the present. A similar approach (and I definitely recommend trying with your team) is an oldy but goody from Ken Norton called Ants & Aliens: Long-Term Product Vision & Strategy: Why you need a thirty-year product vision . The premise being “what if I ask you to imagine your product in thirty years.” It’s not a roadmap of what to build. Instead it’s an exercise to envision what the future might be like. It’s about forecasting, not predicting.

• Predictions concern themselves with future certainties

• Forecasts map out ranges of possible outcomes, continuously updated as more information becomes available.

Backcasting turns forecasting up to 11. “Instead of incrementally different, you get exponentially different… Your goal is to find insights about the future that are non-consensus and right.” If you’re into exponential thinking, I also recommend the A16 podcast on The Rise of the Exponential Organization.

1. Identify the Inflection Points: Inflection points are significant shifts or changes that can lead to exponential growth or breakthroughs. For example, the increased accuracy of GPS or the development of LLMs, are both Technology Inflections.

2. Backcast from Potential Futures 🔙 : Envision a range of potential futures (plausible - possible - preposterous) and work backwards to determine the steps needed to achieve them.

3. Gather Breakthrough Insights: These are the deep understandings or realizations that can lead to innovative solutions. As I did at Razofish, explore the fringe while involving others in challenging assumptions about the future and exploring potential paths to getting there.

Remember however you get to the future, it’s always best to have some music and a few colleagues along for the ride.

Enjoy!