Managing Product Management: Empowering Your Organization to Produce Competitive Products and Brands

MAKING SURE THAT PRODUCT MANAGERS CAN EFFECTIVELY INFLUENCE AND LEAD OTHERS

In my conversations with executives, they speak as if there is a universally accepted theory that all product managers should be leaders. However, there is also a saying that an army can’t have all officers and no soldiers. It is wrong to assume that every product manager can, or even should be, a leader. From your own experience, you have no doubt found that different people demonstrate different degrees of influence and leadership ability. Some are naturals, but that’s rare. Any bell curve will show natural leaders are at one end of the curve. Anecdotally, we’ve found that perhaps 10 to 15 percent of a population of product managers in any one company can influence ...