How product managers can prepare for a product leadership role

Today we are talking about how you can prepare for and find a senior product leadership role, and we’ll be addressing this both for current senior leaders as well as for product managers.

To help us, we are joined by the co-founder of an executive search firm that specializes in placing Product VPs and CPOs. Our guest is Chris Mason, who started Intelligent People in 2002 as a specialized recruitment agency.

Summary of some concepts discussed for product managers
[2:20] What do you love about your role helping people land senior product leadership roles and helping organizations find the talent they need?

Organizations approach us and give us insight into their strategies and what they’re looking to achieve. It’s really exciting to see what their strategies are and help them figure out the profiles of people who will solve their problems. We also get close to candidates and understand where they are in their careers and what challenges they’re looking for next. We change their lives when there’s a strong match—the candidate gets the opportunity they want and we solve the business’s problems.

[3:56] What are organizations looking for in a Product VP or Chief Product Officer (CPO)?

There are lot of variables, and it depends on the challenges the organization has. Usually organizations are looking for some relevant domain knowledge or experience relevant to the problem. Product leaders need skills like using data, prioritizing, managing a team, strategic thinking, and influencing. It’s critical for Product VPs and CPOs to be able to articulate the value behind a business case and get people on board. They should think about the full product lifecycle, asking, “What is the purpose of this? What value are we creating? What problem are we solving?”

There’s an ongoing debate about the importance of domain knowledge and how transferrable product skills are. I think skills can be really transferable with some exceptions. No one piece of work is the same, but there are common themes that start to rise to the front for product leaders.


[7:41] Do you have any more thoughts about domain knowledge?

We try to shift the conversation with the company to discussing what impact they’re looking for. What problem are they solving with this hire? Then we look at the candidate pool. How realistic is it we’re going to find this person? We try to focus more on competencies and experience rather than domain knowledge, because domain knowledge can be learned relatively quickly. We try to increase the size of the candidate pool by getting the client to look more broadly at other domains. Often product leaders want a different challenge by moving to a new sector. Often a person coming from outside the domain has an advantage because they don’t make the same assumptions everyone in the industry makes.

[11:14] How can a person looking for a Product VP or CPO role best position themselves?

There’s some hygiene stuff at the beginning: Get your CV and LinkedIn profile ready and make sure they’re well aligned. You can apply through an agency, but you can also use your network. Continually keep your LinkedIn updated, so you’re not raising any red flags if your current boss sees you suddenly update your LinkedIn profile, and so you’re discoverable based on your content. Change your profile to “open to work” when the time is right to make yourself even more discoverable.

Write your resume to highlight your impacts. Write about what you’ve achieved. Attach data and metrics.

Reflect on what’s going to make you happy. Make sure you’re targeting the sort of challenge you’re looking for. Some times people get promoted to the point where they’re no longer happy. It takes a lot of self-awareness to answer, “What will make me happy? What sort of challenge am I looking for?” At the start of your search, reflect on that. Think about the things you enjoy the most and the things you don’t enjoy and what sort of opportunity will tick the boxes of the things you enjoy the most.

Try getting a mentor because that person can uncover things that aren’t obvious to you.

[18:06] What kind of experience should product managers be looking for to prepare themselves for a future Product VP role?

Be continually learning. Do training, read books, and join a community. There are a lot of product management communities, like Chad’s Product Mastery Now Community, that you can get involved in. It’s really valuable for product managers and leaders to be able to share stories and bounce ideas off other people. Take opportunities to learn. Be willing to take on more responsibility, even if it’s for a small initiative and you can’t see the rewards right away, because the rewards will follow when you build experience.

[21:42] What’s your outlook on the 2023 job market?

Up until last summer has been the busiest 18 months I’ve ever seen. We’ve had a boom time coming out of COVID lockdowns, and we’re trying to figure out what the new normal is. Big tech overexpanded and overhired. Now large enterprise organizations have had to make some cuts, so we’re seeing more supply in the labor market. We’re still seeing lots of opportunities. The digital world is growing. Heritage businesses are transforming and new ideas are being funded. I wouldn’t say it’s catastrophic at all. It’s not as busy as it was, but there’s still a lot of action in the market.

[23:39] How can product managers and leaders prepare themselves for their next move during a slowdown?

That’s difficult to answer because that’s a very personal decision. People have different circumstances and different levels of acceptable risk. There’s no harm looking. You can use your network to reach out tentatively or work with consultancies to make targeted applications discreetly.

Action Guide: Put the information Chris shared into action now. Click here to download the Action Guide.

Useful links:

• Visit IntelligentPeople.com for product management recruitment
  
• Listen to episode 102: Executive coaching for product managers – with Evan Roth
  

Innovation Quote

“Have courage and be kind.”  – from Cinderella

Thanks!

Thank you for taking the journey to product mastery and learning with me from the successes and failures of product innovators, managers, and developers. If you enjoyed the discussion, help out a fellow product manager by sharing it using the social media buttons you see below.