{"id":15687,"date":"2017-07-13T15:33:56","date_gmt":"2017-07-13T15:33:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/?p=15687"},"modified":"2019-06-17T04:14:56","modified_gmt":"2019-06-17T04:14:56","slug":"product-leadership-common-traits-developing-instincts-letting-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/product-leadership-common-traits-developing-instincts-letting-go\/","title":{"rendered":"Product Leadership &#8212; Common Traits, Developing Instincts &#038; Letting Go"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Anatomy of a product leader.\u00a0<\/strong>In 2012, Jason Baumgarten and Greg Sedlock sat down with some of the most influential tech product leaders in modern times. They&#8217;re entire findings are a required read, but they also\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spencerstuart.com\/research-and-insight\/anatomy-of-a-product-leader-redefining-leadership-for-digital-success\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">hone in on several traits that define a great product leader<\/a>. It starts with having a genuine passion for your product. Then you must know how to work effectively within your organization or, as they put it, &#8220;manage through influence rather than authority&#8221;. A great product leader also has vision and will use it to make decisions &#8212; which will mostly involve saying &#8216;no&#8217; to new ideas regularly to keep development focused. The last two traits are having a wide and varied understanding of technology and being able to find and manage great talent.<\/p>\n<p><strong>10 leadership qualities of successful product managers.<\/strong>\u00a0Similarly, Roman Pichler lists the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.romanpichler.com\/blog\/10-leadership-qualities-product-manager-product-owner\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">traits he thinks are important<\/a>\u00a0for a great product leader. What&#8217;s interesting about\u00a0his perspective is that these traits are often diametrically opposed, e.g., collaborative and decision making, strategic and tactical, data-informed and intuitive. This underscores that to be a great product leader, you must be able to test your natural instincts and put yourself in uncomfortable situations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Steven Sinofsky on building your product team<\/strong>.\u00a0Steven Sinofsky is widely known for his work leading product at Microsoft. During this time it became clear to him that there is a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/mixpanel.com\/blog\/2016\/08\/11\/steven-sinofsky-product-leadership\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">path towards becoming a product leader.<\/a>\u00a0It\u00a0starts with building your core competencies as a Product Manager, such as having a deep understanding of your product and being able to empathize deeply with your customer.\u00a0<em>Interesting side note: Steven maintains that, for software Product Managers who want to know what&#8217;s ultimately possible, you must know the code intimately<\/em>. But as your position rises and you start managing others you must learn a new skill &#8212; managing people &#8212; and be prepared to relinquish many of your duties to members of your team.<\/p>\n<p>Secondly, as a Product Manager, you will have developed certain instincts, e.g.,\u00a0knowing when there&#8217;s a resource or third-party integration issue coming down the road. Rather than committing significant time to finding these issues, a director of Product Managers needs to let their team develop their own instincts in order to effectively catch them at the right time.<\/p>\n<p>Lastly, the product leader needs to &#8216;let go&#8217;. &#8220;As a product leader, it\u2019s not necessarily your responsibility to build the product, but to be the creator of a framework for how decisions are going to get made.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anatomy of a product leader.\u00a0In 2012, Jason Baumgarten and Greg Sedlock sat down with some of the most influential tech product leaders in modern times. They&#8217;re entire findings are a required read, but they also\u00a0hone in on several traits that define a great product leader. It starts with having a genuine passion for your product. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Product Leadership - Common Traits, Developing Instincts &amp; Letting Go - Product Collective | Organizers of INDUSTRY: The Product Conference<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/product-leadership-common-traits-developing-instincts-letting-go\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Product Leadership - Common Traits, Developing Instincts &amp; Letting Go - Product Collective | Organizers of INDUSTRY: The Product Conference\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Anatomy of a product leader.\u00a0In 2012, Jason Baumgarten and Greg Sedlock sat down with some of the most influential tech product leaders in modern times. They&#8217;re entire findings are a required read, but they also\u00a0hone in on several traits that define a great product leader. It starts with having a genuine passion for your product. [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/product-leadership-common-traits-developing-instincts-letting-go\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Product Collective | Organizers of INDUSTRY: The Product Conference\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/productcollective\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-07-13T15:33:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-06-17T04:14:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/leadership.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Paul McAvinchey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Paul McAvinchey\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/product-leadership-common-traits-developing-instincts-letting-go\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/product-leadership-common-traits-developing-instincts-letting-go\/\",\"name\":\"Product Leadership - Common Traits, Developing Instincts & Letting Go - Product Collective | Organizers of INDUSTRY: The Product Conference\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/product-leadership-common-traits-developing-instincts-letting-go\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/product-leadership-common-traits-developing-instincts-letting-go\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/leadership.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-07-13T15:33:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-06-17T04:14:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f34ceda9eb6237e864633ca033061c0b\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/product-leadership-common-traits-developing-instincts-letting-go\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/product-leadership-common-traits-developing-instincts-letting-go\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/product-leadership-common-traits-developing-instincts-letting-go\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/leadership.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/leadership.png\",\"width\":600,\"height\":400},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/product-leadership-common-traits-developing-instincts-letting-go\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Product Leadership &#8212; Common Traits, Developing Instincts &#038; Letting Go\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/\",\"name\":\"Product Collective | Organizers of INDUSTRY: The Product Conference\",\"description\":\"For people who build, launch and scale world-class software products.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f34ceda9eb6237e864633ca033061c0b\",\"name\":\"Paul McAvinchey\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/PLnHr3Hu_400x400-150x150.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/PLnHr3Hu_400x400-150x150.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Paul McAvinchey\"},\"description\":\"For over 20 years, Paul has been building and collaborating on digital products with fast-growing startups and global brands, including AOL and WMS Gaming. Currently, he's a co-founder of Product Collective, a worldwide community of product people. Members collaborate on in the exclusive Member Hub, meet at INDUSTRY: The Product Conference, listen to Rocketship.fm, learn at Product Interviews and get a weekly newsletters that includes best practices in product management. In recent years he led business development at DXY, a leading product design firm in the Midwest, and product innovation at MedCity Media, a publishing startup acquired by Breaking Media in 2015.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/yaboya\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/author\/newindsum\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Product Leadership - Common Traits, Developing Instincts & Letting Go - Product Collective | Organizers of INDUSTRY: The Product Conference","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/product-leadership-common-traits-developing-instincts-letting-go\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Product Leadership - Common Traits, Developing Instincts & Letting Go - Product Collective | Organizers of INDUSTRY: The Product Conference","og_description":"Anatomy of a product leader.\u00a0In 2012, Jason Baumgarten and Greg Sedlock sat down with some of the most influential tech product leaders in modern times. They&#8217;re entire findings are a required read, but they also\u00a0hone in on several traits that define a great product leader. It starts with having a genuine passion for your product. [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/product-leadership-common-traits-developing-instincts-letting-go\/","og_site_name":"Product Collective | Organizers of INDUSTRY: The Product Conference","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/productcollective","article_published_time":"2017-07-13T15:33:56+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-06-17T04:14:56+00:00","og_image":[{"width":600,"height":400,"url":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/leadership.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Paul McAvinchey","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Paul McAvinchey","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/product-leadership-common-traits-developing-instincts-letting-go\/","url":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/product-leadership-common-traits-developing-instincts-letting-go\/","name":"Product Leadership - Common Traits, Developing Instincts & Letting Go - Product Collective | Organizers of INDUSTRY: The Product Conference","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/product-leadership-common-traits-developing-instincts-letting-go\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/product-leadership-common-traits-developing-instincts-letting-go\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/leadership.png","datePublished":"2017-07-13T15:33:56+00:00","dateModified":"2019-06-17T04:14:56+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f34ceda9eb6237e864633ca033061c0b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/product-leadership-common-traits-developing-instincts-letting-go\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/productcollective.com\/product-leadership-common-traits-developing-instincts-letting-go\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/product-leadership-common-traits-developing-instincts-letting-go\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/leadership.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/leadership.png","width":600,"height":400},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/product-leadership-common-traits-developing-instincts-letting-go\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Product Leadership &#8212; Common Traits, Developing Instincts &#038; Letting Go"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/","name":"Product Collective | Organizers of INDUSTRY: The Product Conference","description":"For people who build, launch and scale world-class software products.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f34ceda9eb6237e864633ca033061c0b","name":"Paul McAvinchey","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/PLnHr3Hu_400x400-150x150.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/PLnHr3Hu_400x400-150x150.jpg","caption":"Paul McAvinchey"},"description":"For over 20 years, Paul has been building and collaborating on digital products with fast-growing startups and global brands, including AOL and WMS Gaming. Currently, he's a co-founder of Product Collective, a worldwide community of product people. Members collaborate on in the exclusive Member Hub, meet at INDUSTRY: The Product Conference, listen to Rocketship.fm, learn at Product Interviews and get a weekly newsletters that includes best practices in product management. In recent years he led business development at DXY, a leading product design firm in the Midwest, and product innovation at MedCity Media, a publishing startup acquired by Breaking Media in 2015.","sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/yaboya"],"url":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/author\/newindsum\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15687"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}