EMPOWERED

Acknowledgments

This book is based on the lessons learned from a career spanning nearly 40 years, exclusively working on technology‐powered products and services. As such, there are countless people who have influenced me along the way.

So many managers and leaders took the time and made the effort to coach and develop my skills, and to show me what strong leadership looks like.

So many colleagues in engineering, design, and product showed me what it means to work on a strong product team.

And so many companies have invited me into their offices to sit down with their teams to get to know them and share what I've learned and, in every case, helped me to build my knowledge of strong teams and companies.

This book benefited in particular from the insights of a set of proven product leaders and discovery coaches that I admire and respect: Holly Hester‐Reilly, Teresa Torres, Gabrielle Buffrem, Petra Wille, and Felipe Castro each dedicated real time and effort to help me make this book worthy of its subject.

I would also like to thank the leaders that allowed me to profile them in this book. Besides being exceptional leaders, they also have in common a desire to shine the light on others rather than on themselves. I'm grateful they agreed to let me provide others a glimpse into their leadership style: Debby Meredith, Audrey Crane, Christina Wodtke, April Underwood, Judy Gibbons, Avid Larizadeh Duggan, Lisa Kavanaugh, and Shan‐Lyn Ma.

Thanks also to my long‐time editor, Peter Economy, ...