EMPOWERED

CHAPTER 61Leader Profile: Christina Wodtke

Path to Leadership

I first met Christina in 2003, when she was running a design team at early Yahoo. Christina had studied photography in art school and learned product design working with several early internet teams.

I then watched her career as she spent time in both product and design leadership roles at LinkedIn, MySpace, and Zynga.

But no matter where she worked, she was known for her commitment to coaching and developing the people fortunate enough to work for her.

Which is why I felt she found her true calling joining the faculty at Stanford, where she teaches human–computer interaction and product design.

Christina has also published several books, mostly around the theme of strong, empowered product teams—including a popular book on OKRs and another on leadership and team empowerment.¹

This is why I've always considered her a kindred spirit.

Leadership in Action

Christina was very fortunate to learn product and design directly from some exceptional leaders. They showed her the real power of an empowered team.

Here's her story in her own words:

I joined Yahoo in 2002, when the internet was still very young, and Yahoo was at the time a very fast‐growing and influential tech company.

I was the first designer for the search team and was lucky enough to work for Irene Au.

Irene had been a product designer for Netscape, and she ...