EMPOWERED

CHAPTER 71The Role of Product Leaders

Moving the product teams from the subservient feature team model to the collaborative empowered product team model begins with trust—especially between the product organization and the rest of the leaders of the business. And the keys to that trust are the product leaders, especially the head of product.

Without a strong head of product who inspires confidence and is trusted by the CEO and the other key executives, it will be a long and very difficult road.

Note that there is a big assumption here, which may not be true in your organization: We assume that the product leaders are generally at the same peer level with the other key executives and stakeholders in the organization.

Normally, in a tech‐powered product company, they are. However, in some older, pre‐internet companies, the product leaders are buried under someone like a CIO, CTO, or inside of individual businesses (all clear signs of the subservient feature team model).

In this case, it is politically much more difficult to get the senior vice president of sales or the chief marketing officer or the chief financial officer to have a collaborative relationship with the head of product.

Why is this important? Because it's much easier to get an executive to put their trust in a peer rather than in a much lower‐level subordinate they don't know, and don't believe has the necessary experience or knowledge.

In any case, the product leaders must establish a direct relationship with ...