Product Managers have often been called the “CEO of their product,” but is this true? How often is the product manager “at the table” as strategies are created, or business decisions are made? As industries shift and scale to become more “product-led,” the product manager’s role shifts from a builder of things to a strategic business partner and enabler of business success. This transformation hinges on mastering the intricate dance of meeting customer needs and engaging market forces while creating sustaining revenue and meeting profitability goals. Making this shift requires product managers to rethink how they operate and present the practice of product within the enterprise. Product managers must now integrate and use a variety of strategic frameworks, including design thinking, strategic pricing, cost optimization, and intelligent resource allocation, to foster structured decision-making and create repeatability in delivering innovation. Guided by financial performance, operational scalability, and delivery reliability while maintaining customer-centricity and market competitiveness, product managers must also create improved precision in resource allocation, champion data-driven standardization, enable lean operations, and drive strategic prioritization to support the ongoing success of the products they create. In this webinar with Elevance Health CPO Gautam Shah, learn how by taking this lens and embracing this transformation, product managers can increase their impact and become partners in creating business success.
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Show Notes:
- Shift from feature factory to strategic business partner by understanding multiple business parameters and outcomes.
- Take a journey-based approach to product development and involve legal, finance, and regulatory teams.
- Develop business acumen by understanding financials, operations, pricing, and the competitive landscape.
- Be a trusted advisor by providing a structured framework for prioritization and data-driven decision making.
- Apply frameworks like design thinking and human-centered design with a user-centric approach.
- Understand why the business initiates projects instead of just executing requirements.
- Participate in strategy and help shape it instead of just implementing.
- Prioritize business outcomes and impacts instead of just features.
- Master the balance between customer/market knowledge and business knowledge.
- Learn to speak in stakeholders’ terms about value delivered rather than just features.
- Dedicate significant time to engaging business partners to derive alignment.
- Learn from other product managers in the community.
- Leverage leaders to introduce you to key stakeholders and provide value.
- Have innate curiosity and understand the value of collective decision making.
- Be willing to learn outside your experience through classes, certifications, etc.
- As a leader, facilitate organizational delivery of decisions rather than just getting your own way.
- Think differently as a leader considering synthesis of work and being a trusted advisor.
- Use measurable metrics for success at the product, portfolio and business levels.
- Automate manual tasks using AI to improve outcomes by reducing costs.
- Additionally, synthesize information using AI tools to increase knowledge absorption capacity.
About the speaker
Gautam (G) leads product strategy, lifecycle management, and customer success for a clinical, behavioral, care management, and financial healthcare solutions portfolio for Carelon, a health services brand under Elevance Health. A veteran product leader and digital transformation expert, G has spearheaded product and business evolution across multiple regulated industries in the United States, Europe, and Asia for companies including Sprint, Cisco Jasper, and Apollo Group. He is an award-winning communicator who has spoken at conferences worldwide, advancing the use of experience-centered approaches to build products and services that meet user needs. Prior to joining Carelon, G was Change Healthcare’s Vice President of Platform and Marketplace Strategy. While there, he led product, technology, business transformation, and market advocacy for the company’s provider, patient, and payor financial and care management products portfolio. As an executive-in-residence at the Center for Digital Health Innovation at the University of California, San Francisco, G successfully created and commercialized innovative clinical and operational workflow, patient experience, financial management, and next-generation diagnostic solutions. G also served as Vice President of Products at Stryker Vocera and as a product management leader for Cisco’s portfolio of emerging healthcare products. G earned an engineering degree from the California State Polytechnic University and holds a Presidents and Key Executives Master of Business Administration from Pepperdine University. He has been awarded several patents in areas ranging from advanced data analytics to consumer mobile applications.
About the host
As the Chief Product Officer at NEOGOV, Denise leads the strategy for public sector HR and Public Safety software, driving innovation, customer satisfaction, and excellence. Her experience at Checkr as Chief Product Officer saw her delivering customer-focused products and promoting a fairer future. Denise’s notable career spans over two decades, with significant roles including GM for Analytics at Workday, where she launched new products and grew the business to over $200 million in ARR. Her background includes leadership positions at Platfora, Salesforce, HSBC, and AT&T, showcasing her expertise in enterprise product development and a commitment to technological advancement and customer success.