Why are the best product managers not the CEOs of the product? The distinction between the role of a Product and that of a CEO within the context of a product-centric organization is crucial for maximizing success. While a CEO oversees the entire company and sets the broader strategic vision, the best Product leaders excel by immersing themselves in the intricacies of product development, ensuring that each detail aligns with the ever-evolving needs of the market and users. In this webinar, Genesys Cloud Senior Product Director Leslie Chau will be speaking on why the best product managers are not the CEOs of the product.
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Show Notes:
- Product managers don’t need to be technical – curiosity and empathy are more important skills.
- Diverse experience can help product managers gain perspective and empathy.
- Building strong internal and external networks can increase company revenue by 20%.
- Networking assessments can improve a PM’s breadth, depth, and range of knowledge.
- Intentional networking involves giving value to connections.
- Product managers are not CEOs due to differences in scope, responsibilities, and authority.
- PMs lead through influence and ideas, not positional power.
- PMs foster collaboration and input from stakeholders.
- Experience outside of PM can develop important empathy skills.
- Effective PMs cut through noise to clarify core problems and solutions.
- Trust and psychological safety are important for empowering teams.
- Imposter syndrome is common but diverse experience builds confidence.
- Focusing on outcomes over solutions is important.
- Domain expertise and business skills are valuable for PMs.
- Curiosity is a key PM skill for understanding customer needs.
- Keeping networking connections alive is important.
- Project management differs from product management.
- Product ownership differs from product management.
- Experience in sales, consulting can develop empathy.
- PMs should avoid micromanaging and value stakeholder input.
About the speaker
Leslie has over 15 years of experience as a Product leader in the Digital Transformation, Automation and Integration spaces as well as holding various roles in Consulting, Sales and Product Management. Leslie has Launched multiple successful B2B product lines at major software vendors. Product Management is Leslie's passion. He thrives in building winning product team, consulting on product strategy and GTM, and helping transform product organizations.
About the host
Toronto Chapter Head for Products That Count I am a digital product executive with over 20 years of experience in retail, digital media, and e-commerce. I’ve held both strategic and operational leadership roles at Canadian Tire, Torstar, Postmedia, eBay, and PayPal as well as start-ups. I am a servant leader who is humble, self aware, always learning, and excels at collaborating with stakeholders. I am a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, a father of two, pancreatic cancer awareness advocate, moved to Canada 13 years ago, and grew up in Boston, Massachusetts. I currently sit on the Product Management Program Advisory Council for York University which offers Canada’s first post-secondary product management program.