How can PMs lead for better product outcomes? Achieving the desired product outcomes requires excellence across the board — in product management and every stakeholder, from engineering to executives, along with excellent dynamics within the team. If you are like most PMs, you are unlikely to have a perfect set of stakeholders or team dynamics. Building trust, getting commitment, setting boundaries, and holding stakeholders accountable are critical leadership skills to drive change for better product outcomes. In this Speaker Series event, Rubrik Product VP Vasu Murthy shares tips and tools you can use to build these leadership skills.
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Show Notes:
- Building trust with stakeholders is important for achieving good product outcomes. Trust is built through care, sincerity, reliability, and competence.
- Using a framework like the one presented can help evaluate stakeholder relationships and identify areas for improvement.
- Commitment from stakeholders is important for making decisions and achieving buy-in.
- Setting clear boundaries and expectations around roles, responsibilities, and behaviors is important.
- Hold each other accountable, but handle the language and approach carefully.
- Facilitating opportunities for stakeholders to build relationships can help develop trust.
- Communicating priorities and changes clearly and repeatedly is important to maintain trust when priorities shift.
- Involving diverse stakeholders in decision making can help achieve buy-in.
- Distilling a large number of input into key priorities helps with processing and follow through.
- Trust is built through one-on-one interactions.
- Leading for better product outcomes requires embodying and facilitating trust between teams.
- Regulate the pace of change to balance efficiency and morale.
- Being transparent about reasons for changes helps stakeholders understand and support shifts.
- Asking for feedback helps show vulnerability and encourage open communication.
- Product councils can bring together diverse perspectives to inform decisions.
- Implementation teams provide valuable insights into product usage.
- Sales and customer success teams understand customer needs and pain points.
- Trust allows for open accountability without damaging relationships.
- Personality plays a role in how individuals approach accountability.
- Measuring relationships helps identify areas for improvement.
About the speaker
Vasu Murthy has been an entrepreneur and product manager having worked at various scales of company size and product maturity. He is Vice President of Product Management at Rubrik.. Previously, he co-founded DataScaler, an in-memory database company which was acquired by Oracle where he went on to lead product management for Oracle Analytics Platform.
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.