This is the third post of a 4-part "How to Become a Product Leader" series.
So now we’ve covered two of the most obvious ways to become a Product Leader. However, they’re two of the toughest, and they might not be for everyone. Next up, we’ll walk through two ways to become a Product Leader that might be less obvious. First up: “be internal.” Before you become Captain, become a key part of the team that you want to play on. Like anything else, the way to get to your leadership position is by starting… somewhere. Anywhere you can build up trust internally, and prove your ability to
So now we’ve covered two of the most obvious ways to become a Product Leader. However, they’re two of the toughest, and they might not be for everyone. Next up, we’ll walk through two ways to become a Product Leader that might be less obvious. First up: “be internal.” Before you become Captain, become a key part of the team that you want to play on. Like anything else, the way to get to your leadership position is by starting… somewhere. Anywhere you can build up trust internally, and prove your ability to
- understand customer needs
- work with a diverse group of stakeholders
- formulate a vision, and
- execute
Your Background |
Target Department(s) |
Showcase Project(s) |
Undergrad — non technical |
Sales / Customer Success |
Unbuilt solutions for market-wide needs |
Undergrad — technical |
Engineering / Quality Assurance |
Performance optimization / Feature prioritization |
MBA |
Product Marketing |
Product packaging / pricing / positioning |
PhD — Sciences |
Data Science |
Algorithms with defined customer benefits |
Business / other (1) |
Operations |
Improve internal process |
Business / other (2) |
Marketing / Analytics |
Acquisition trends / retention programs |
Use your existing skills to come up with new ideas, become an outspoken member of your team, then carry your ideas to Product Management, and push to see them carried through. If you have enough passion, and can correctly identify where your firm is uniquely positioned to better serve your customers, you’ll be as able as anyone to end up carrying your ideas through.