Product Mastery Now for Product Managers, Leaders, and Innovators
Chad McAllister, PhD
300 episodes
1 week ago
Welcome to Product Mastery Now, where you learn the 7 knowledge areas for product mastery. We teach the product management practices that elevate your influence and create products your customers love as you move toward product mastery. To learn about all seven areas and assess your strengths in product mastery, go to my website -- https://productmasterynow.com -- and click the Podcast button at the top of the page. Hosted by Chad McAllister, product management professor and practitioner.
All content for Product Mastery Now for Product Managers, Leaders, and Innovators is the property of Chad McAllister, PhD and is served directly from their servers
with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.
Welcome to Product Mastery Now, where you learn the 7 knowledge areas for product mastery. We teach the product management practices that elevate your influence and create products your customers love as you move toward product mastery. To learn about all seven areas and assess your strengths in product mastery, go to my website -- https://productmasterynow.com -- and click the Podcast button at the top of the page. Hosted by Chad McAllister, product management professor and practitioner.
561: Navigating the leap to product leadership – with Rebecca Arora
Product Mastery Now for Product Managers, Leaders, and Innovators
37 minutes 11 seconds
1 month ago
561: Navigating the leap to product leadership – with Rebecca Arora
Practical strategies for building influence and confidence from a Product VP coach
Watch on YouTube
TLDR
In this episode, I talk with Rebecca Arora, founder of Access Alignment, executive coach, and author of Somatic Intelligence, about making the transition from successful product manager or director to VP of Product and beyond. Rebecca shares practical strategies for this professional transition, including the need to shift from domain expertise to people leadership, the importance of relationship mapping, communication skills, and strategic thinking. She offers advice on handling stress, leveraging self-awareness, and using coaching techniques to empower teams. We also explore how to set yourself up for success in the first 90 days of a new leadership role.
Introduction
Let’s say you’re a product manager, you have done outstanding work, and you’re getting promoted to Product VP. Congratulations! The excitement lasts about 24 hours before reality hits. Suddenly you’re responsible for product strategy, team leadership, board presentations, and influencing executives. The skills that made you successful as an individual contributor won’t be enough to make you successful as a Product VP. How do you make this transition?
Many of the Product VPs I have talked with use a professional coach to help them move from doing product management work to leading the people who do the work. Our guest today is one of those coaches who has helped several Product VPs. From this episode, you’ll learn practical steps to take for making a similar transition from individual contributor to leader, setting yourself up for long-term success.
Our guest is Rebecca Arora, founder of Access Alignment and author of Somatic Intelligence. Rebecca has a unique background – she was a Co-Founder and the first Product Leader at Mode Media, which scaled to become the #1 lifestyle digital media company. She also contributed to product strategy at Oracle. For the past 16 years, she’s been coaching C-suite leaders and top execs in all functions (including Product). Rebecca’s clients work at exceptional companies such as Google, Salesforce, IDEO, Pinterest, Blue Shield of California, Accenture, and many more. Her book, Somatic Intelligence, helps leaders align head, heart, and body to lead with awareness, confidence, and clarity.
Summary of Concepts Discussed for Product Managers
Transitioning from Individual Contributor to Leader:Rebecca describes the challenges facing newly promoted Product VPs, noting the skills that made you a great product manager may not be sufficient as a senior leader. The key leap is shifting your mindset from being an expert to becoming more of a coach and empowering others.
The Company as Your Product:As you move up, your sphere of influence expands. Rebecca encourages leaders to think of the company and entire industry as their “product,” applying product management skills to relationships, organizations, and strategy, not just the features you build.
Overcoming the Expert Trap:Product leaders can struggle with letting go of being the domain expert and instead fostering empowerment and growth in others. Rebecca advises asking open-ended coaching questions and making space for your team to experiment—even if they do things differently from how you would.
Relationship Mapping and Communication:Building new relationships is a priority. Rebecca suggests creating a relationship map to identify stakeholders and potential influencers, addressing conflicts, and strengthening weak connections.
Product Mastery Now for Product Managers, Leaders, and Innovators
Welcome to Product Mastery Now, where you learn the 7 knowledge areas for product mastery. We teach the product management practices that elevate your influence and create products your customers love as you move toward product mastery. To learn about all seven areas and assess your strengths in product mastery, go to my website -- https://productmasterynow.com -- and click the Podcast button at the top of the page. Hosted by Chad McAllister, product management professor and practitioner.
