Do you know what it takes to be a great Product Leader? In this presentation, you’ll learn about the 4 Pillars of Product Leadership, and discover key skills that can take your career from good to great.

1. What It Takes to Be a Great
Product Leader?
The Four Pillars
Jay Patel - Co-Founder - www.connoc.me

2. Introduction
● These are based on my own learning and experience and are also inspired
by various blogs, books and infographics.
● I am a digital, startup entrepreneur who has developed several successful
products since the past 8 years.
● This PPT is intended to help fresh startup entrepreneurs and product
developers understand the necessary skills for taking their vision ahead.

3. Do you know what it takes to be a Great
Product Leader?

4. Believe it or not, the secret ingredient of
Product Leadership can be distilled down to
4 core pillars

5. The 4 pillars of Product Leadership are
● Soft skills
● Business acumen
● Domain knowledge
● Technical skills

6. Pillar #1: Soft skills

7. ● Practice active listening and empathy.
● Improve your presentation skills, both for big and small audiences.
(Consider joining Networking Groups)
● Improve your whiteboard skills.
● Improve your writing skills. (Get some coaching from people you
respect. Technical writers are always a good ally.)
Communication

8. Networking, team building, and creating rapport with our peers and
executives is not a luxury; it’s a requirement.
Relationship Building

9. The best negotiations aim for a win-win outcome. Like anything else,
negotiation is a learned skill.
Negotiation

10. Learn the following topics:
● How to Provide mentorship and coaching
● How to provide feedback
● How to conduct 1-to-1 meetings
● Recruiting (hiring and firing)
● How to set goals, expectations and how to measure results
● The art of delegation
People Management

11. Product Leaders of all levels need to have a solid understanding of
business principles, so they can make trade-offs and decisions regarding
what’s best for all parties involved.
Pillar #2: Business Acumen

12. Pillar #3: Domain Knowledge

13. The only way is to immerse yourself in your industry and learn everything
you can. Here are a few suggestions:
● Talk to your users
● Get a mentor
● Attend trade shows
● Read trade publications
● Follow the experts
● Study your competition
So, How Do You Get It?

14. Pillar #4: Technical Skills

15. To me, Product Managers and Leaders need to understand how their
product is built. For example, a PM building a SaaS product should
understand the basics of software engineering, SaaS, SOA, Internet
technologies, etc.
Technical Skills

16. A good User Experience (UX) is a must, and all companies are
(or should be) jumping on it.
UX

17. We need to understand “how the sausage is made,” so we can understand
the development milestones, and make sure that the product is going in
the right direction.
Product Lifecycle
(from a technical perspective)

18. Some of the processes, methodologies, and frameworks I consider valuable are:
● Agile
● Mindmapping
● Prioritization and roadmapping
● Pragmatic Marketing
● Lean Software Approach
● Design Thinking
Processes, Methodologies, and
Frameworks

19. The important thing is to always be improving and work every day on
becoming a well-rounded Product Leader.
In Conclusion

20. If you enjoyed this post, please share it and feel free to write a comment
below. I’d love to hear your take on the 4 pillars!
Share!

21. e-mail : jay@hetu.me
Facebook : facebook.com/enlively
Linkedin : http://lnkd.in/kq_g3A
Connect with me & give your feedback!