Empowered summary

Strong product leaders must first take center stage before their team members can follow suit.

So there’s no better place to start than with leadership.

The root of great product leadership is a robust coaching mindset. Without it, you can’t authentically inspire your product teams to create and deliver successful products. But being a mentor offering words of wisdom isn’t enough. You also need to be a real coach who isn’t scared to roll up your sleeves to boost your teams’ ultimate potential.

What do Apple, Amazon, Google, and Netflix have in common? One name: Bill Campbell. The late legendary coach mentored the founders of these companies and many other tech leaders in Silicon Valley. He asserted that great leaders can recognize the greatness in others and are only as good as their ability to coach.

So how can you sharpen your coaching mindset to that then translates into great products?

First, use one-on-one meetings with all team members to focus on outcomes instead of delegating tasks. Leverage this space to cultivate a purpose-driven work ethic within your team. Noticed a lack of product innovation lately? Chat with your managers, designers, or engineers in their regular one-on-ones; ask them about what keeps them inspired in their roles despite hard times. Another way to think of it is that to deliver great products, you need missionaries, not mercenaries.

Your coaching efforts won’t matter if you can’t maintain trust. Avoid all temptations to micromanage. Strengthen trust by praising publicly and criticizing privately. At the same time, don’t hesitate to correct your teams’ mistakes right as they happen; it shows that you know what you’re doing as a credible leader.

If you can’t lead your product teams with confidence, be humble enough to outsource this responsibility to another experienced leader while upskilling yourself in this area.

Now that you know what it takes to be a great leader, it’s time to assemble great product teams. Head on to the next section to learn the 411 on a good staffing strategy.