Earning company-wide buy-in through corporate storytelling with Kristy Olinger - SVP Product Management

On today's episode, I sat down with Kristy Olinger, Portfolio Optimization Manager at Citizens Bank, and former SVP of Product at Bank of America. In Kristy's experience, with or without direct authority, it's vital for Product Managers and Product Leaders to gain buyin through influence, and Kristy has found storytelling to be the #1 tool for earning company-wide buyin. That's what we're going to dig into today, so let's get started.  

Here's what we talked about:

The underappreciated skill of corporate story-telling

Kristy's podcast "the opposite of small talk"

How different companies function in terms of how much authority PMs have

Why even when you have authority, sociliting feedback is crucial for buy in and better decision making

Even without direct authority, PMs have direct responsibility for outcomes

Knowing when to stand your ground since the buck ultimately does stop with you

Why the best strategy fails if you fail to consider and nurture implementation

How the jobs we have are complex, and it's our job to make what we're doing simple, understandable, and compelling

There's always more than one path we CAN take, so getting buy-in is critical for the path you've chosen

How storytelling is the #1 way to gain that buy-in

Why understanding your audience is key to telling the right story the right way

Get started with corporate storytelling at: kristyolinger.com/prodcastfreebie

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