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.

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. 

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. Top product leaders may leverage communication coaching to refine their tone and message delivery.

Self-Awareness and Blind Spots:
While developing your own self-awareness, simultaneously encourage self-awareness from your team. Rebecca advocates for collecting feedback, self-assessment, and being aware of personality differences within a team. She highlights the value of recognizing your blind spots and understanding that not everyone is motivated or learns the same way you do. You cannot always guide people the way you want to be guided.

360-degree Feedback:
Product leaders can get 360-degree feedback by interviewing their boss, direct reports, peers, and other stakeholders and ask them, “What are my strengths?” and “What could I improve upon?”

First 90 Days in a Product Leadership Role:
Rebecca’s advice is to go on a listening tour—ask lots of questions and be curious. Apply user research principles to understanding the organization. Prioritize relationship-building at all levels. Hone your strategic, long-range industry viewpoint.

Managing Stress and Personal Growth:
The transition to senior leadership is stressful and can feel isolating. Rebecca shares practical tips: slow down (“Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast.”), lean back to get perspective on challenges, smile more, and use humor to reset your mindset. Rebecca recommends that during a stressful time, product leaders can draw on somatic intelligence by engaging their body and not just their mind.

“What got you here won’t get you there.” – Marshall Goldsmith

Rebecca is a former tech co-founder (and Product Manager) who coaches CEOs and executive leaders. She’s a confidential sounding board, seer of blind spots, and leadership expert who enables senior leaders to scale effectively, build strong teams, and lead strategically. Rebecca’s clients work at exceptional companies such as Google, Salesforce, IDEO, Pinterest, Blue Shield of California, and Accenture. 

Her book, Somatic Intelligence, helps leaders align head, heart, and body to lead with awareness, confidence, and clarity. 

Rebecca experienced a career detour due to burnout and a quarter-life crisis. During that time, she discovered various healing resources foundational to her work as a coach. 

Thank you for taking the journey to product mastery and learning with me from the successes and failures of product innovators, managers, and developers. If you enjoyed the discussion, help out a fellow product manager by sharing it using the social media buttons you see below.

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Product delight goes beyond functionality to create emotional connections with users. Dr. Nesrine Changuel, former product leader at Google, Spotify, and Microsoft, presents a four-step framework for systematically building delight into products. The approach involves identifying both functional and emotional motivators, turning them into product opportunities, categorizing solutions using a Delight Grid, and validating through a Delight Excellence Checklist. Research shows emotionally connected users have 2x higher retention and revenue, plus 60% more referrals. The optimal product portfolio balances 50% functional features, 40% deep delight (both functional and emotional), and 10% surface delight (purely emotional).

Why do customers choose your product? Is it faster, does it have the best features, or is it priced better than your competitors? Don’t kid yourself, these are areas where your competitors can easily reach parity. So, what makes a product stand out? What makes it become the product customers genuinely love and can’t imagine living without? Not only will you find out in this episode, but you’ll also learn about the framework to make it happen.

Our guest expert is Dr. Nesrine Changuel. She has spent over a decade building products used by millions at Google, Spotify, and Microsoft. She’s the creator of the Delight Framework that helped teams at these companies systematically build emotional connection into products. She now teaches this methodology at business schools, including INSEAD and ESSEC, and her recent book, Product Delight, describes these proven methods.

What is Product Delight?
Product delight means creating products that connect with users on an emotional level while solving functional problems. It addresses both what users need to accomplish and how they want to feel while using the product.

The Four-Step Delight Framework:

The 50-40-10 Rule:
Nesrine recommends that the optimal product roadmaps should contain:

Examples and Case Studies:

Spotify Examples:

Uber Security Features:
Uber transformed the emotional motivator of feeling secure into features like location tracking for partners and proactive safety notifications when rides deviate from expected routes.

Motivational Segmentation:
Users can be segmented by why they use products, not just who they are or what they do. Spotify users might be goal-oriented (knowing exactly what to listen to) or inspiration-seeking (wanting discovery and recommendations).

Business Impact:
Research from multiple studies (including McKinsey and Harvard Business Review) shows emotionally connected users demonstrate:

Implementation in Organizations:

Integration Approaches:

Jobs-to-be-Done Connection:
Nesrine’s Delight Framework builds on Jobs-to-be-Done theory by making the emotional and social job aspects more actionable through specific tools like the Delight Grid and Delight Excellence Checklist.

“Whether B2B or B2C, delight is essential in every B2H (business-to-human) industry.” – Nesrine Changuel

 “We don’t want to work only on things that will change over the next 10 years. We want to also work on things that will remain for the next 10 years.” – paraphrase of Jeff Bezos

Nesrine Changuel is a product coach, trainer and author with over a decade of experience at companies like Google, Spotify, and Microsoft. With a background in research and a PhD from Bell Labs in collaboration with UCLA, she brings deep technical expertise to human-centered product design. From pioneering video experiences at Skype to creating emotionally engaging features for Google Meet and Chrome, Nesrine has made it her mission to help teams build products users truly love. Today, she teaches, speaks, and trains companies around the world on how to create delightful, emotionally resonant products. She lives in Paris.  

Thank you for taking the journey to product mastery and learning with me from the successes and failures of product innovators, managers, and developers. If you enjoyed the discussion, help out a fellow product manager by sharing it using the social media buttons you see below.

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Product leadership expert Rich Mironov discusses three core challenges CPOs and product VPs face: effectively communicating value in business terms rather than process terminology, building trust through merchandising wins before gaining decision-making authority, and reducing product waste by making better decisions about what to build. Executives don’t care how product gets made; they care about revenue impact. Success requires translating product outcomes into financial language and proving value through small wins before requesting broader organizational changes.

We’re talking about the top challenges CPOs and Product VPs face. Navigating them well can cause your career to excel and result in valuable products. Navigating them poorly has career-limiting consequences. This discussion will help you avoid the latter by giving you approaches to address common product leadership challenges.

Our guest has mentored more product leaders and executives than anyone else I know over his 40-year career in product roles. He has served as interim CPO for 15 companies, founded the first Product Camp, consulted to hundreds of tech companies, and wrote the book The Art of Product Management. His blog, “Product Bytes,” is widely read by product leaders. From that description, you likely already know who our guest is—Rich Mironov. 

Rich has seen every product leadership disaster imaginable and knows how to fix them. Let’s learn how to address and even avoid such challenges.

First Principles for Product Leaders:
Rich outlines three areas product leaders must champion:

Speaking the Executive Language:

Reducing Product Waste:
Rich distinguishes between two types of waste:

The Trust-Building Problem:

The Merchandising Strategy:
Weekly practices for building influence by recording and communicating added value:

How Product Leaders Can Make Better Use of Product Managers:

Team Structure Preferences:
Rich’s preferred team composition:

“Other people are not an imperfect version of you. They are a perfect version of themselves.”  – Pam Fox Rollin

Rich has led product teams for 40 years, including six B2B startups and 15 interim CPO/VP Products roles.  Today, he coaches product leaders, helps design product organizations, and writes/speaks about how product folks can understand our go-to-market partners.  He been blogging about software product management since 2002, launched the first product camps and wrote “The Art of Product Management.” 

Thank you for taking the journey to product mastery and learning with me from the successes and failures of product innovators, managers, and developers. If you enjoyed the discussion, help out a fellow product manager by sharing it using the social media buttons you see below.

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John Krewson, who began his career in sketch comedy before moving to software product development, explains what product teams can learn from sketch comedy. Like comedy writers, product teams must be able to be vulnerable, throw away unsuccessful ideas, and prioritize delivering valuable products over perfect products. John shares principles and practices adapted from sketch comedy that product managers can use to balance autonomy and accountability, make meetings more engaging, and understand customer problems.

What if the secret to building breakthrough products is less about an innovation framework and more about the chaotic, creative energy of a Saturday Night Live writers’ room? Specifically, can sketch comedy principles revolutionize the way your software teams collaborate, create, and deliver products that customers love? We are about to find out, and I won’t keep you in suspense—lessons from sketch comedy can make you a better product manager and developer. In this episode, you’ll hear specific techniques to transform boring meetings into energizing collaborative sessions, practical methods to help your team improve ideas fast, and a new approach to product ownership that distributes creative control without losing focus.

Our guest is John Krewson, who brings a unique perspective as a 25-year software industry veteran and professional sketch comedy performer, including a brush with SNL. He’s the founder of Sketch Development Services, has coached everyone from startups to Fortune 50 companies on agile transformation, and wrote the book on applying sketch comedy principles to product development, titled Pitch, Sketch, Launch.

John Krewson’s Journey:
John began his career as a professional actor and performed as a background player on Saturday Night Live. He then switched careers to software development and worked his way up to management, leadership, and consulting roles. As a product leader, John found himself relying on his training as an actor and director.

How Sketch Comedy Principles Inform Product Development:
A software development team builds features without knowing whether they will satisfy the customer, in much the same way as a sketch comedy team has no idea if their sketch will be funny. The sketch comedy team mitigates risk by making their sketch only three and a half minutes long. Similar to software features, the sketch is a tight, independent unit of value, where the risk is mitigated by its independentness.

John studied the process of moving from an idea to a product in sketch comedy, particularly at SNL, and, along with a comedy sketch writer, wrote about how that process could be applied to product development in Pitch, Sketch, Launch.

Efficiency and Iteration:
In sketch comedy, 90% of sketches don’t go on the air. Comedy teams practice their ideas on small audiences to figure out which sketches are funny before bringing them to a big show. In product development, ideas should be iterated upon using customer feedback.

Vulnerability and Transparency:
Sketch comedy teams have thick skins because they’ve been told they’re not funny 90% of the time. Organization culture can allow teams to be vulnerable enough to put ideas forward that may have a 90% chance of being unsuccessful.

Always Be Ready:
Lorne Michaels said, “We don’t go on because it’s ready. We go on because it’s 11:30.” Saturday Night Live has never missed a deadline in 50 years, not by aiming to be perfect, but by presenting the best version they can get done by Saturday. Rather than trying to figure out the most efficient way of landing the plane, they figure out the most valuable way of landing the plane.

Opportunities to Play:
At John’s company, Sketch, the product development teams take dedicated “play days” to play with and react to each others’ ideas, whether good or bad.

Autonomy and Accountability:
At SNL, sketch writers have 100% autonomy over writing their sketches during the week, but the director has accountability over the final show by choosing which sketches are performed. Similarly, product teams can balance autonomy and accountability by allowing independent units to build features, while having overarching accountability to select which features make it into the final product.

Agile and Scrum:
In an analogy to Scrum, on SNL, the director Lorne Michaels is the product owner, who articulates the vision for the product. The sketch writers and cast members are the development team, which executes on the vision. State managers and directors facilitate the execution and support the development team.

The Role of the Product Owner:
The product owner knows more about the customer than anyone else on the team. John suggests that the product owner should spend a third of their time with their customers understanding their problems, a third understanding the product and backlog, and a third with their team understanding engineering constraints and communicating customer insights to the developers.

The best product owners help the development team see the customer and their problems as clearly as the product owner does.

Lean Coffee:
John mixes up the routine by occasionally using a meeting structure called Lean Coffee. Everyone writes what they would like to talk about on a sticky note and puts the notes on a whiteboard. Everyone votes on what they’d like to talk about. The team talks about the topic with the most votes for 5 minutes, then for 2 more minutes if the majority wants to keep talking about it. Then they move on to the next highest voted topic.

Topics include a mix of business concerns and fun or random topics. The leader facilitates an environment where play, fun, and lightness are encouraged.

“We don’t go on because it’s ready. We go on because it’s 11:30.” – Lorne Michaels

“Nothing great was ever built by the team that couldn’t wait to clock out.” – John Krewson

John Krewson is the founder and CEO of Sketch Development Services, a St. Louis based consultancy that focuses on helping companies simplify the complex process of delivering software.  

Founded in 2015, Sketch is a two-time member of the Inc 5000. Sketch has worked with dozens of companies from startups to the Fortune 50 to help them learn, adopt, and apply new ways of working to match an ever-changing work environment.  

Prior to establishing Sketch, John’s career path encompassed various roles, including software developer, project manager, technology leader, and consultant. In addition to his professional endeavors, John has a unique past in the entertainment industry. In 1997, he made a brief appearance on Saturday Night Live.  

Drawing parallels between knowledge workers and entertainers, John frequently incorporates his acting background into his presentations and training events, offering unique insights and lessons that resonate with audiences. 

Thank you for taking the journey to product mastery and learning with me from the successes and failures of product innovators, managers, and developers. If you enjoyed the discussion, help out a fellow product manager by sharing it using the social media buttons you see below.

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In this episode, Matt Carr, VP of Design at Umbra, joins us to discuss the intersection of design leadership, product strategy, and innovation in physical product development. Matt shares practical frameworks Umbra uses to balance creative vision and business reality, offers insights into managing a global product portfolio, discusses approaches to cross-functional collaboration, and highlights how direct customer interaction (especially via e-commerce and social media) drives rapid product iteration. Product managers will find actionable tactics for portfolio balancing, design decision-making, and fostering a design-led culture.

What does it take to design products that delight consumers while hitting profit targets? We are examining design leadership and product strategy with someone who has mastered both. If you’ve ever struggled to balance creative vision with commercial reality, or wondered how to scale design across global teams, this episode will give you frameworks you can use immediately. 

Matt Carr is VP of Design at Umbra, the Canadian-based company that designs products for every room of the home. He’s spent 25 years at Umbra, from junior designer to leading their global design operations. He’s created products that have been featured in The New York Times, Surface Magazine, and Met Home. More importantly, he’s built systems for “balancing business and imagination” that keep Umbra at the front of innovation.

Umbra’s Global Design DNA:
Matt explains how Umbra crafts products “for every room in your home.” Their five core values guide design: modern aesthetic, originality, casual sensibility, accessibility (price), and functionality.

Product Portfolio Management:
Umbra maintains long-standing lines (the maintenance bucket), continually innovates with blue sky ideas, and expands on successes through thoughtful derivatives, all while staying globally relevant.

Case Study: Bellwood Photo Frame:
As part of Umbra’s long-standing commitment to picture frames—a core “maintenance” product category—Matt Carr and his team recognized the need to innovate in a saturated market. Unlike traditional frames, the Bellwood features a single, continuous curve around the corners, giving it a modern, sculptural feel. It’s designed to look attractive from all angles, not just the front—a key differentiator from standard frames with plain or unsightly backs. The price-point allows Umbra to deliver premium feel at a price accessible to their global customer base.

Practical Design Process:
Matt outlines the design journey from early sketch and cardboard prototypes to iterative 3D models and tooling, emphasizing early, low-cost experimentation and the importance of cross-functional team input. The process involves:

Consumer-Driven Innovation:
Umbra’s internal team members often represent the target customer, but rapid feedback loops with end users—especially via e-commerce and social media—now accelerate product refinement, color choices, and new category opportunities.

Ensuring Design Consistency at Scale:
Matt explains how Umbra collaborates with external designers worldwide while maintaining brand DNA. Matt shares how great ideas are adapted through internal “design massage” to align with company ethos.

“Your last impression is your lasting impression.” – Matt Carr

Matt’s passion for design was first sparked when he interned at Douglas Cardinal Architects. He went on to study at Humber School of Industrial Design, where he received an ‘All-Canadian Academic’ award for scholastic and varsity achievements. An integral part of the Umbra design team since 2001, Matt has contributed countless designs to their product line. His work has been featured multiple times in The New York Times, The Daily Telegraph, Surface Magazine, I.D Magazine, Met Home, Monocle, and Living Etc. Matt is compelled to create product that balances business and imagination. Subtle details, an appreciation for imperfection, and the reinvention of traditional objects are distinguishing features of his designs. As VP of Design, Matt oversees a global design department headquartered in Toronto. 

Thank you for taking the journey to product mastery and learning with me from the successes and failures of product innovators, managers, and developers. If you enjoyed the discussion, help out a fellow product manager by sharing it using the social media buttons you see below.

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In this episode, Blair LaCorte—seasoned leader, investor, former CEO of AEye, and coach to 50+ CEOs— breaks down the keys to building product teams that win. Blair shares insights on aligning product strategy with company goals, the importance of saying no and making trade-offs, and why team culture and people patterns matter more than anything. He draws on experiences across tech, aviation, private equity, and defense, offering memorable lessons on scaling organizations, product leadership, and the human side of performance (including when and how to part ways with team members). The episode closes with advice for product managers seeking purpose, growth, and ways to elevate themselves and their teams.

Whether you’re a product manager trying to get your team aligned, or a product leader striving to translate executive vision into actionable roadmaps, this episode addresses the real challenges you face every day.

You’ll hear from a leader who has built high-performing product teams and grown organizations across different industries, from taking autonomous vehicle tech company AEye through a $1.8 billion IPO while launching products across automotive and defense markets, to scaling XOJET into one of the fastest-growing companies in aviation history. He’s worked with over 40 companies as a private equity  Operating Partner at TPG and now coaches 50+ CEOs through his Pinnacle Performance Elite mastermind. His career started in tech at Sun Microsystems and Autodesk and has spanned hardware, software, and services. If anyone knows what separates high-performing product teams from the rest, it’s our guest, Blair LaCorte.

Focused Product Strategy & Team Alignment:
Success starts with product managers who grasp both internal operations and external market realities, aligning product decisions tightly to company strategy. Focus is critical—great leaders say no more than yes.

Scaling & Market Fit:
Blair details how autonomous vehicle tech company AEye shifted from pure autonomous vehicles to ADAS (Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems), aligning their tech roadmap with realistic market cycles and cash flow needs.

Team Dynamics & Culture:
 For a product team, the type of culture is less important than the consistency of the culture and the consistency of the team. Teams with alignment and clear expectations outperform more talented but chaotic groups. Winning builds healthy cultures; the feeling of progress is essential.

Hard Choices & Leadership:
Removing the wrong team members is tough but essential. Blair emphasizes the importance of honest feedback, quick decision-making, and quickly firing weaker performers to allow the rest of the team to move forward.

Personal Growth & Knowing Yourself:
Blair dives into psychology, personality frameworks, and patterns—urging product leaders to understand themselves, seek feedback, show vulnerability, and continually develop their Johari Window (the intersection of self-perception and how others see you).

Technology vs. Humanity:
As technology advances rapidly, keeping humanity at the center becomes more important than ever. Product managers must weigh the impact of their products, striving for both business value and societal good.

“The biggest threat to mankind is when our technology outstrips our humanity.” – Albert Einstein

Blair LaCorte is a groundbreaking and battle-scarred business executive and transformational leader who has leveraged his curiosity, collaborative nature and his competitive spirit into an unconventional and remarkable career journey.

His experiences are also very unique from a functional perspective having taken on full time executive roles across a wide spectrum of business stages, ranging from startup to growth and from restructuring to liquidity events including sales, mergers and several IPO’s.

Thank you for taking the journey to product mastery and learning with me from the successes and failures of product innovators, managers, and developers. If you enjoyed the discussion, help out a fellow product manager by sharing it using the social media buttons you see below.

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Dr. Joseph Michelli—speaker, consultant, and bestselling author—joins me to explore how product innovation and exceptional customer experiences can transform industries, with a deep dive into One Medical, the patient-centered healthcare startup recently acquired by Amazon for $4 billion. The conversation sheds light on designing human-centric experiences, the strategic use of technology and AI, and the importance of empowering both employees and customers in service delivery. Practical takeaways for product managers include blending automation with empathy, continuous improvement through design thinking, and fostering workplace environments where innovation thrives.

If you’ve ever struggled with whether to automate a customer touchpoint or keep it human, if you’ve wondered how to measure the “personal” side of your product experience, or if your team debates where AI helps versus where it hurts customer relationships—this discussion is for you. We’ll examine how companies dominate their markets through product innovation and customer experience that creates loyal fans, with a focus on One Medical, a start-up that Amazon acquired for $4 billion. 

Our guest is Dr. Joseph Michelli, an internationally sought-after speaker and organizational consultant. He is a New York Times #1 bestselling author who has spent his career inside the world’s most customer-obsessed companies—from Starbucks and Ritz-Carlton to Mercedes-Benz and Zappos. His latest book, All Business Is Personal, examines the human-centered approach that made One Medical stand out in healthcare.  

The One Medical Story:
Founded by innovator Tom Lee, One Medical reimagined primary healthcare by leveraging technology for convenience, accessibility, and eliminating pain points (like waiting in both the waiting room and exam room). Their membership model allows customers to view providers’ schedules directly and schedule appointments online. Ninety-seven percent of their patients wait for less than three minutes to be seen by their provider. One Medical’s model integrates with existing health insurance, while streamlining scheduling, communication, and clinical experiences.

Designing for People:
One Medical designs not only for customers but also for employees. Especially in healthcare, where burn-out and lack of talent are serious challenges, a humane experience for employees is essential. One Medical leverages user experience (UX) research, streamlines workflows, and uses AI to handle administrative burdens and enhance face-to-face interactions.

Practical Innovation:
With influences from design thinking and Lean methodologies, One Medical empowers all team members as “spotters and solvers.” Practices like job rounding, customer walks, huddle boards, and cross-functional problem-solving are part of their DNA.

Amazon’s Influence:
Joseph discusses Amazon’s acquisition, culture clashes (and blends), and the unique challenge of integrating a highly human service business into Amazon’s tech-forward ecosystem.

Healthcare of the Future:
The integrated experience—app-based triage, same-day appointments, telehealth, and even Amazon Pharmacy delivery—showcases the potential of digital-centric, consumer-driven healthcare.

“Anyone can invent. Very few can innovate.” – unknown

Joseph A. Michelli, Ph.D., C.S.P., is an internationally sought-after speaker, author, and organizational consultant who transfers his knowledge of exceptional business practices in ways that develop joyful and productive workplaces with a focus on customer experience. His insights encourage leaders and frontline workers to grow and invest passionately in all aspects of their lives.

Dr. Michelli is a Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, Nielson BookScan, and New York Times #1 bestselling author. His books include:

Thank you for taking the journey to product mastery and learning with me from the successes and failures of product innovators, managers, and developers. If you enjoyed the discussion, help out a fellow product manager by sharing it using the social media buttons you see below.

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In this episode, I welcome Piers Fallowfield Cooper—executive coach and author of Are You Still the Future?—to explore one of the most critical career transitions in product management: moving from individual contributor to product leader. We discuss why success as a product manager doesn’t guarantee success in leadership, the mindset and skills required to thrive as a product VP, the importance of personal strengths and adaptability, and practical advice for building a successful, energized team.

Let me paint a picture of a common occurrence. Product VPs and leaders start out as individual contributors, i.e., product managers. Because of their outstanding work, delivering value for the organization and delighting customers, the product manager’s responsibilities and influence quickly increases, resulting in a promotion to Product VP. Sounds great, right? Maybe not—a couple months after the promotion they are struggling and their teams are frustrated. If you were that newly promoted VP, you would be wondering if you made a terrible mistake. 

Let’s turn that around. This discussion will help to equip you for the most critical transition in product management careers—the leap from individual contributor to product leader. This isn’t just about getting promoted; it’s about fundamentally shifting how you think, act, and add value. And, if you are already a product leader, this discussion will also help you improve and how you mentor your ICs. 

Our guest is Piers Fallowfield-Cooper, who has coached over 130 C-suite executives through major leadership transitions. He’s spent 30 years in senior executive roles himself scaling companies across finance, technology, and e-publishing. His book Are You Still The Future? was a Business Book of the Year finalist in 2024. He knows how to effectively navigate the journey from individual contributor to executive leader. 

The Challenge of the Transition:
Many product VPs begin as outstanding product managers, but leadership requires a shift from “I” to “we.” The skills and knowledge that led to promotion often don’t translate to success at the next level—leadership is less about specific expertise and more about asking the right questions, fostering a broader perspective, and leading through others.

T-Shaped Leadership:
Piers explains the necessity of moving from being a deep specialist to developing broad horizontal skills—an essential shift in most careers, including product management.

Find Your Sweet Spot:
Ambition doesn’t always mean you want or would be happier in a leadership role. Ask yourself why you want to get promoted and consider what trade-offs come with increased responsibility.

Key Shifts for Aspiring Leaders:

Strengths, Energy & Environment:

Leadership Pitfalls & Practical Advice:

“The robots will adapt, will you?” – Piers Fallowfield-Cooper

“Today’s certainties are tomorrow’s absurdities.” – Peter Drucker

“Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.” – Yogi Berra

Described by a number 10 insider as “The anti establishment, establishment coach”, Piers Fallowfield-Cooper’s goal is to help business leaders to be more successful, fulfilled and to support them in their journey from good to exceptional.

His bestselling book, Are You Still The Future?: How learning to be flexible and read the signals in the system kept me relevant and prepared for every step on my leadership journey, was a finalist for the Business Book Awards 2024 Leadership category.

Piers works with clients globally – in the UK, US, Europe, the Middle and Far East, Australasia and Southern Africa. He is currently celebrating 20 years of making a difference in leader’s lives (and having great fun). His experience includes over 30 years as a senior executive with various MD, President, CEO, and Chairman roles in global finance, digital media and technology. Clients value the fact that Piers has walked in their shoes and can genuinely and authentically empathise with their situation.

Thank you for taking the journey to product mastery and learning with me from the successes and failures of product innovators, managers, and developers. If you enjoyed the discussion, help out a fellow product manager by sharing it using the social media buttons you see below.

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In this episode of Product Mastery Now, we’re joined by Robin Champ, VP of Strategic Foresight at LBL Strategies and Harvard Extension School instructor. Robin shares practical approaches for product managers and leaders to anticipate, rather than merely react to, disruptions in the market and competitive landscape. Through the Strategic Foresight Framework, scenario planning, and trend scanning, Robin explains how to create agile strategies that help organizations deliver value in uncertain futures.

Any product manager with some experience knows the frustration of being blindsided—competitor launches that catch you off-guard, market shifts that kill your roadmap, or customer behaviors that seemingly emerge overnight. Many product teams are in a cycle of reacting to change and putting out fires. Instead, what if you could anticipate change? By the end of this episode, you’ll have the strategic foresight framework that is taught at Harvard and applied in organizations.

Our guest is Robin Champ, Vice President of Strategic Foresight at LBL Strategies and Harvard Extension School instructor. Robin spent 33 years applying foresight in the highest-stakes environments—the U.S. Secret Service and Department of Defense. She trains executives on the strategic planning methodologies that equips them to stay ahead of competitive threats and create opportunities.

Also, Robin is speaking on Tuesday, September 16th, 2025, at my favorite product innovation conference, the Product Development and Management Association’s Ignite Innovation Conference. Learn more about the conference at www.PDMAsummit.com.

“Organizations have to make their futures or risk being overtaken by the future.” – Clark Murdock, Future Making

Robin L. Champ is Vice President of Strategic Foresight at LBL Strategies;  a Certified Strategy Management Professional (SMP);  and an instructor at Harvard Extension School. She helps organizations anticipate change, navigate uncertainty, and design strategies that drive real impact. With a background that includes leading foresight and strategy efforts at the U.S. Secret Service and the Department of Defense, Robin brings a practical, future-focused approach grounded in decades of experience. Today, she works with leaders across sectors to turn insight into action. 

Thank you for taking the journey to product mastery and learning with me from the successes and failures of product innovators, managers, and developers. If you enjoyed the discussion, help out a fellow product manager by sharing it using the social media buttons you see below.

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Juanjo Duran, Chief Product Officer & Chief Marketing Officer at Exoticca, joins Product Mastery Now to share how to create AI-powered product features customers actually love, not just features that sound impressive. Drawing on 25+ years in diverse leadership roles, Juanjo discusses leveraging customer obsession, data-driven decisions, and practical frameworks to balance innovation with execution. Learn how to embed AI across teams, structure innovation projects, and use the customer journey—from inspiration through to objection handling—as your roadmap for building differentiated products that deliver real value.

Picture this: You’re a product leader trying to build AI features that customers actually use, not just technology that sounds impressive in board meetings. You’re scaling your product organization while maintaining innovation momentum. And you’re doing all this in an industry where the stakes for getting it wrong are high. We are discussing building smarter products that integrate AI that customers actually want. We’ll also explore practical frameworks for balancing innovation with execution in rapidly scaling organizations. 

Our guest is Juanjo Duran, Chief Product Officer and Chief Marketing Officer at Exoticca, a leading travel tech platform that provides multi-day travel packages. Juanjo brings a unique perspective—25+ years in consumer goods at P&G and Mars, operations leadership at easyJet, marketing at eDreams, and now product leadership at Exoticca.  

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.”  – attributed to Peter Drucker

“Inspiration? Of course it exists but it has to find you working.” – Pablo Picasso

Juanjo Duran is a Global Travel and FMCG Executive (CEO/CMO/CPO) passionate about how Technological transformation can improve consumers’ lives. Currently CPO and CMO of a game changing travel tech disruptor where he is exploring AI as a Value Accelerator for consumers. Juanjo was previously CEO of Deliberry, a game changing grocery business disruptor and also Venture Capital Investor and Consumer & Brand Tech Advisor.  

Juanjo is passionate about change and leadership. He was lucky to learn from the best leaders and the best companies: 20 years in P&G learning from the best about proactively and methodically driving brand’s constant growth, 7 years in Mars Inc learning from the best about leading people through values and principles and learning from the best about digital transformation in the most evolved industry, TravelTech, at easyJet and eDreams ODIGEO, still the biggest e-commmerce in Europe. 

Juanjo believes that technology has to help us to live better and wants to be an active part of that. He is now leading a very promising project that will allow people to travel more and better.

Thank you for taking the journey to product mastery and learning with me from the successes and failures of product innovators, managers, and developers. If you enjoyed the discussion, help out a fellow product manager by sharing it using the social media buttons you see below.

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