The three skills a Head of Product must master first
Everything else (hiring, team topology, coaching, navigating execs) can come with time. These three can't wait, and the order matters.
There are only three skills a Head of Product needs to master immediately. Everything else (hiring, team topology, coaching, navigating execs) can come with time and circumstance.
The same goes for Founders who are heading product.
In this order:
1. Vision discovery (like product discovery, but at exec altitude)
Talk firsthand to your primary customer until you can rattle off their pains, status quo, motivations, and desires without thinking.
The anti-pattern: bias, especially for Founders. Nothing's more disastrous than a leader who "talks to customers" but spends 80% of the time pitching their own ideas, asking questions like "I want to do x and y, what do you think?"
This one deserves to be first. It's a quick fix for self-doubt and makes everything else possible.
2. Product vision
Your product vision tells the story of how your user's life gets better when the best version of your product exists. It's classic storytelling: a hero (your customer), a before and after, and vivid details that bring their transformation to life.
The anti-pattern: confusing vision with roadmap. A list of features, no matter how well prioritized, doesn't inspire, motivate, or equip anyone to think bigger.
3. Product strategy
Enjoy the glow of your stunning product vision, because immediately teams will ask: "How do we get there?" Strategy works backwards from the vision to define consecutive milestones that, once achieved, will prove the vision is complete.
The anti-pattern: filling that gap with buzzwords ("AI," "delightful UX") that lack specificity and don't hold up to scrutiny.
Would you swap something on this list?
I'm pretty convinced already, but try me.
Related: Product vision is not company vision: five differences.
This post originally appeared on LinkedIn.