How to Turn Product Disagreements With CEOs Into Productive Discussions

Saying ‘no’ to your manager is a must-have skill for a product leader. But leaving the ‘no’ just with that would often lead to counterproductive communication and lack of trust. Whether you avoid saying ‘no’ altogether because of that, or say too many ‘no’s, here is how to turn a disagreement into an opportunity for better solutions.

The Power of Summaries

Product leadership is such a hard role, one of the hardest. You live at the heart of endless conflicts caused by a variety of points of view that collide with each other. You are involved in complex decision-making under extreme uncertainty. Here is a simple tool that will help you shine and help others along the way.

The Art of Arguing

Most of us try to avoid arguments with our peers. We have so many of them regardless. However, provoking productive disagreements is a key leadership skill you want to master. Here is how fostering healthy debates is essential for effective leadership and better outcomes. Yes, you want people to argue with you.

Negotiate the Problem, Not the Solutions

Product leadership seems to require nonstop negotiation with everyone you work with. You have limited resources on one hand and major decisions to make on the other. But are you negotiating the right things? It’s easy to debate solutions, but it’s hardly effective. To generate agreement when people disagree you must dive deeper. Here’s how.

3 Misconceptions About CEO Communication

As product leaders, we constantly struggle to balance between getting guidance from above and setting the direction ourselves. The CEO, or any of the founders if you are in a startup, seems to rightfully want to set the tone. Or do they? Here are 3 things you want to pay attention to.

How to Find Your Strategic Anchors

Strategic thinking is hard by definition. It deals with many unknowns, as well as multiple dimensions and variables at any given time. The only way to move forward is to identify the real anchors and build around them. Here’s how to do that.

CEO and Product Leader Relationship Status: It’s Complicated

The relationship between tech CEOs and their product leader is often challenging to manage but is super impactful on the company’s success. Here is what it looks like, and some advice on how to improve it for both sides.