Product managers are under pressure to drive results, but cannot wield direct power or authority to achieve their objectives. If you don't know how to influence people at all levels of the organization, how will you create the best possible product? In this interactive “cliff’s-notes” talk, I introduce ten techniques from The Influential Product Manager that product managers can immediately apply at each stage of the product life cycle to achieve the best outcome for the customer and their organization.
Key Takeaways
1. Influence goes well beyond aligning stakeholder and team behaviors behind a common purpose – it is winning their hearts and minds through context setting, establishing a shared set of beliefs, and a passion to solve customer problems.
2. As a PM, being influential starts with how you view and approach your role – such as embracing and stress testing ideas, establishing collaborative relationships with stakeholders, and decisively making prioritization and trade-off decisions.
3. Powerfully, product managers are at their most influential when they focus on owning and communicating the problem to be solved (enabling solutions to emerge collaboratively) and driving towards meaningful customer and business outcomes (over simply delivering projects).
Ken Sandy has led technology product management teams for over 20 years in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is an industry fellow and lecturer at the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology at the University of California, Berkeley, where he pioneered and now teaches the first product management course offered in the engineering school.
His work draws on leading teams at fast-growth, early-stage companies as well as at larger companies attempting digital transformation amid industry disruption. At all these companies, he consistently defined, launched, and managed award-winning web and mobile products that were loved by customers and used by millions across 60-plus countries.
He now works as an executive consultant and active mentor and advisor for startup and scale-up companies in the United States, Canada, and Europe, and a regular speaker at leading product management conferences.
Previously he was Vice President of Product at the premier online learning companies MasterClass and Lynda.com. Prior to that, he was an executive at companies developing content and advertising platforms for independent publishers and startups creating mobile messaging and social networking solutions. He also led business units based in the United States, India, and China.
In his early career, Ken was a consultant at management consulting firm McKinsey & Co. He is an alum of Melbourne University, where he received bachelor’s degrees in engineering and computer science. He is an avid traveler and photographer—backpacking, teaching, and working across the United States, Asia, his native Australia, Europe, and South America.
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