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Future Product Leaders: Becoming the next generation of CPOs
25 Apr, 20233 minutesOn the 13th of April 2023, specialist product recruitment consultant, Francesca Jackson...
On the 13th of April 2023, specialist product recruitment consultant, Francesca Jackson, hosted a breakfast and learn for a brilliant group of female Product Leaders. Together, they discussed the steps their businesses are taking to promote more women into senior product management jobs and brainstormed more ideas of how different businesses can improve female representation.
In this article, we’ll be recapping their discussion about how to become future product leaders:
- Resources to structure your team’s product careers
- The importance of peer reviews in career progression
- How senior leaders can champion product management recruitment
Learning from fellow product leaders
Francesca brought together expert product leaders from a wide variety of backgrounds and organisations – from B2B and B2C companies, from fast-growing scale-ups through to leading global organisations. They built a fruitful, diverse conversation where product leaders were able to learn and grow from each other.
Resources to structure your product team’s careers
“How do I get into product?” is one of the most frequently asked questions we hear in product management recruitment, so Francesca shared this query with the experts.
One thing that was mentioned was the importance of the Product Managers on your team understanding how they can develop their careers. This includes the skills and experience they need to develop in order to upskill and reach the next level in their product career.
“Providing clarity and transparency is really important.”
Building a career framework for your Product Managers is a brilliant way to clarify the steps they need to take to progress in their careers.
There are many great resources that you can use to help structure different product career paths. The following resources come highly recommended from the CPOs and Product Leaders we spoke to:
The importance of peer review in a Product Manager's career progression
When it comes to reviewing the success and progression of your Product Managers, one Product Leader mentioned the importance of receiving feedback from others as well as from senior leadership.
“I didn’t want me to be the final appraiser of what my team was doing.”
As Product Managers work collaboratively with lots of different teams, it can be extremely useful for them to hear feedback from peers within their teams and from their stakeholders. This offers them opportunities to make new connections, opens conversations for feedback, and provides them with multiple resources to refer to when developing their product management careers.
How senior leaders can champion product management recruitment
We often find that one of the hardest parts of product management recruitment is when hiring managers need to get sign off on new hires. Many find it difficult to secure the right budget to hire experienced Product Managers. Instead, they have to employ more junior Product Managers who have to be trained up by the Heads of Product and/or Product Directors.
Our Product Leaders discussed how a company’s senior leaders can play a part in securing the talent they need to build a successful product team.
Product management is still a very young function, so building CEOs’ and other senior leaders’ understanding of product will help make a business more product focussed. Taking the time to encourage more product-led thinking, will make the product management recruitment process far easier and allow product leaders to build a successful, efficient team.
Continuing the conversation...
We'll be continuing this conversation in the future. If you missed out on this product event and would like to be involved with the next one, or simply want to be kept up to date with future conversations, be sure to register your interest below.
Want to learn more about leading, scaling and upskilling your product management team?
If you’re looking for more information about building product management careers within your organisation, be sure to read about our previous event for Women in Product Leadership, or get in touch with our specialist product recruitment consultant, Francesca Jackson.
Francesca is incredibly passionate about the product management world and its development. No matter if you’re looking for support with product management recruitment, or advice about how to upskill your own career, Francesca can support you.
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