Summary
Having grown her career from UX designer to Product Experience leader, Wendy Johansson has learned a thing or two about what it means to "be a product boss". Along the way she's had plenty of wins, more than her fair share of fails, and one or two moments when things completely blew up in her face. So, rest-assured, she'll be speaking truth in this presentation where she will share why, when, and how designers should level up their careers towards product bossdom! From understanding just what it is that product leaders do, to learning how you can incorporate product know-how into your design skills toolkit--Wendy will help you bring out your inner product boss for more effective communications and outcomes in all your organizational interactions - across engineering, product, sales, and even your own team! Be sure to join the live post-session Q+A with Wendy for the opportunity to share questions and relate your own experiences of being a product boss!
Key Insights
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Broad early-stage startup roles equip designers with cross-functional communication skills essential for product leadership.
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Becoming a product boss requires mastering managing up, down, sideways, and outwards across teams and stakeholders.
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Managing up involves helping your manager advocate effectively for design or product by understanding their motivations.
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Managing down means openly sharing context and reasons behind changes to roadmaps to build team trust and resilience.
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Managing sideways entails bridging gaps with peers in other disciplines by meeting them in their own language and workflows.
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Managing outwards centers on direct engagement with customers or end users to inform product decisions robustly.
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Product leadership is less about specific tools or processes and more about relationships and navigating organizational politics.
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Design and product roles overlap significantly; reframing design skills can empower designers to take on product ownership.
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Transparency around decisions, such as shelving features, mitigates team frustration and encourages alignment.
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Sheltering teams excessively from organizational challenges can hinder their resilience and growth.
Notable Quotes
"Product is designed, design is product. We’re looking at the same ecosystem in that bigger picture."
"Managing up is about understanding what your bosses need to get promoted and how you can help them."
"The seat at the table is wonky AF, built differently at every company, influenced by politics and DNA."
"Being a product boss isn’t about product tools or methods, it’s all about the people and relationships."
"Managing down is about transparency, explaining why we change direction so the team can follow the journey."
"My engineers see the value of product designers owning the project end-to-end, even without PM titles."
"Politics will always be there. You have to know it exists and learn how to maneuver it if you want to avoid it."
"You don’t need a product management course or MBA, you need to reframe your design skills for product leadership."
"We succeed as a team; when something fails, it’s the team’s design that missed the mark, not just an individual’s."
"Managing sideways means meeting clinical teams where they are, explaining product decisions in their language."
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