METHODOLOGY

The concept of product leadership remains relatively new within most businesses and, as a result, can be poorly defined. However, senior business leaders increasingly recognise that it has the potential to truly transform their organisations if implemented effectively.

Product leadership does not refer simply to a presence of a product team, nor does it relate to a product manager or product developer who leads that team. Fundamentally, product leadership involves adopting a strategic, horizontal (cross-departmental) approach to solving an age-old business challenge, namely, how best to nurture an environment that delivers products and services which keep customers satisfied. It is not just about individual teams or individual products, but about aligning the whole enterprise behind a more customer-centric operating model. This involves transforming the way different business functions operate, so that they’re able to help facilitate and enable the way products are designed to meet customer needs.

As organisations continually seek to carve out a competitive edge in an uncertain business environment, many business leaders are looking to harness the potential of product leadership. Taken from that perspective, product leaders should be seen as enablers for collaboration between different areas of the business – it is their job to promote a culture of customer- centricity and foster an environment for innovation.

To help businesses better understand this process – and the challenges which must be addressed to make it a reality – Gate One has partnered with Cicero/amo to conduct a survey of 50 business leaders in the UK. We interrogate the defining characteristics of product leadership, the barriers to embedding it and the potential rewards of doing so effectively.

PRODUCT LEADERSHIP INVOLVES ADOPTING A STRATEGIC, HORIZONTAL (CROSS-DEPARTMENTAL) APPROACH TO SOLVING AN AGE-OLD BUSINESS CHALLENGE, NAMELY, HOW BEST TO NURTURE AN ENVIRONMENT THAT DELIVERS PRODUCTS AND SERVICES WHICH KEEP CUSTOMERS SATISFIED.

In profiling our business respondents, we ensured that they were drawn from senior business decision-makers either at the C-suite level or C-suite minus 1 (i.e. those that report into the board). All our respondents work in what could be typified as large companies with more than 500 employees.

A significant number of respondents (20%) work for companies that employ more than 5,000 people. This helps us to highlight the specific issues in larger, more complex businesses.

Positions held by survey respondents

C-SUITE
(owner/partner/board member)

DIRECTOR/VP
(report directly to a member of the board)