Recently, I was listening to Lenny's podcast episode with legendary designer Bob Baxley. He said, "design-led doesn't mean designer-led," and I thought it equally rings true for product managers.
We often hear the term "product-led" organisation as in a company led by the Product department as an opposite of a "sales-led", "engineering-led" or "marketing-led". Some folks think "product-led" means that product managers run the show and are the most important people. This is never true in a truly product-led organisation.
Being product-led is not about product managers running the business; it is about the product mindset that everyone in the organisation practises. What is a product mindset? It's about constantly looking for problems to solve for your customers. It's about learning more about your customers and obsessing over them. It's about iterations and incremental improvements. It's about creating products people love that also work for your business.
Everyone can have a product mindset, not only product managers. In successful companies, everyone should have a product mindset, not only PMs. Everyone should know the organisation's vision and why it's important. Everyone should know the customers the organisation serves and what needs those customers have. In a product-led organisation, everyone should strive to continuously learn about customers, their problems and how the organisation could serve the customers better.
In truly product-led organisations, product managers do not call all the shots; they serve as guides and coaches to the entire organisation. They relentlessly practise customer-obsession, empathy and incremental value increase. In addition, product managers are sharing their ways of thinking and operating with all other functions, so together they will be even more efficient and could truly delight their customers.
So next time you hear "product-led", make sure to check if it really means what it must mean - not an organisation run by PMs, but the organisation where everyone applies a product thinking mindset.