John Belo

CEO: “We need to replace our entire product team” Me: “Um, ok, let’s talk about this for a moment…” As a CPO and product advisor I’ve met plenty of CEOs and execs who are frustrated with the results they see from their product teams. Often they feel like all they need to do is replace the existing team with more experienced, “better” PMs.  But really they're blaming PMs for some of their own shortcomings as leaders. Results from a product team depend on putting great PMs in a great environment. If you don’t have a great environment, it doesn’t matter how good your PMs are, you’ll still be disappointed with the results. Maybe your PMs really are awful, but before you fire them all and hire new ones, I’d make sure you fix the environment: a) It’s much faster, cheaper and less painful b) You’ll have to do it anyway c) You’ll be surprised by what you can get from your existing team So how do you create a great environment for PMs as a leader? 🎯 Have consistent goals Of course you want to be agile, but try not to change the priorities all the time. Every quarter is ok, but every week or two and your teams will never get going. 🛡 Minimize distractions Progress is inversely correlated to the number of initiatives you have. Make sure your teams aren’t getting distracted by execs’ pet projects, internal requests or customer feedback. Have a very small (1-2) number of priorities for them to focus on. 🗺 Explain the context Spend the time up front to explain your goals and the features you’re asking for. If all you’re doing is demanding widgets from your product team, likely they’ll have a very different idea from you of what they are building and why. 💰 Talk about the money You can’t expect your PMs to make commercial decisions if they don’t have visibility of the business financials. Make this a part of every discussion (but just a part - it’s not everything!) 🛑 Be explicit where you will take risk Teams are usually quite conservative when it comes to risk, because when the site goes down they get blamed. If you want to move quickly, be very clear about the risks that you are willing to take. 👥 Manage their role breadth PMs can be excellent at lots of things - comms, analysis, delivery, user interviews… pretty much whatever you need them to, but they can’t do it all at the same time - there are only so many hours in the day. Make sure tasks as split evenly across design, engineering and data. 📄 Agree a lightweight reporting process As a leader you need status updates. To fly blind would be reckless. But bloated reporting burns many hours each week. Take 1-2 hours up front to co-create a reporting process with your PMs (i.e. tell them what you really need, and let them figure out the best way to deliver it) and you’ll save them huge amounts of time going forward. Hustle Badger offers practical, comprehensive support to upskill your product team. DM me for private programs, workshops and advice.

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Product leadership has changed over the years. The focus is much less on theoretical frameworks and more on clear business results. The energy’s different. The pressure is heavier. We’re leading leaner teams, in tighter markets, with way more eyes on outcomes. Everyone's tired. A few months back, GoldHue asked me to get in a room with other product heads from top tech companies. No agenda. Just honest truth. We wanted to talk about what we could leave behind and what we need to build next. We ran real experiments that tested new ways of working, and focused on simplicity, clarity and results. What came out of it wasn’t just useful. It was clear, repeatable, and it worked. We put everything into a white paper: The New Age of Product. Not another playbook. A practical reset. A few things we found: → Heavy goal frameworks are broken. The best teams are moving toward leaner, adaptable methods that drive focus and execution. → More metrics don’t mean better insights. High-performing teams track fewer, smarter metrics tied directly to strategic goals. → The speed vs strategy tradeoff is more brutal than ever. If you’ve felt the shift too, this is for you. And if you’re leading in the grey and tired of pretending it’s black and white, we hope this helps you. You can find the link in the comments, and thanks to my fellow Product Club members: Randi Eichenbaum, Mell Ravenel, Jamie Landers, Marisa Sires, Colleen Wilson, Jason Butterfield, Tara Goldman, Mackenzie Hughes

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For product managers, engineers, and designers who feel ready for the next step - but aren’t sure what it takes to get there, sharing this in case it helps 😊 My friend, Nicolas Liatti just launched a new group coaching program designed to help ambitious product leaders make the leap into management and director roles. He’s no stranger to growth: - At Adobe, he helped scale 3D products from $8M to $100M ARR - earning both a Technical Oscar and an Engineering Emmy along the way. - At Allegorithmic, he turned a niche product into the industry standard for 3D texturing, leading to its acquisition by Adobe. - At Playsoft, he scaled the studio to 150+ people, making it the largest video game company in its category. - He personally grew from Group PM to Senior Director in just 4 years - and has helped many others do the same. Now, he’s sharing the same playbook he’s used to help countless professionals step confidently into leadership. If this sounds like something you’re interested in, give him a follow! I’ve learned so much from his daily posts and insights on leadership.

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