The Product Leadership Playbook

Leadership is a critical skill every Product Manager should learn.

But it’s often misunderstood and confused.

After reading this free e-book, you will:
✓ Understand the most important concepts
✓ Find out how to boost the productivity and emotional engagement of
your teams
✓ Get the best books, articles, and videos to study this topic in depth

© Paweł Huryn, June 2023

 Part 1: Leader vs. Manager.
What’s the difference, and why does it matter?
Your job title, Product Manager, might be a bit confusing.

As Marty Cagan explains, managers are responsible for two activity areas:

1. Coaching:

• Identifying people’s strengths and weaknesses.

• Helping them to grow by training, providing resources, and support.
• Setting professional goals that align with the company’s objectives.
• Regularly assessing performance to monitor the progress, give feedback
on what can be improved, and acknowledge successes.

2. Staffing:

• Interviewing candidates and evaluating their potential.

• Hiring candidates based on the company’s goals and needs.
• Replacing team members when necessary.
• Onboarding new hires and ensuring they are fully integrated into the
team.

As a Product Manager, you're not a manager to the designers or engineers.

Hence you might not have the specific expertise to coach or staff these
roles.

To give you a rough idea, one of the many possible setups might be:

© Paweł Huryn, June 2023

 To be effective as a Product Manager, you must act as a leader. Good
leaders influence others, inspire, and motivate them without exercising
authority.

Importantly, being a leader is not a job title:

“If you’re a great manager, your people will make you a leader. They
acclaim that, not you” - Bill Campbell, as quoted in Trillion Dollar Coach

While a leader doesn’t have to be a manager, you can’t be a good manager

without being a good leader:

“Coaching is no longer a specialty; you cannot be a good manager without

being a good coach.” - Bill Campbell, as quoted in Trillion Dollar Coach

Having both roles, leaders, and managers, is crucial for any organization.

© Paweł Huryn, June 2023

 Part 2: What motivates us?
Four areas every leader should know about.
We are in the 21st century, yet some seem to be stuck in the age of the
Industrial Revolution. They pay and demand obedience.

No wonder there is so much talk about the Great Resignation.

Let me say it loudly: we are not resources. Pencils are. People are not objects
to be commanded and controlled. The ‘carrot and stick’ method, together
with detailed procedures, will demotivate, not encourage, us in the long run.

To boost productivity, trust, and emotional engagement, leaders should

focus on these four areas:

1. Purpose

As Simon Sinek explains in Start with WHY, the most important question
leader must answer is “WHY.”

Why are we doing this? What’s our purpose? Why does it matter?

People can only become truly engaged and motivated when they see the "big
picture" and feel they are contributing to something meaningful. When we
feel connected to a greater mission and stand by our shared values, we feel
energized, inspired, and truly alive.

© Paweł Huryn, June 2023

A clear and compelling WHY can inspire and motivate everyone around you:

"If you are working on something exciting that you really care about, you
don't have to be pushed. The vision pulls you." - Steve Jobs

You might love this talk by Simon Sinek, just as I did:

https://youtu.be/_osKgFwKoDQ

But how do you create such a compelling vision? Check out Point 3.1 from
Debunking 17 Common Misconceptions in Product Management.

© Paweł Huryn, June 2023

2. Autonomy

Nobody enjoys being micromanaged. Having someone looking over your

shoulder is frustrating and demotivating. Autonomy and trust enable
creativity and provide deep, intrinsic motivation.

So instead of giving people precise instructions, empower them, invite them

to co-create goals, and let them find the right path.

What does this look like in practice?

In No Rules Rules, Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer highlight the most critical
aspect of Netflix's culture - leading with context, not control.

Understanding the context (vision, strategy, and goals) allows others to make
good, autonomous decisions. Without the context and people committed to
common objectives, empowerment is wasteful.

© Paweł Huryn, June 2023

A simple explanation:

https://youtu.be/RiKN7x1ppRE

I need to admit that I still make mistakes and work to improve my leadership.
At the same time, over the years, I concluded from my mistakes that I should
try to trust more than I feel comfortable with.

As Ernest Hemingway said:

"The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them." -
Ernest Hemingway

Remember, empowerment doesn't mean “delegate and forget.” It's about

being present and ready to support your team when they need it.

© Paweł Huryn, June 2023

3. Psychological safety

The importance of psychological safety can't be stressed enough.

In Amy Edmondson's book The Fearless Organization, she defines it in as

"a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for
interpersonal risk-taking."

Considering how much time we spend at work, it becomes crucial for us to

feel comfortable voicing our opinions, sharing ideas, and admitting mistakes.
Without fear of retribution or being perceived as incompetent.

Psychological safety is not about avoiding any conflicts. Instead, it's about the
right to be open and transparent, respectfully challenge others’ ideas, and
explore diverse perspectives.

In psychologically safe environments, everyone knows that their thoughts and

feelings matter. They are unafraid to try new things, take small risks, and
experiment. And they can truly innovate.

So, as you lead, create a safe space where your team can be human, can freely
laugh and cry, experience both successes and setbacks, and feel encouraged
to think and share their ideas.

That's where the magic happens.

© Paweł Huryn, June 2023

4. Mastery

Moving on to the last aspect: mastery.

Recall those satisfying moments when you finally cleared a challenging level
in your favorite video game or mastered using a complex character ability?

It felt good, didn't it?

Daniel Pink nailed this feeling in his book Drive when he defined mastery
as "the desire to get better and better at something that matters."

That's it. It's not about being the best. It's about becoming better.

For more about this, watch Daniel’s Ted talk:

© Paweł Huryn, June 2023

 https://youtu.be/rrkrvAUbU9Y

Now, let's paint a scenario. A unique bug appears in the software. The
engineer who spots it feels intrigued, takes it as a challenge, and resolves it.

That's mastery in action. That’s the motivation.

It's important to recognize and acknowledge these achievements.

© Paweł Huryn, June 2023

 Part 3: Conclusions
As a Product Manager, you don’t have formal authority.

At the same time, you need to find a way to drive the expected outcomes,
bridging the gaps between stakeholders, customers, designers, and engineers.

While there is no one-size-fits-all, it’s essential to be yourself. Listen more

than you talk. Demonstrate vulnerabilities. Ask for help. Trust. Be patient.
Inspire with the vision. Communicate the context. And focus on others’
feelings, needs, emotions, and desires more than anything else.

“Leaders don’t sit back and point fingers. Leaders lead with the authority
of leadership . . . or without it. The authority is largely irrelevant - if you are
a leader, you will lead when you are needed.” - Clay Scroggins

Hope that helps.

P.S. If you liked this e-book, consider joining 24,000+ product professionals.
Get 1 actionable tip for PMs every week: https://huryn.substack.com

© Paweł Huryn, June 2023