Three Days That Changed How I Think About Product Leadership
Last week, I joined nearly 50 product leaders from around the world for the SVPG Product Masterclass in NYC.
Over three packed days, we dug into product fundamentals, team leadership, and discovery. I left with a much greater appreciation for the value of proper discovery and gathering insights, and an elevated expectation for myself as a product leader.
Here’s what stuck with me.
Day 1: Are We Even Building the Right Thing?
The first day was a reset. Lea Hickman—an experienced product leader with over 25 years of experience building and scaling products at companies like IBM, Netscape, Macromedia, Adobe, and InVision—walked us through the Product Operating Model, starting with a tough truth: most of us don’t spend enough time in real discovery.
We talked about the four critical product risks:
Value – Will users want this?
Usability – Can they use it?
Feasibility – Can we build it?
Viability – Will it work for the business?
Lea challenged us to ask those questions for every single item in our backlog. She asked us to look at our product backlog and ask these questions, guessing that it may be a humbling exercise.
We also talked about prioritizing with clarity—separating problems into three buckets:
Solving now
Not solving yet
Never solving
And one anti-pattern hit close to home: don’t split Product Managers or designers across teams. If you don’t have enough Product Managers or Designers to dedicate one each to each team, pick the most important teams – the ones solving the most critical problems and dedicate the people you do have to create those strong teams. Focus your people where it matters most.
Finally, a reminder I’m carrying forward: Product Managers should know their product’s health every day. If there’s no dashboard, start there.
Day 2: Coaching, Not Managing
Day two focused on leadership—and I left feeling fired up to become a better coach.
I’m making three shifts:
Coach to grow leaders, not just manage people. I want more structure in my coaching—assessments, narrative writing, real feedback.
Get sharper on our users and products. For my work, that means both clients and internal teams.
Craft a vision that inspires. Something team and client-centric that helps guide decisions.
“Following a process doesn’t give you a pass on coaching.”
That one stuck with me. Especially when someone’s never seen what ‘great’ looks like—it’s our job to show them.
One more reflection: this model is flatter than frameworks like SAFe. Teams lead themselves, with shared ownership between Product Managers, design, and engineering. Less top-down. More empowered decision-making. I’m still thinking through how we bring that to life at scale.
Day 3: Discovery Isn’t a Checklist
Discovery was the theme of day three, and most teams I have worked with need to be stronger here.
Big takeaways:
Revisit the four product risks early and often.
80% confidence is enough. Waiting for 100% just slows you down.
Discovery isn’t a linear process, it’s a toolbox. Right-size it for the problem, the risk, and the unknowns.
Some tools I’m excited to try:
Product Canvas (we’ll use it at our next offsite)
HEART Metrics (Happiness, Engagement, Adoption, Retention, Task Completion) for smarter KPIs
Concierge Testing (you do the job of the person you are building solutions for, not just observe how they do the job)
Data Spelunking—like a hackathon for data analysts where they can dig into the weird parts of the data
This event wasn’t just a learning experience—it was a mindset shift.
It challenged me to be a better coach, a more thoughtful leader, and a sharper product thinker. Now it’s time to bring it all home.