CEOs are the pinnacle of leadership and carry the responsibility of steering and guiding businesses with vision, strategy and performance. It’s a position that demands a combination of strategic foresight, operational expertise and emotional intelligence. While some are outside hires, many CEOs are grown in-company, meaning individuals work hard to develop their skills in a role and move their way up. This is true for several CEOs, including at companies like Google, YouTube and Microsoft.
5 Product Manager Skills That Translate to CEO
- Cross-functional collaboration.
- Making difficult decisions.
- Strong understanding of business operations.
- Data fluency.
- Experience with AI.
While it’s a difficult position requiring enormous hard and soft skills, there’s a surprising yet highly effective training ground available to many early on in their careers: product management. Often called the CEOs of product, product managers (PMs) are tasked with balancing customer needs, business goals and technical feasibility, navigating complex challenges and aligning diverse teams to deliver results.
In short: PMs embody many of the same qualities that define successful CEOs.
How Product Manager Skills Scale to CEO
As a standard, great CEOs and PMs are both visionaries with the authority and know-how to make decisions that drive the business forward, each in their own way. A key element that uniquely positions PMs as future CEOs is a diverse skillset. Unlike roles that have a hyper-focus on business operations or technical applications, PMs have a command over both. Both titles must:
- Develop strong strategic mindsets: While CEOs set the long-term company goals, PMs craft the roadmaps that drive the product to align with those goals. Each role requires the ability to not only create a “big picture” plan, but to make the right decisions that lead to its execution.
- Cross-functionally collaborate: Unlike a traditional manager, CEOs oversee the entirety of an organization, with no special attention to any one function. PMs put this into practice early on. While many oversee product specifically, effective PMs must align a diverse set of stakeholders on a common goal: deliver products that meet customer needs and drive the company forward. This ability to lead and act on goals reflects directly on the leadership style of commonly effective CEOs.
- Make the difficult decisions: PMs and CEOs both have to make difficult decisions daily, be it setting the organization’s direction or prioritizing features at the expense of others. This requires a tough skin and strong reasoning, adaptability and a commitment to doing what’s best for the organization.
- Cultivate smart business acumen: Both CEOs and PMs must have a strong understanding of business operations, including the impact of decisions on bottom-line revenue. PMs are primed to deeply understand this, as they make decisions almost daily that have a direct impact on financial performance.
- Maintain customer empathy: Product management is nothing without a clear understanding of what customers want and the pain points they experience. CEOs have to consider their customers when planning for the direction of their company — PMs have to consider customers when driving product solutions. Empathy might seem like a skill closely associated with HR professionals, but it’s invaluable for CEOs seeking to build customer-centric organizations.
- Prioritize data fluency: To build products that people want to use, PMs rely heavily on data when prioritizing features, performance issues and when measuring outcomes. CEOs also benefit from data fluency, having to regularly make data-informed decisions to evaluate business needs and future opportunities.
- Effectively leverage AI: AI has fundamentally changed business processes. PMs are some of the first to not only use AI, but also to integrate the technology into the products they build. AI will continue to be used at the C-suite level, giving PMs a unique edge for making it to the top.
Examples of Product Managers Turned CEOs
There is no “one” path to CEO, but a typical journey can take candidates through finance, operations or marketing. These roles provide unique business insights, but could fail to give professionals the hands-on, customer-centric experiences PMs get daily. Product management’s unique blend of technical, business, and interpersonal skills offers a more holistic foundation for leadership.
While moving from PM to CEO might seem like a lofty goal, it’s not without precedent, especially in more technical fields. Because of their close relationship with engineering teams, PMs can translate complex technical language into actionable business strategies. Tech fluency gives a product manager a strategic edge in STEM-driven industries, setting them apart as unique advocates for the entirety of the organization.
Some of the strongest technology companies today are helmed by product-focused leaders: Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai began as a product manager, same with CEO of YouTube Neal Mohan and CEO of Microsoft Satya Nadella. Each of these successful leaders cut their teeth by managing complex products, fostering cross-functional collaboration and delivering user-centric innovations.
Pichai, for example, began as a product leader at Google, driving the development of the now commonplace Google Chrome. The ability to balance his technical expertise while driving overall business strategy is a key element in his rise to CEO, preparing him to take on the role by instilling a deep understanding of user needs and aligning them with company strategy.
Beyond just leadership and technical expertise, modern business requires agility, innovation and a customer-focused mindset: all areas that PMs specifically excel in. As organizations adapt to rapid technological change and shifting consumer expectations, the skills cultivated in product management become even more critical at the executive level.
How to Make the Leap From Product Manager to CEO
For those looking to lead from the top one day, product management creates unparalleled opportunities to build the required diverse skillset and leadership abilities that are required of an impactful CEO. PM is a role that forces professionals to think strategically, communicate clearly, and deliver results in a high-stakes environment.
What must change is the optics of product management trajectories — we can no longer treat the crucial role as a mid-level career path destined only for VP of product. By recognizing its potential as a stepping stone to the C-suite, we can redefine what it means to prepare for executive leadership.
Whether you’re leading a product team through a launch or a company through market turbulence, the objective is the same: customer-centricity, team alignment and execution on the strategic vision. Looking to accelerate the journey? Try product management. In today’s technology-inclined competitive market, it’s the ultimate CEO training ground.
