How to Manage Your Career Like a Product

Welcome & Opening Remarks

Todd Blaquiere | 00:00:00–00:01:14
Hello everyone, welcome. Good morning, good evening, good afternoon — good wherever you are in your time of day. Thank you so much for joining us today. This webinar is part of our Product Management Leadership Series, and today we’ll be discussing How to Manage Your Career Like a Product.

My name is Todd Blaquiere. I’m a Principal Consultant and Trainer here at Productside. On the next slide, I’ll introduce Leah Tharin — and I am excited to introduce her because she is a Principal Product Lead at Smallpdf, and she’s going to give you more insight into herself in just a few slides.

And Leah, if you can go to the next slide really quick — she’ll give you some more information about her shortly. But I’m excited because Leah is about to take over the world. That’s where she sits right now. She is taking over the product management world — I’m calling it right now — so you get to learn from her today. That’s exciting for you.

About Productside & Housekeeping

Todd Blaquiere | 00:01:14–00:03:48
Let’s go over a few housekeeping items. First off, our mission at Productside is to empower product professionals with the knowledge and tools to build products that matter. Unlike other companies, we are focused specifically on the needs of the product professional.

Whether you need help as an individual growing your knowledge and skills, or you’re working on improving your team’s effectiveness, we have the experience and services to take you to the next level. You can check us out at Productside.com — we’ll drop a link in the chat.

You can also join our LinkedIn group — we invite you to join our exclusive Product Management Community, where you can chat about best practices, tips, and trends. There’s a link to that group in the chat as well.

Now, some quick housekeeping about the webinar itself:
We at Productside love interacting with you. We want this to be a conversation. So please, during the discussion, feel free to ask questions at any time. Use the Q&A box at the bottom of your Zoom screen — type in questions throughout — and we’ll leave time at the end for Q&A. We may even take questions as we go.

Our most popular question is: “Can I watch this webinar later?”
The answer is yes — all attendees will receive a link to view the webinar recording after it ends.

And with that — let’s get to the exciting stuff. Leah, over to you.

Introduction to Menti & Audience Participation

Leah Tharin | 00:03:48–00:05:26
Thank you so much. It’s news to me that I’m going to take over the world — thank you very much! That’s really interesting. I did not think about how I’m going to rule the product world yet, but okay — cool. No pressure, right? No pressure.

Hello everyone, and thank you very much for joining. I’m going to talk today about how to manage your career like a product. There will hopefully be some really actionable takeaways. I’ll also tell you who I am, but first — if you want to — this is optional — you can go on your phone or desktop to menti.com, which is a really cool tool to interact with the presentation as we go. It’s completely anonymous.

Enter the code 4184-9190.

Nicole, if you’d be so nice, please put this into the chat. I’ll show the code again throughout in case you get locked out. There won’t be many questions — but this helps us get started. And there is already a question: “What is your current product management level?” We’ll get to those responses in a moment.

As we go, please use Menti to interact with the presentation. You can also ask questions there, just as in Zoom — doesn’t matter where — Todd and I will look at both. I really want to enable you to ask questions that are specific. I’m not afraid of any questions. I love difficult questions, so please use this time. You can ask anonymously. There are no stupid questions. Don’t be afraid — engage with us. I’m happy to take the curveballs.

Who I Am — Leah’s Background

Leah Tharin | 00:05:26–00:08:20
So let’s get into this. Who am I?

My name is Leah Tharin, and as you can see from this picture, I look very straight into the camera — very professional. This is my official CV — the boring part — but let’s get through it.

I’ve been 22 years in tech, with 10 years in UX research, and 12 years in product management. I’m currently a Principal Product Manager at Smallpdf — a document management SaaS platform with tens of millions of monthly users.

I’ve had two successful exits in my life with companies I’ve worked at. That sounds pretty good, right?

But — here’s the real CV.

This is not the stuff you see on LinkedIn. I want to talk about the real side of career management — the actual human side.

I sucked at my job until my mid-30s.
Despite decades of experience, I felt unremarkable and just “got by.” I had imposter syndrome. I had a bad theoretical foundation. I would not have hired the earlier version of me.

I also crashed and failed the two companies I founded. They didn’t get off the ground — fully within my control.

Eventually, I took charge of my career and turned it around. I adopted a growth mindset — and we’ll talk about what that means.

Today, I run a podcast, I write on LinkedIn and Substack, I advise companies (usually pre-Series B), and I focus on product-led growth and organizational scaling. And for whatever it’s worth — companies trust me with advising them.

I love my job today. I love where I am. That, to me, is a successful career. Not the title. Not the ladder. But loving where you are.

And you can work toward that too.

Interactive Poll #1 — Your Product Level

Leah Tharin | 00:08:20–00:09:40
So, the first question inside Menti is: What is your current product management level?

We’ll get to those slides in just a second, but as you go, please use Menti to interact. A few of you have already answered — thank you.

We have mostly mid-level PMs in here, which is great. We have some heads of product, senior directors, and a healthy amount from associate to senior PM. A very diverse group — which is perfect.

Those of you who are not strictly PMs don’t have to log off — that’s not what I mean! But it’s helpful to see we have a really nice variety of experience levels.

Interactive Poll #2 — Company Size

Leah Tharin | 00:09:40–00:11:22
Next question: How big is the company you’re working at?

Because this will become relevant for how you manage your career.

Most people in this call work at medium-to-large companies — let’s call 200 employees and above “bigger.” That’s usually where friction in organizations begins. Multiple teams, layers, and often a bit of politics.

Smaller companies — under 200 — feel more like a chicken coop:
“I’m doing everything. I have no idea what’s going on.”

Both environments teach you different things. And we’ll talk about that.

Let’s go to the next question.

Interactive Poll #3 — What Do You Want to Get Better At?

Leah Tharin | 00:11:22–00:13:00
Here’s the real question I want you to answer. And you can enter multiple answers if you like:

What do you want to become better at?

Just put one word or a sentence. If you want to become better at cooking spaghetti — you can even put that. This is anonymous. Write whatever comes to mind.

We’ll return to this later.

I see writing, analytics, influencing, leadership, strategy — very common themes. Requirements gathering, communication, product strategy, prioritization. Analytics again. Perfect.

Every one of those is a real product skill. Thank you for submitting those — these are fantastic.

We’ll come back to the importance of these during the career planning sections.

Also — by the way — I made the background picture for this poll question with AI. Yesterday. I thought it looked cool. It’s like a product manager infused with data and wires and cosmic electricity. It actually only got my nose correct. And then it made everything pretty.

What We’ll Cover Today

Leah Tharin | 00:13:00–00:14:10
We’re going to focus on three major areas today:

1. General Wisdom — foundational mindsets and truths about product careers.
2. How to Build an Effective Growth Plan — a repeatable model you can use for years.
3. Practical Growth Loops — real techniques you can implement immediately to accelerate your career.

My goal is not to scare you — but to give you the real version of career development. The version nobody sugarcoats. The version that actually works.

As always, please ask questions. You can ask anonymously on Menti or publicly in Zoom. Todd will keep an eye on both channels and interrupt me if there’s something important.

General Wisdom #1 — You Must Be Proactive

Leah Tharin | 00:14:10–00:16:02
In order to develop your career, you must be proactive.
You need to prioritize yourself — or you will get stuck.

I hear this constantly:
“I don’t have time for growth. There’s too much work.”
“We’re shipping a feature.”
“There’s another sprint review.”

No one will magically hand you time.
No one will come tap your shoulder and say, “Hey, now would be a great moment to focus on your development.”

It is up to you to carve out that time.

If you ever land with a boss who won’t allow you to grow or doesn’t support your growth — that’s a problem. Growth cannot be optional. Growth cannot be something you squeeze in after all your work is done.

Learning from others has saved me countless times. But I didn’t prioritize it until far too late.

Don’t make that mistake.

Todd’s Question — Where Does Growth Happen?

Todd Blaquiere | 00:16:02–00:17:00
I want to ask something here because I think a lot of people are wondering the same thing:
Where does this growth actually happen?

Is it on the job?
Is it outside the job?
Is it a combination of both?

I’m curious what your take is, Leah.

Leah’s Answer — Where Growth Really Happens

Leah Tharin | 00:17:00–00:18:28
Great question — and yes, I’ll answer it in detail later because it connects deeply with a framework I’ll show.

The short version is:

Growth comes from a mix of theory and experience.
But experience beats theory.
And you must actively engineer both.

You can read all the books and take all the courses you want — and you should. But theory alone does not make you strong. You grow when you apply what you learn.

And sometimes, you simply cannot get the experience you need inside your company.
That’s where side projects, communities, mentorship, and external opportunities become invaluable.

We’ll go deeper into this in a few minutes.

General Wisdom #2 — Don’t Chase Titles, Chase Outcomes

Leah Tharin | 00:18:28–00:20:40
Let’s connect product thinking to career thinking for a second.

Product managers prioritize outcomes over output.
We don’t obsess over features — we obsess over the impact those features create.

Your career works the same way.

A job title is output.
Impact, skill growth, capability — that’s outcome.

Chasing titles is inefficient.
It obscures your real growth potential.

Your job title is merely a reflection of your skills and your ability to show your value. If your actual skills are here ↓ but you’re presenting yourself as if you’re here ↑ — that gap eventually becomes obvious.

People who hire — like me, like Todd — we can see it instantly.

So: Chase growth. Chase learning. Chase evidence of impact.
The titles will follow.

General Wisdom #3 — You Deserve to Be Here

Leah Tharin | 00:20:40–00:23:12
Let’s talk about something very real:
Imposter syndrome.

Whenever you join a new company — especially a large one — you’ll look around and think:

“Everyone is smarter than me.”
“I don’t belong here.”
“They’ll find out I’m not good enough.”

It’s completely normal.
It affects everyone — even senior leaders, CEOs, founders.

I deal with it too.

Sometimes I write something, publish it, and immediately think:
“What if someone challenges this? What if I’m wrong?”

But here’s the truth:
We fail all the time.
We make decisions with limited information.
We choose risky paths because they’re the only paths that might create real value.

And when you’re in leadership, you often take the high-risk, high-reward decisions.
Those fail more often than the safe ones.

So here’s the mindset shift:
Don’t expect yourself to be perfect.
Don’t expect others to be perfect.
Expect to learn.

Push through obstacles.
Assume you belong — because you do.

General Wisdom #4 — What Got You Here Won’t Get You There

Leah Tharin | 00:23:12–00:24:46
A huge mistake people make is assuming that success in one role guarantees success in the next.

What makes you a great product manager does not automatically make you a great product leader.

The skills are different. The expectations are different. The outcomes you’re responsible for are different.

And that’s okay — as long as you know it.

We’ll talk about the distinction between the IC (individual contributor) track and the management track in a moment, because this is one of the biggest decision points in your career.

But for now, remember:
Transitions require new skills — not just more time.

The Product Management Career Ladder

Leah Tharin | 00:24:46–00:27:00
Let’s break down the two major paths:

1. Individual Contributor (IC) Track

This includes:

• Associate PM
• PM
• Senior PM
• Principal PM
• Staff PM
• Lead PM

You stay close to the craft, close to customers, close to delivery.
You create products with teams. You are hands-on.

2. Management Track

This includes:

• Group PM
• Director of Product
• VP of Product
• CPO

This is not the same work.
You stop being hands-on.
Your product becomes the team.
Your job becomes:

• enabling others
• setting strategy
• aligning the org
• clearing roadblocks
• managing performance
• making tough tradeoffs

And the jump from Senior PM → Group PM is often the hardest.

Because what made you a rockstar PM rarely makes you a rockstar manager.

Why Many PMs Choose the Wrong Path

Leah Tharin | 00:27:00–00:28:40
Most PMs think management is the “prestige” track.

It isn’t.

Management is not inherently better.
Principals and Staff PMs in many companies have equal pay and equal influence as Directors.

If you love:

• creating products
• solving customer problems
• writing strategy docs
• collaborating with engineers
• running experiments

…then the IC track may be perfect for you.

If you love:

• coaching
• mentorship
• performance management
• team design
• organizational strategy
• portfolio thinking

…then leadership may be your path.

Both are valid.
But choosing the wrong one leads to misery.

Todd’s Reflection — Losing Operative Skills

Todd Blaquiere | 00:28:40–00:29:40
Let me add one thing here.
If you go into management, you will lose some of your hands-on skills.

The further you get from the day-to-day, the harder it becomes to relate to it.

So if you don’t truly want to manage people — or you don’t enjoy organizational work — the IC track may serve you far better.

And honestly, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Todd’s Question — What If My Company Doesn’t Support IC Careers?

Todd Blaquiere | 00:29:40–00:30:12
What do you recommend for someone who wants to stay IC, but their company only has a management track? No Staff PM, no Principal PM — nothing.

Leah’s Answer — Change It, or Leave It

Leah Tharin | 00:30:12–00:31:50
Here’s the hard truth.

If your company doesn’t have an IC path, you have two options:

1. Try to change it.

Many startups and mid-size companies are still evolving.
You can propose:

• a leveling framework
• IC titles
• career ladders
• expectations for each level
• growth paths

Sometimes they’ll adopt it — and you’ll literally shape the company.

2. If they refuse — leave.

Because you cannot build a career in a structure that doesn’t support the kind of career you want.

It’s not punishment. It’s clarity.

You deserve an environment that aligns with your goals.

Startups vs. Enterprises — Completely Different Growth Curves

Leah Tharin | 00:31:50–00:34:28
Let’s talk about company size, because it dramatically affects your career.

Startups (0–200 employees)

They usually have:

• fewer processes
• faster decision-making
• more ambiguity
• more responsibility
• broader roles (you do everything)

This means:
You have more chances to influence structure, career ladders, culture, and process.
You also have more chances to get burned out if you’re not careful.

And yes — some startups are amazing, and some are digital hellscapes.

Enterprises (200+ employees)

Usually:

• rigid processes
• strong frameworks
• less ambiguity
• more stakeholders
• more politics

This can be great for learning structure, frameworks, and discipline.
But you’ll have less influence, less autonomy, and more friction.

The key message is:
One bad experience should not define your preferences.
I once swore I would never work in startups again — and now I absolutely love it.

There are wonderful enterprises, awful enterprises, wonderful startups, awful startups.
Your job is to notice what environment you thrive in, regardless of the label.

Specialization vs. Generalist — When to Focus

Leah Tharin | 00:34:28–00:36:40
Another huge career choice:
Do you specialize, or do you stay a generalist?

You can specialize in:

• Growth
• Monetization
• Machine learning
• Product-led growth
• Research
• Design systems
• Enterprise workflows
• Whatever fascinates you

The risk:
If you go deep, companies may pigeonhole you.
You’ll be “the growth PM” and only get growth PM roles.

But there is a massive upside:
T-shaped PMs (broad foundation + one deep specialization)
are the most valuable hires in the market.

If I’m hiring and I see:

• Candidate A: solid at everything
• Candidate B: solid at everything AND excellent at one thing

I choose Candidate B every time.

Your specialization doesn’t need to be dramatic.
It can be as simple as:

• “I’m exceptionally good at customer research.”
• “I’m strong in analytics.”
• “I can align teams better than anyone.”

It just has to be yours.

The Growth Mindset — The Most Important Shift in Your Career

Leah Tharin | 00:36:40–00:39:12
Let’s talk about something foundational:

Growth mindset vs. fixed mindset.

Here’s the harsh truth:
I was stuck in a fixed mindset for most of my early career.

A fixed mindset says:

• “I need to look smart.”
• “Feedback threatens me.”
• “Other people’s success feels dangerous.”
• “I avoid challenges because I might fail.”

A growth mindset says:

• “Feedback is data I can use.”
• “Challenges help me grow.”
• “My skills are not fixed — they can evolve.”
• “I don’t need to protect my image; I need to improve my craft.”

It took me decades to adopt a growth mindset.
It changed everything.

Because when you let go of needing to look smart, needing to protect your reputation, needing to be right — then you can finally grow.

When you embrace feedback, you become unstoppable.

Leah’s Story — The Hardest Feedback She Ever Received

Leah Tharin | 00:39:12–00:41:00
I’ll share an example.

A CPO once told me, directly:

“All the work you did on this major initiative is wrong.”

Not sugar-coated.
Not softened.
Not nice.

I cried.

And I fought it internally — my ego wanted to defend everything.
But he was right.

I had built a massive product initiative without a:

• business case
• customer analysis
• market analysis
• clear problem definition

I was working on “momentum,” not insight.

That feedback changed my entire approach to product management.
It was painful — but it was the turning point.

This is why feedback matters:
It highlights realities we’re unwilling to see.

Breaking Into PM or Leadership — When You “Don’t Have Experience”

Leah Tharin | 00:41:00–00:44:20
Let’s tackle a common frustration:

“What if I want to be a PM, but my company says I don’t have product experience?”
“What if I want to be a manager, but they say I’ve never managed anyone?”

Here’s the secret:
You don’t wait for permission.

You find transferable experience and make it visible.

Examples:

• Start a small business online
• Build a tool, service, or mini-product
• Run a community project
• Coach junior PMs
• Volunteer as a mentor
• Lead an initiative at your current job
• Organize a cross-functional program
• Write case studies
• Create product teardown videos

All of this counts as PM experience.

All of this teaches:

• customer discovery
• positioning
• experimentation
• delivery
• communication
• alignment
• prioritization
• storytelling

You don’t need a job title to build PM skills.

And when you show this in your résumé, you become competitive.

You’re not “pretending” to have experience — you’re building it yourself.

Leah’s Core Advice — Don’t Wait. Build Something.

Leah Tharin | 00:44:20–00:45:56
If you rely on companies to give you growth opportunities, you’ll be waiting forever.

People who break into PM — or break into leadership — almost always do something extra:

• coaching
• side projects
• writing
• community engagement
• hosting workshops
• prototyping ideas

If you want leadership experience?

Coach 30 PMs for free.
Use MentorClub or ADPList.
Collect the reviews.
Put them in your résumé.

I’ve had hiring managers accept leadership candidates on that basis alone.

Because it shows you can:

• support others
• teach
• challenge thinking
• develop people
• give structure
• give feedback

And that is leadership.

The Transferable Skills Playbook

Leah Tharin | 00:45:56–00:48:02
Here’s the formula:

1. Learn the theory

Books, courses, webinars, communities.

2. Find any environment to practice it

Inside work or outside work — doesn’t matter.

3. Share what you learned

Publicly or privately:

• LinkedIn
• Medium
• Substack
• Slack communities
• Webinars

4. Get feedback

This is where growth accelerates.

5. Improve, iterate, repeat

This is how you build momentum.

It’s literally the same loop as product development:

• discovery
• experimentation
• validation
• iteration

Except the product is you.

Building Practical Growth Loops

Leah Tharin | 00:42:31–00:45:12
So now let’s shift into the final section, which is all about the practical growth loops you can build for yourself. These are not theoretical. These are exactly the habits, systems, and loops I used to go from being an unremarkable PM with a lot of insecurity to being someone who now advises companies, teaches thousands of PMs, and builds products at scale. And you can absolutely replicate these loops in your own way.

One way to grow incredibly fast is to learn by teaching. And please don’t panic — I don’t mean “teach” in the sense of standing on a stage in front of 300 people. Teaching can simply mean helping someone understand something you already know. That could be coaching a junior PM, helping a founder structure a backlog, mentoring a student on LinkedIn, or just writing one paragraph online about something you’ve learned. When you teach, you discover immediately where your own gaps are. Because the moment someone asks you a follow-up question you can’t answer, that is the fastest and most honest skill assessment possible.

Leah Tharin | 00:45:12–00:47:44
Let me give you a very tactical example. A few years ago I wanted to become better at product-led growth. Not reading about it — actually knowing it well enough to do it. I started by consuming passive content: books, podcasts, blog posts. That gave me vocabulary, but it wasn’t enough. So I built a tiny internal project. I ran a micro-experiment inside my team. I applied PLG principles in a low-risk environment. Then I shared the results publicly, step by step, including the embarrassing parts. And as I did that, other PMs asked questions. I answered the ones I could, and the ones I couldn’t answer became the next things I learned.

That’s the loop. That is exactly how you get good at something.

Becoming a Public Learner

If coaching or mentoring others feels intimidating, the second loop you can use is becoming a public learner. This is ideal for introverts because you don’t need to be on stage or even on camera. You can write. You can reflect. You can share. And the key is: don’t pretend you’re an expert. Share what you’re learning as you’re learning it. What books you read, what questions you struggled with, what went wrong at work, what you discovered yesterday that suddenly made something click.

One of the biggest misconceptions is that people only want to follow experts. It’s not true. People want to follow someone who is one step ahead of them, not ten steps ahead. They want to follow someone relatable. When I began writing publicly about my learning journey — not big frameworks, not perfect answers, just honest questions and reflections — everything changed. That consistency built an audience. That audience built opportunities. And those opportunities accelerated my skills faster than anything I could have done internally.

Applying Product Thinking to Your Personal Growth Loop

Leah Tharin | 00:49:58–00:51:32
So, let me take all of this and tie it together with what I call the Personal Growth Loop. Think about how we build products: we launch something small, we test it with users, we measure whether they return, and then we invest more. Your career works exactly the same way.

First, you expose yourself to small opportunities—writing a post, speaking in a meetup, taking ownership of a messy project. These things act like MVPs. Then you evaluate: did it energize you? Did you get feedback? Did it unlock new conversations? If the answer is yes, you iterate and go bigger. If not, you pivot and try something new.

The biggest mistake I see is people waiting for permission. Don’t wait for someone to give you a project. Don’t wait until you feel ready. Action creates clarity. You will not get clarity by thinking; you get clarity by doing. This is how you manage your career like a product.

But you must be consistent. Consistency does not mean publishing daily. It means showing up regularly enough that you build a rhythm of learning, reflecting, and sharing. This is the part where PMs sometimes struggle, because we want the dopamine of “I wrote one great post, why didn’t the world notice?” No — consistency over time compounds. And consistency forces you to internalize what you’re learning. If you can’t explain something simply, you don’t understand it well enough yet. Sharing helps you discover that quickly.

And eventually, when you’ve done this long enough, you become a factor in hiring. People want to work with you. Companies want you to advise them. Recruiters reach out because they already feel like they know you. It is the most unfair advantage in the world, and you can start it today with zero followers and zero experience.

Making Yourself a Magnet for Opportunities

Leah Tharin | 00:51:32–00:53:09
One of the wild things that started happening—once I adopted this mindset—is that opportunities started coming to me, instead of me chasing them. And this is what I want for all of you.

When you are openly learning, when you are sharing, when you are engaging with others, you create surface area. People see your brain. They see your thinking style. They see how you solve problems. And suddenly, you get inbound messages:

“Hey, could you advise our team?”
“Hey, we’re hiring and thought of you.”
“Hey, can we get your input on this product?”

This isn’t luck. It’s compounding visibility. And the crazy part is: you don’t need 10,000 followers. You just need consistency and authenticity.

If you want to accelerate your career, increase the number of people who know what you’re good at. It’s that simple.

Owning Your Narrative and External Perception

Leah Tharin | 00:53:09–00:55:01
Something I really want to emphasize as we come toward the close: you are responsible for your own narrative. Not your boss. Not your company. Not your org chart. You.

Whatever impression people have of your work, your capabilities, or your expertise—it’s all based on the surface area you create. If you stay completely hidden, if you never talk about your learnings, if you never share your work, then the world only sees a tiny fraction of the real you.

That’s why things like writing, mentoring, posting, teaching, speaking—these aren’t vanity. They are tools. They are leverage multipliers. They show people your actual thinking.

And when others can see your thinking, your opportunities multiply. Your influence multiplies. Your options multiply. And your confidence will eventually multiply as well.

Types of Content That Accelerate Your Career

Leah Tharin | 00:52:40–00:55:11
Let’s talk very concretely about the types of content that help you grow fastest. Because “write something on LinkedIn” isn’t specific enough. There are really three buckets of content you can produce, and each of them has a different purpose.

The first one is what I call “Look what I found” content. This is the easiest to start with. You simply share something interesting: a framework, a quote, a chart, a mistake you noticed in your own team, a product teardown you learned from. This is extremely low pressure, because you’re not positioning yourself as an expert. You’re saying, “Hey, this helped me — maybe it helps you.” And people love that. It’s human and approachable.

The second bucket is “Learn with me” content. This is where the growth really starts. This is when you say, “I didn’t understand this, so I researched it. Here’s what I learned.” You can write about an error you made at work and how you fixed it. You can write about a tool you struggled with and finally understood. This is the content that draws people to you because they see someone who is honestly evolving, not performing.

The third bucket is advanced framework content, and this one is where people tend to screw up. You should only write advanced content about topics you actually practice at work. If you’re a junior PM, please don’t write a post called “How to restructure your product organization” — that content belongs to someone who has lived through that pain. But you can write: “What I learned about prioritization this week” or “What I misunderstood about JTBD.”

The trick is pacing. Start with the first two buckets until you have real lived experience. Then the advanced content becomes authentic instead of fabricated. If you stay consistent, over time something magical happens: your clarity of thought improves. Your writing improves. Your frameworks improve. And suddenly people start treating you as an expert — not because you claimed to be one, but because you practiced publicly in a way that others could see.

Navigating Workplace Feedback and Growth Signals

Leah Tharin | 00:55:01–00:56:27
Let’s talk honestly about feedback. Because your career growth—real growth—comes from two things:

Your ability to seek feedback.

Your willingness to act on it.

Most people only do step one. They say, “Okay, give me the feedback,” but when they hear something uncomfortable, they defend themselves. They rationalize. They explain.

But hearing feedback is not the same as internalizing it.

The real growth signal is whether you can take feedback—even painful feedback—and do something with it. Even if you disagree with parts of it, even if you feel the other person misunderstood something, the perception they had still happened.

And perception is reality in a workplace.

If you want a fast career trajectory, master the skill of calmly saying:
“Thank you. I’m going to work on that.”
And then actually work on it.

When You Have to Create Your Own Opportunities

Leah Tharin | 00:56:27–00:58:12
Sometimes—and this is the tough truth—your company won’t give you the opportunities you want.
You won’t get that project.
You won’t get that promotion.
You won’t get the leadership scope you believe you deserve.

And when that happens, you have two choices:
You can wait.
Or you can create.

If you can’t get strategic practice internally, build something externally.
If you can’t manage people internally, mentor people externally.
If you can’t lead a product initiative at work, run your own small business experiment on the side.

Here’s the good news: your next employer won’t care where your experience came from—they only care that you have it.

Create what you can’t get.
That is how you manage your career like a product.

Bringing It All Together: The Career Growth Loop

Leah Tharin | 00:58:12–00:59:33
So let me give you the final simplified version of the entire framework:

1. Learn something new
Through courses, books, mentorship, real projects.

2. Apply it to something real
Side project, volunteer project, internal initiative, content creation.

3. Share your learnings publicly or internally
This solidifies your understanding and makes others aware of your value.

4. Iterate through feedback
Fix gaps. Improve. Level up.

5. Let the market pull you
When you do this consistently, opportunities will come to you automatically.

This is a loop.
You can start today.
And the more cycles you run, the faster your career accelerates.

Closing Thoughts and Human Reality

Leah Tharin | 00:59:33–01:00:46
Before I hand it back to Todd, I want to say one last thing.
It is absolutely normal to feel behind.
It is normal to feel stuck.
It is normal to feel like other people are moving faster.

I felt all of this for years.

But the moment you take ownership of your learning, your growth, your narrative—your entire trajectory changes.

You don’t need permission.
You don’t need a title.
You don’t need someone to choose you.

You can choose yourself.
And when you do, everything becomes possible.

The Long Game: Compounding Your Growth

Leah Tharin | 00:57:44–01:00:33
So now let’s zoom out. What does all of this look like over years instead of weeks? Because career growth is slow at first, and that frustrates people. But the reality is that growth is rarely linear. It looks like a staircase — long stretches where nothing seems to happen, and suddenly you jump three steps at once.

If you adopt even one of these loops — teaching others or learning publicly — you build momentum. And momentum compounds. It’s like compound interest for your career. The small things you do weekly become bigger than anything you could accomplish by waiting for the “perfect opportunity” inside your job. People think career breakthroughs happen from promotions. Most of the time, they come from accumulated actions you took outside promotions: writing, coaching, presenting, experimenting.

And here’s the best part: when you grow publicly, you stop competing with people inside your company. You stop waiting for your boss to “notice you.” You stop depending on a single organization to determine your value. You outgrow the confines of one job. You build leverage. You create optionality. And that optionality means you get to choose — not just the job, but the environment, the culture, the team, the type of leader you want to become.

That is how you manage your career like a product. You invest in yourself the way you invest in a feature: small increments, tight feedback loops, and continuous improvement. And eventually… the market — the career market — tells you exactly what you’re worth.

Bringing It All Together: Turning Learning Into Advantage

Let’s bring all of this together, because I want this to feel actionable — not inspirational fluff. When you put these loops in motion, you create an ecosystem around yourself. Teaching others forces clarity. Writing publicly forces repetition and refinement. Coaching others forces accountability. Presenting forces structure. Learning openly forces humility. These loops don’t compete with each other; they amplify each other.

And here’s the truth nobody wants to say out loud: most people won’t do this. Not because they aren’t capable — they absolutely are. They just won’t prioritize it. They’ll say they’re too busy. They’ll say they don’t know where to start. They’ll say the timing isn’t right. But the people who do commit to consistent, visible growth will accelerate their careers dramatically faster than those who don’t.

Think about it this way: if you grow 1% every week, that’s 67% growth in a year. If you grow 1% every day, you practically transform. That’s why the little habits matter so much. One post a week. One habit of reflection. One conversation with another PM. One coaching session. One experiment. One attempt at making your thinking more clear. These small acts compound far more than any single “big career moment.”

So when people ask me how to grow their career, how to get promoted, how to switch companies, how to become a principal PM — my answer is always the same: you have to deliberately create the conditions that make growth inevitable. Don’t wait for permission. Don’t wait for someone to tap you on the shoulder. Don’t wait for your company to give you the perfect environment. You have more agency than you think.

Your Next Step: Designing Your Personal Growth Roadmap

So now let’s talk about your next step — because none of this matters unless you act on it. I want you to create your own growth roadmap. Three parts. Keep it simple. First: what is your north star? Not a title. A skill state. Something like: “I want to be known for my clarity of thinking,” or “I want to be a PM who deeply understands experimentation,” or “I want to be a product leader who grows great teams.” That becomes your strategic direction.

Second: choose one loop — just one — that aligns with that direction. Teaching, coaching, writing, content, presenting, active learning, whatever resonates with you. Don’t choose five. Choose one. And commit to doing it every week for the next 90 days. That’s it. Once a week.

Third: define your feedback mechanism. How will you know you’re improving? It could be engagement on your posts. It could be clarity of your writing. It could be people reaching out to talk. It could be your manager saying they noticed improvement. You need a feedback loop, or else you’re just shouting into the void.

If you do this — and I mean actually do it — you will look back 90 days from now and realize you are not the same person. Something will have shifted. Your confidence grows. Your clarity improves. People start asking you questions instead of you always asking them. You feel less reactive and more intentional. And eventually the job market responds to that version of you.

Managing your career like a product means owning every part of it — from the roadmap to the iteration cycles to the feedback signals. And when you take that ownership seriously, you stop hoping your company defines your future and instead start building it yourself.

The Power of Community: Growing Faster by Not Going Alone

Another mistake I see product managers make is trying to do all of this in isolation. They want to grow, but they sit alone at their desk, read a few articles, maybe watch a few YouTube videos, and hope that somehow it translates into career acceleration. It doesn’t. Growth thrives in community — not in solitude.

You need people around you who challenge your assumptions, who ask better questions than you do, who expose you to things you didn’t know you didn’t know. And the beautiful thing is that product — as a discipline — is full of people who love sharing. We’re all nerds about processes and roadmaps and OKRs and experimentation, and we genuinely enjoy talking about it.

So join communities. Engage in conversations. Ask for feedback publicly. Comment on posts with your perspective. Don’t be invisible. Community becomes an accelerant — it multiplies your rate of learning because you suddenly have hundreds of signals instead of just your own internal monologue.

Every major jump in my career happened because of community — not because of a job title. Every opportunity came from someone who had seen my work, engaged with my thinking, or recognized me from a conversation we had three months earlier. Product is a relationship-driven field. Not in a political way, but in the sense that good ideas spread, and people gravitate toward people who think clearly and share openly.

And when you surround yourself with other people who are growing, it pulls you upward. It forces you to hold a higher standard for yourself. It normalizes ambition. And most importantly, it makes the journey so much less lonely — because managing your career like a product isn’t just work, it’s emotional. You need a space to process that, too.

Final Challenge: Act Now Before the Momentum Fades

So I’m going to leave you with a challenge — and I’m very intentional about this. Don’t leave this webinar and go back to your day as if nothing happened. Don’t let the inspiration fade in the next hour. Pick one thing — one small action — and do it today. Not tomorrow. Today.

Maybe it’s writing your first short post on LinkedIn. Maybe it’s reaching out to someone you admire and asking them one question. Maybe it’s registering on a mentoring platform and offering one free session. Maybe it’s blocking 30 minutes every Friday to reflect on what you learned that week. Maybe it’s sketching your personal North Star on a sticky note and putting it on your monitor.

It doesn’t matter what the action is. What matters is that you create momentum. Because careers don’t change through big dramatic gestures — they change through compounding, consistent, tiny improvements.

And here’s the real insight: once you start moving, everything else becomes easier. Clarity comes from motion, not from sitting still. Confidence comes from repetition, not from waiting until you “feel ready.” And opportunities come from visibility, not from quietly doing good work in the background.

So if you take one thing from this entire session, let it be this: own your growth. Treat it like a product. And start today. Because the future version of you — the one who feels capable, confident, and proud of the work they’re doing — becomes inevitable once you start building intentionally toward them.

What Companies Really Look For: The Hidden Signals

Let’s talk about something most people never hear directly: what companies actually look for when they hire or promote product managers. It’s not your title. It’s not how many frameworks you can recite. It’s not even how many years of experience you have — because those numbers are wildly misleading.

Companies look for signals. Clear, observable proof that you think like an owner, that you can articulate complexity simply, and that you create leverage for the teams around you. They look for signs that you’ve outgrown your current box — that you’re already operating at the next level, whether anyone gave you the title or not. That’s why growing publicly matters. It creates evidence. It shows your thinking evolves over time. It shows you can influence without authority. And it shows that you’re not just doing tasks — you’re shaping ideas.

And the truth? Most companies are terrible at evaluating PM talent. They default to the loudest person, the most charismatic person, or the one with the most polished CV. But the PMs who actually succeed — the ones who get promoted, who attract opportunities, who get picked for high-impact work — are the ones who demonstrate trajectory. Companies bet on the slope, not the height.So when you show that you learn fast, that you reflect deeply, that you can communicate insightfully, that you’re growing consistently, you become irresistible. You become someone people want on their team because you raise the bar for everyone. Hiring managers love that. Leaders love that. Teams love that.

And when you understand this, you stop playing the short game. You stop chasing titles. You stop trying to “look senior” and instead start acting senior — by demonstrating clarity, curiosity, humility, and discipline. Those four attributes will outperform any certification or title inflation. Every single time.

Your Career as a Product: Always in Beta

I want to close these sections with a mindset that can completely change your relationship with your career: your career is always in beta. Always. There is no final release. No version 1.0. No milestone where everything finally clicks and you become “complete.” You are constantly iterating. Constantly learning. Constantly refactoring your thinking and your identity as you grow.

Once you adopt this mindset, everything gets lighter. Failure becomes data. Feedback becomes insight instead of an attack. Career shifts feel less like existential crises and more like natural product pivots. And progress becomes something you measure over years — not weeks.

This mindset also protects you from perfectionism. You stop asking, “Am I good enough yet?” and instead ask, “What is the next small improvement I can make?” You stop waiting for the stars to align. You stop waiting for permission. You stop waiting until you “feel ready,” because you understand that readiness is created by doing — not by thinking about doing.

So don’t aim to feel finished. Aim to feel in motion. Don’t aim to be flawless. Aim to be improving. Don’t aim to be the smartest person in the room. Aim to be the most curious. And don’t aim to impress everyone — aim to become someone you respect.

Your career is your product. You own the roadmap. You shape the strategy. You test, iterate, and learn. And as long as you stay in motion, stay curious, and stay open, you will grow into a version of yourself that feels aligned, capable, and proud.

This is how you manage your career like a product — not by controlling everything, but by consistently moving forward even when things feel uncertain. Especially when they feel uncertain. Because that’s where real growth lives.

Todd’s Closing Remarks

Todd Blaquiere | 01:00:46–01:02:03
Leah, thank you so much. There was so much wisdom in what you shared—practical advice, mindset shifts, and very real talk about what this career actually looks like behind the scenes.

And for everyone here, I hope you take at least one or two actionable things from this session. Whether it’s consistency, visibility, focusing on outcomes, or choosing yourself—these are the kinds of things that transform careers over time.

If you want to level up your foundational skills, remember that our Optimal Product Management course is always here to support you. It’s one of the best ways to build the core skills Leah talked about today.

Thank you again, Leah. And thank you everyone for joining us.

Final Goodbyes

Leah Tharin | 01:02:03–01:02:34
Thank you everyone for being here, for engaging, for asking thoughtful questions. I hope this helps you in your career, truly.
And remember—never stop iterating on yourself.

Todd Blaquiere | 01:02:34–01:02:48
Thanks everyone. Have a great day, and we’ll see you at the next webinar.