There’s something curious happening in the world of “product.” For a discipline built on discovery, collaboration, and curiosity, we sometimes forget to include everyone in the conversation.
We’re currently building Leading the Product and taking a good long look at the world of product events. How do they look to someone outside the product team – a data scientist, a business analyst, an engineer, or a designer? The language can sound like a foreign dialect: “roadmap alignment,” “product-market fit,” “opportunity assessment”. Do these phrases invite people in, or quietly signal that this is a space for insiders only? Are we, perhaps unintentionally, building walls around our craft through the way we talk about it? Many of the people who sit just outside the “product” title are already practising product thinking every day – they balance customer needs with business goals, make trade-offs, and influence without authority – yet wouldn’t say they belong at LTP.
This sense of exclusion doesn’t stop at events. Inside organisations, product teams can sometimes (without meaning to) build a bit of a moat around what they do. The language becomes specialised, the rituals feel exclusive, and “product thinking” starts to sound like something you need permission to do.
The truth is, the heart of product work – understanding customers, managing uncertainty, balancing outcomes – isn’t the domain of any single role. The best product outcomes have always emerged from combining diverse perspectives across design, marketing, engineering, operations, and beyond. When we share our practices and demystify the process, we strengthen the whole organisation.
I’m driving myself to make the conversation bigger, not smaller. For example, what would Leading the Product look like if every product person brought along someone product-curious – a colleague from marketing, analytics, finance, or support – and invited them into the conversation? Imagine the new ideas, questions, and perspectives that could emerge simply by opening the doors a little wider. The same applies inside our organisations, where role hierarchies can sometimes get in the way – we can make the conversation bigger by actively inviting cross-functional peers into product discussions, sharing the “why” behind our decisions, and making space for their insights in shaping better outcomes together.
Because here’s the thing: the magic of product isn’t in the jargon or the job titles. It’s in the curiosity, creativity, and collaboration that happen when people with different experiences come together to solve real problems.
Product thinking works best when it’s shared. So let’s open the doors, drop the mystique, and invite everyone in. The more voices in the room, the better our products – and our people – will become.
