Today I’m going solo on Experiencing Data! Over the years, I have worked with a lot of leaders of data-driven software initiatives with all sorts of titles. Today, I decided to focus the podcast episode on what I think makes the top product management and digital/software leaders stand out, particularly in the space of enterprise software, analytics applications, and decision support tools.

This episode is for anyone leading a software application or product initiative that has to produce real value, and not just a technology output of some kind. When I recorded this episode, I largely had “product managers” in mind, but titles can vary significantly. Additionally, this episode focuses on my perspective as a product/UX design consultant and advisor, focusing specifically at the traits associated with these leaders’ ability to produce valuable, innovative solutions customers need and want. A large part of being a successful software leader also involves managing teams and other departments that aren’t directly a part of the product strategy and design/creation process, however I did not go deep into these aspects today. As a disclaimer, my ideas are not based on research. They’re just my opinions. Some of the topics I covered include:

• The role of skepticism
• The misunderstanding of what it means to be a “PM”
• The way top software leaders collaborate with UX professionals, designers, and engineering/tech leads
• How top leaders treat UX when building customer-focused technology
• How top product management leaders define success and make a strategy design-actionable
• The ways in which great PMs enable empathy in their teams and evangelize meaningful user research
• The output vs. outcome mindset