559: Building influence as a product leader – with Rich Mironov
Product Mastery Now for Product Managers, Leaders, and Innovators · 2025-09-29 · 19 min
Episode notes
Top challenges product leaders face and how to overcome them Watch on YouTube TLDR Product leadership expert Rich Mironov discusses three core challenges CPOs and product VPs face: effectively communicating value in business terms rather than process terminology, building trust through merchandising wins before gaining decision-making authority, and reducing product waste by making better decisions about what to build. Executives don't care how product gets made; they care about revenue impact. Success requires translating product outcomes into financial language and proving value through small wins before requesting broader organizational changes. Introduction We're talking about the top challenges CPOs and Product VPs face. Navigating them well can cause your career to excel and result in valuable products. Navigating them poorly has career-limiting consequences. This discussion will help you avoid the latter by giving you approaches to address common product leadership challenges. Our guest has mentored more product leaders and executives than anyone else I know over his 40-year career in product roles.