main(e)learn Reflections: Product Leadership

I have had the good fortune to work with several smart, creative, often visionary product leaders during my EdTech career. These leaders taught me the necessary lessons to make educational technology useful. I have also worked with (fortunately only) a few colleagues who provided examples for what not to do. But lessons learned – good or bad – are still valuable.

These reflections intend to share the product leadership philosophies, values, and practices I learned from these colleagues – past and present – that forged my understanding for how to build great products. These leadership qualities solved hard problems and inspired product teams to create real, necessary, useful, and at times transformational teaching and learning solutions. 

I share these reflections in the hope that they may benefit other product leaders, both new and experienced, as we embark every day on the challenging journey to create new, better, and necessary educational technology. While the subject matter is educational technology, I believe the lessons are universal and benefit product leaders in any domain.   

The reflections offered here are in no particular order. Note that while I preserve the anonymity of their source, I am no less thankful for what these individual leaders have taught me. I invite you to share your feedback and other leadership qualities from your own experience. I would love to hear them, and please feel free to reach out to me directly.