For a controversial strategic shift, a co-founder's "moral authority" is invaluable. They can absorb the risk of looking foolish and give up their responsibilities ("Legos") to spearhead a new initiative. This allows them to champion a new direction with a level of credibility that can overcome internal skepticism.

Palo Alto Networks' M&A playbook mandates that acquired founders, who out-innovated internal teams, take charge. This empowers the founders and leverages their proven expertise, even if it unnerves existing employees. The people who were winning in the market should be put in charge.

Aspiring leaders can build significant innovation capital by leading unglamorous but potentially high-impact projects. Microsoft's Satya Nadella championed the unpopular server business, which became the cloud, illustrating how betting on a contrarian vision can propel a career.

A key trait of effective tech leaders is the humility to solicit and immediately act upon external feedback. Google executive Schindler asking for and implementing Jim Cramer's suggestions for an NFL product shows a focus on rapid delivery and a lack of 'not-invented-here' syndrome.

To be truly successful, a product leader cannot just focus on features and users. They must operate as the head of their product's business, with a deep understanding of P&Ls, revenue drivers, and capital allocation. Without this business acumen, they risk fundamentally undercutting their product's potential impact and success.

Instead of a traditional executive search, Miro took an unconventional route to fill its C-suite: it acquired competitor InVision and appointed its CEO, Jeff Chow, as Miro's Chief Product and Technology Officer. This move secured proven leadership and an experienced team in a single strategic transaction.

Unlike PMs, directors make objective, portfolio-wide decisions, which may include defunding or shelving a product. A critical mental shift for aspiring directors is to stop tying personal and professional value to the success of one product and instead focus on the overall health of the business.

Jensen Huang personally drove the $20B acquisition of Groq, completing it in under two weeks with no other bidders and wiring money early. This demonstrates how a dominant market leader can and should act decisively, treating a multi-billion dollar strategic acquisition with the speed and simplicity of a small purchase.

The acquisition of Clapp wasn't driven by market analysis but by the Lemlist team becoming passionate users first. The CEO fell in love with the product, leading to company-wide adoption. This bottom-up conviction in the product's quality was the starting point for the M&A conversation.