When communicating with executive leaders, always begin with the high-level, strategic view (the "macro") to establish context and alignment. However, you must be prepared to dive into any level of detail ("micro") they ask about. This approach respects their time while demonstrating your comprehensive understanding and credibility.
The shift to a product-led culture wasn't a formal launch. The CEO began by stating "we are product-led" aspirationally, then relentlessly reinforced this message in every meeting and report. This constant repetition, backed by operational changes, gradually and organically transformed the company's identity and behavior.
BetterRx CEO Ben Clark made the company product-led by visually mapping the company's workflow with "product" at the start. They reinforced this by structuring all company presentations and reporting to follow this flow, embedding the principle into daily operations rather than leaving it as a tagline.
Former BetterRx CEO Ben Clark sees product management as a direct revenue generator. A product manager's core value is finding significant, monetizable customer pain. When they succeed in creating strong product-market fit, it makes the jobs of sales and marketing easier and directly fuels company growth.
Instead of just declaring a "fail fast" policy, BetterRx CEO Ben Clark integrated it into the company's core value of "there's always a better way." This reframed experimentation and small failures as an expected part of the continuous improvement process, encouraging rapid testing and learning across the organization.
Former BetterRx CEO Ben Clark sets the expectation that his leaders should be ahead of him 90% of the time, bringing him well-formed plans to critique rather than asking for direction. This empowers domain experts to truly own their space and frees the CEO to focus on high-level strategy and support.
According to former CEO Ben Clark, a product manager's most crucial "emotional job to be done" is to help the CEO feel they have a partner in growth. Frame conversations not around features, but around how the product strategy directly contributes to the company's growth targets, creating alignment and a sense of shared purpose.