A few observations from the 2025 Mind the Product Leadership Forum
I recently had the opportunity to attend Mind the Product’s Leadership Forum in London. It was wonderful to connect with product colleagues in person and it also provided some fascinating insight into what’s weighing on everyone’s minds these days. Here are a few of my observations.
A new obsession with the operating model
If there was one key theme from the event, it was the product operating model. It’s the topic that everyone is talking about and I’ve noticed that the majority of coaches are now positioning themselves as product model coaches.
While it’s encouraging to see that the operating model concept (something I’ve been writing and speaking about for many years) is now on everyone’s radar, I’m not convinced that everyone fully understands what it means or appreciates what a substantial endeavour it is to transform it.
Among the product model coaches, I didn’t hear anyone talking about their experience outside of the product team or sharing specific examples of how to align the organisation outside the product function to set cross-functional product teams up for success. This concerns me because I’ve spent many years on transformation work, and I know how critical it is to implement change beyond the team and practice level. I explore this topic in more detail in my post on 6 anti-patterns of transformation theatre.
We need to find balance between speaking the language of our users and our business
Several presenters discussed the importance of speaking the language of business. This is not a new topic. In fact, we just celebrated the 10-year anniversary of my book, Communicating the UX Vision: 10 Anti-Patterns That Block Good Ideas, and the first anti-pattern we outline in the book is not speaking the same language as the people you’re trying to communicate with. Being able to express what we’re doing in terms of what the business is trying to achieve is the foundation for developing aligned strategies.
It was surprising to hear how much this is still a challenge in product management. After all, one of the core responsibilities of a product manager is to bring a business perspective into product teams and act as a translator—connecting customer insights and technical capabilities with business strategy. Framing our work in terms of business impact is not optional; it’s essential for building credibility and ensuring alignment.
At the same time, we can’t lose sight of the customer. Coming from a design background, I’m especially sensitive to this. Our job is not just to meet business metrics, but to solve real problems for users in meaningful ways. Product success lives at the intersection of business value and user value—and finding that balance is what leads to long-term impact.
Cross-functional collaboration isn’t just for practitioners
The Leadership Forum is an event that—just as the name suggests—is intended for product leaders. However, I noticed that the majority of product leaders seemed to stay focused within the product practice and didn’t speak to or emphasise cross-disciplinary relationships with their peers.
I understand this is natural during the early days of leadership—we tend to move up within our discipline, and we get rewarded for deep expertise in our functional area. But as we progress, it becomes more of an imperative to work cross-functionally. We need to collaborate with other disciplines, both because this is how we get things done and because this is how we increase our chances of success.
In the past, I’ve written about how cross-functional collaboration is one of the characteristics that makes your organisation much more likely to have a successful transformation. If your goal is to become a strategic and impactful leader, I highly encourage you to start seeking out these opportunities for alignment and collaboration. While you support and represent your practice, your first team are your cross-functional peers.
The AI hype is real
It’s hard to avoid the topic of AI these days, so I wasn’t surprised that AI was a hot topic at the Leadership Forum. The message seemed to be, “If you’re not using AI, you’re falling behind.” However, I’m a bit disappointed to see that the majority of the discussions focus on using AI as a productivity hack, looking at how it can make us smarter at the individual, practitioner level.
I think the real promise of AI is in bringing large-scale innovation. How can this technology bring us a paradigm shift that’s the modern-day equivalent of the Industrial Revolution? I hope to see more content around this topic in the future!
I recently partnered up with Dr. Shahzia Holtom to share some thoughts on the UK’s AI plan. Give it a read if you’d like to learn more about how governments and other organisations might start to apply this type of big picture thinking to AI innovation and transformation.
There’s magic in gathering in person
Finally, I’d be remiss not to mention how wonderful it was to gather and connect in person. With all the technology we have available to us, it’s easy to forget about that particular alchemy that occurs when we hang out with other humans. It was inspiring to be a part of so many conversations and connections, catching up with old friends, and I’ll continue to seek out more opportunities to do this in the coming months.
