Course Overview

Leading and Implementing Product Management is a leadership-focused program designed to help senior leaders design, align, and operationalize product management as a business capability,  not just a role, function, or set of practices.

Many organizations invest in product management training yet struggle to see measurable impact. The issue is rarely individual skill alone. It’s misaligned leadership expectations, unclear decision rights, fragmented practices, and a lack of prioritization around what really needs to change.

This program addresses that gap by combining diagnostic insight, leadership alignment, and facilitated execution planning focused on near-term impact.

The program is grounded in Leading Product Management, authored by Steven Haines. The book provides the conceptual foundation for modern product leadership, organizational design, and governance, and is used as a reference point throughout the program to ensure a shared language and practical, experience-based perspective.

What This Program Does

This is not a product manager skills course.
It is a leadership alignment and implementation program.

Leaders work together to:

• Define the role of product management in their organization
• Clarify decision rights, accountability, and interfaces with other functions
• Align on which product management practices matter most
• Explicitly deprioritize practices that will not be addressed now
• Decide where focused effort will deliver the greatest impact

The emphasis is not on adopting a model, but on making intentional, realistic choices that fit the organization’s strategy, constraints, and maturity.

How This Program Is Used (Assessment → Alignment → Action)

Leading and Implementing Product Management is most often delivered after a Product Management Organizational Practices Assessment.

The assessment provides an objective view of:

• Which product management practices are underperforming
• Which practices leaders believe are most important
• Where misalignment exists across leadership perspectives
• Where performance gaps are constraining execution

The workshop then becomes a facilitated working session, where leaders interpret assessment findings together and use them to make prioritization decisions.

A key outcome of this program is the identification of a small number of high-impact, 90-day short-cycle improvement projects.

Rather than launching broad, multi-year transformations, leaders decide:

• Which practices to address now
• What success looks like within a 90-day horizon
• Who owns each initiative
• How progress will be measured

Concepts and practice models from Leading Product Management are used to frame discussions, interpret assessment findings, and guide prioritization decisions during the workshop.  This creates momentum, focus, and accountability, not just agreement.

Short-Cycle Capability Projects (90-Day Focus)

Based on assessment insights and leadership discussion, Sequent facilitates the definition of short-cycle capability projects designed to reduce organizational drag and strengthen product management effectiveness quickly. Further, this rapid-cycle approach allows leaders to test, learn, and adjust while building capability incrementally.

These projects typically:

• Target specific practice gaps (e.g., decision rights, prioritization, portfolio governance)
• Involve cross-functional participation
• Are scoped to produce visible improvement within 90 days
• Build organizational muscle through execution, not analysis

For the projects chosen by the leadership team, Sequent is the facilitator, not the solutions prescriber. 

The Capability Reinforcement Cycle

The Capability Reinforcement Cycle shows how assessment, leadership alignment, short-cycle execution, and training work together to build durable product management capability.

Who This Program Is For

This program is designed for:

• Chief Product Officers and Heads of Product building or recalibrating product organizations
• Executive and senior leadership teams sponsoring product management change
• Product, engineering, and business leaders who must align around shared practices
• Organizations introducing product management or scaling it across multiple product lines

It is especially valuable when product management exists, but outcomes remain inconsistent or unpredictable.

Benefits for Leadership Teams

Organizations use this program to achieve:

• A shared definition of product management’s role and scope
• Clear prioritization of product management practices
• Explicit decision rights and accountability
• Reduced friction across product, engineering, marketing, and sales
• A focused set of 90-day improvement initiatives
• Leadership confidence in how product management is supported and governed

The result is clarity, commitment, and measurable progress — not abstract transformation plans.

Delivery Format

Leading and Implementing Product Management is delivered as:

• A facilitated leadership workshop (onsite or virtual)
• Grounded in Organizational Practices Assessment results
• Structured as a working session, not a presentation
• Focused on decision-making, prioritization, and action planning

Programs are customized based on organizational size, industry, product complexity, and strategic priorities.

How This Fits Into Sequent’s Approach

Leading and Implementing Product Management connects assessment insight to execution.

• Organizational Practices Assessment identifies where systems and practices are limiting performance
• This program enables leaders to align, prioritize, and decide what to change
• Short-cycle capability projects turn decisions into action
• Training and coaching reinforce capability where needed

Together, this ensures that investments in product management development translate into real organizational improvement.

Frequently Asked Questions