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Years ago, as a newly minted product leader, the CEO asked me to update our reporting feature,
“We have an Executive Account Review with Big Customer Z in a month,” he shared. “I just got off a call with them and the lack of visibility into Metric X has been a real sore point for them.”
“It’s imperative this meeting is successful,” he stressed. “We just need a handful of fields added to the existing report. That should solve the problem.”
And then it came:
“Can we get those fields added in the next three weeks so I have time to review the output before the meeting?”
I took a deep breath. Then launched into my answer:
“That would jeopardize the current projects we’re working on and delay Release Elephant. We agreed that projects Dog, Cat, and Mouse would be the priorities for this month. If we move away from those now, Account Management will be upset. Besides, it will take some time to identify the right set of requirements. We should talk to other customers to see if this is a need for them too. Then we’ll need to take it through our prioritization process, followed by grooming to get a story point assessment and schedule it for a sprint.”
Guess what happened?
We ended up doing it anyway.
The CEO just went directly to the CTO and pressured him to do it.
I had lost credibility. I had taught the CEO that it was just best to go to the CTO directly to make things happen.
Where did I fail?
I didn’t speak the language of MONEY.
CEOs Think in Money, Not Features
Your CEO knows which are your most profitable products.
They understand how the business works, how your product flows through the business to customers, and how that process makes money for the company.
When making decisions and communicating, they don’t use fancy terminology.
They stick to the fundamentals of business — i.e., the basics of money making:
Growing profitably
ROI and cash generation
Satisfying customer needs better than competitors
This focus guides everything:
Setting company priorities
Identifying gaps and flaws in the business model
Evaluating new business opportunities
Pursuing the best bets by taking what already exists and combining it in a different way to fill a market need
You may be nodding along because intuitively this makes sense. And, yet, when PMs open their mouths, they don’t speak to any of these.
The Disconnect: Product Speak vs. Money Speak
PMs live in the world of requirements, stories, personas, prioritization, backlogs, sprints, engineering capacity, UI/UX, tech debt, and releases.
And, as a result, you speak an entirely different language than the CEO.
All of these things may be operationally relevant. And your CEO gets that. But they also don’t care.
That’s why you need to learn how to translate your work into language your CEO (and other executives) actually care about.
This one thing can be the difference in:
Getting your proposals approved
Earning credibility
Being appreciated
Gaining a promotion
So today I’m going to talk about the 3 things your CEO cares about and how you can connect your work to them.
What You’ll Learn Today:
CEOs don’t actually care about the craft of product management
CEO speak — and how to translate
CEO metrics and compensation — and how they shape their thinking
The power of Economic Storytelling for Product Managers
Real-world example
Career benefits for Product Managers
PLUS:
Companion Learning Guides (paid subscribers):
Briefing doc
Study guide and glossary of key terms
Premium Career Development Toolkit (Inner Circle Members only):
15-min audio podcast
5-min video explainer
CEO Communication Playbook
Disruptive Exec Request Triage Playbook
Product→Money Translation Framework
Product Investment Proposal Template (for exec buy-in)
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Click Here to Unlock Cool BenefitsA Paid Subscription also gets you:
- Subscriber-only comment section
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