What are the best habits to do when working with C-Suite?

Working with the C-suite is all about clarity, accountability, and perspective. A few habits that have really helped me: Start from the top down. Always lead with the “so what” - what’s the core takeaway or insight you want them to walk away with? Then unpack the what and how. Think about: What would the C-suite care most about? What decision or awareness are you driving? Keep it focused, but layered. Provide the high-level summary up front, but also give resources or links to dive deeper if nee ...Read More

Be helpful, be clear, be gone.  Let me expand.  Helpfulness: execs need your help with in-depth expertise and knowledge in your local area of product/business. You can show it in three ways:  Provide simple, specific, data-driven and context-aware insights when presenting/writing or answering questions from the C-suite Raise your hand if you can help with something Make it easy for execs to understand and keep up-to-date with your area of product/business Clarity: See my answer on common pitfall ...Read More

Three best habits to follow Clear communication strategies on why you are meeting, what problem you are trying to solve, what is the solution in your mind and the reasoning behind it. At the end of the day, they'd want to know how they can help so make it explicitly clear. Absorb the chaos and churn clarity - it's important to have control and context at all times even if there is confusion amongst the larger audience. Maintain the balance of speaking time and listening time - don't take the who ...Read More

In all of my interactions with the C-suite, I've found a handful of consistent principals that I try to ensure I'm hitting no matter the engagement type: Listen & adapt: So much of our jobs as Product Managers center around our ability to adapt our messaging to our audience. Since interactions with C-Suite are generally fewer and further between, you need to listen very actively to know how your message is landing and where their understanding is. Active adaptation really makes a huge differ ...Read More

Every interaction you have with your c-suite, set the context before jumping into content. A number of times 5-10mins into the meeting, the conversation derails into a completely different topic. That is because the c-suite may have a different priority in mind and your discussion is not addressing it. To avoid this, do the following at the beginning of every c-suite discussion: Take the time to prepare a 2-3 mins intro at the start of every c-suite meeting. What is the meeting focus area, how d ...Read More

Not sure these can be called “best” habits. Just some principles I try to follow myself. Take a top management perspective. This means elevating your thinking to that level, and thinking beyond the tunnel view of your product. To do that well, you have to be curious and keep tabs of what’s going on across the company (products). You will also need to have a good understanding of the business. Practice thinking “what would I do if I were running this product/ business unit/ company?” Clear and co ...Read More