How the “Product Leadership Programme” Transforms Product Careers

  • Updated: 17 July 2024
  • 3 minutes
Article written by

Returning to school when you're a seasoned professional with significant responsibilities might seem surprising. However, many Product leaders walk the halls of INSEAD in Fontainebleau every year to attend the prestigious "Product Leadership Programme" (PLP) and take their careers to the next level.

Product Management is no longer just about hands-on tasks. The increasing importance of digital over the past few years has made this field a central issue, now having its place in the board committee of companies. Since 2018, the European Institute of Business Administration (INSEAD) has been partnering with Peak Product, a Swiss expert in Product Management, to offer a five-day training designed for senior executives: the Product Leadership Programme (PLP).

The goal of this program is clear: to help participants become accomplished leaders. "What participants usually have in common is that they're Product leaders who are about to take a next big step in their career or they might just have been appointed to lead a larger team or a larger Product portfolio", explained Laurène Racine when she was VP Product & Operations for Peak Product. " A huge part of the value of the program really comes from getting to know these other people that are at a similar career stage and from building up that community that can really last much beyond the program itself."

The participants' profiles are quite similar. On one side are Chief Product Officers, Vice Presidents of Product, Heads of Product, and other profiles with equivalent levels of responsibility, who want to go even further in their careers. On the other, there are senior Product Managers transitioning to leadership roles. "At that level not only strong Product Management skills but also strong leadership skills are really essential for the success of that individual, their teams and their organization", continues Laurène Racine. "So that's why it was really important to us to offer a program that combines these two elements, ensuring that we can really support Product leaders with a wide range of skills that are needed as they're making these strides in their careers."

This sentiment resonates with Rémi Guyot's experience. The founder of “Discovery Discipline” recalls why he chose to join the program in 2018. "I had just become VP Product at BlaBlaCar. I felt like I was 'floating in the suit,' missing many elements to manage the position correctly", he recalls. "Three things convinced me: INSEAD's reputation, the fact that it was aimed at leaders, and the speakers, who were professionals from renowned companies." And clearly, he does not regret his choice: "It exceeded my expectations. I didn't expect such richness and the strength of the network you create. I made several connections that have been useful to me later. Most importantly, I came out more confident in my abilities and more capable of making strong, sometimes difficult decisions."

💪 Acquiring the (real) skills of a Product leader

Training sessions are held twice a year in small groups. The next one is scheduled for late November 2024, with a focus on three areas of progression. First, work on high-level Product skills, such as Product organization scaling, Product portfolio management, development of an effective Product strategy, and management of company growth. Next, leadership improvement. Participants are invited to identify and develop their own leadership style, are guided in order to establish natural authority, to understand and use their network, and to communicate with a board.

Lastly, the PLP includes sessions aimed at helping trainees tie everything they have learned together to build a personalized action plan. Rémi Guyot remembers it as a "mix of theory, particularly on how the organization works, and hands-on situations in near-real conditions, where you learn about yourself and how others perceive you. This is fundamental when you hold a leadership position. The precision of feedback, some of which were complete blind spots for me, was incredible," he still marvels years later.

We have unfiltered discussions and high-level feedback, which are very hard to find elsewhere.

The whole program is led by industry professionals with real legitimacy, as highlighted by the program director Noah Askin: "What's really nice about this program from my perspective is we bring in guest faculty members who are seasoned product leaders who've had decades of experience in leading Product functions in companies like LinkedIn, Whatsapp, Meta or Google". Rémi Guyot considers these moments of exchange as one of the highlights of the training. "The fact that these are private sessions, without recordings, frees up speech. As a result, we have unfiltered discussions and high-level feedback, which are very hard to find elsewhere."

Now a trainer, he still appreciates these moments of exchange among participants. "We almost never have the opportunity to have freewheeling discussions with professionals of this caliber. The diversity of profiles is incredible: nationality, company size, organizational maturity... you learn a lot about your job", details the founder of Discovery Discipline before concluding: "For future trainees, you need to go in with a lot of energy, even appetite. And above all, don't go thinking it will be a walk in the park; it will surely be the most intense week of your year!"

Participate in the next session of the Product Leadership Programme offered by INSEAD in November.

cover_pm-1

La newsletter Product Management

Contenus exclusifs, actualités, humeurs, devenez incollables en Produit