Oct 17, 2025
I've seen senior leaders talk about empowerment until it means giving up control.
It's a problem if you want to build a product-led tech company.
Product teams get blocked when decisions pile up in leadership, waiting for a detailed walkthrough and a sign-off. Instead of solving customer problems, shipping features, and fixing major bugs, they spend time in meetings secretly wishing they worked for a small startup instead.
Marty Cagan describes it well - moving from stakeholder-driven roadmaps to empowered teams trusted to solve problems through discovery.
The greater danger is clinging to control while competitors learn and ship faster than you. By the time you're comfortable, they've already taken your customers. Once that happens, no roadmap can save you. You're screwed.
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I'm a father of 3 from Sydney, a product and technology leader. I write about leadership, product management, technology and the messy reality of making work work.
I'm currently building and experimenting with a mildly alarming number of things. I also work as a fractional product leader, stepping in where the founder or CEO is still carrying product decisions on their own, and offer 1:1 product leadership coaching for senior PMs and emerging product leaders. I founded SoundingBoard, practical peer exchange for product people. Connect via LinkedIn, or follow me on X.
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