S2 | Episode #11 - Chiedza Muguti - Chief Product Officer at Alteos - "The Value of Time and Patience in Product Management"

The Technology Leadership Podcast

About Chiedza
Chiedza Muguti is an experienced product leader, coach, and mentor, currently working as Chief Product Officer at Alteos. With a background in business analysis, she has extensive knowledge working with engineers, QA architects, and delivery teams. As a product leader, she emphasises the importance of understanding engineers' technical needs and empathising with them to create a cohesive business unit.
Synopsis
In the latest episode of the Technology Leadership podcast, Chiedza Muguti, Chief Product Officer at Alteos, shares her insights on product leadership, based on her experiences. Chiedza talks about how her career took a pivotal turn when she transitioned from being a team member to a leader and had to work on self-validation for confidence. She stresses that product managers should have empathy and curiosity towards both customers and engineers to ensure the success of a project. By having empathy, patience, and effective communication skills, product managers can optimize their relationship with engineers and create successful products.
Key Takeaways

• As a product manager, it's important to optimize the relationship with engineers and collaborate with them for the best possible outcome.
• Empathy and curiosity towards engineers is just as important as having it towards customers. Understanding the challenges that engineers face can help product managers create better solutions for the product.
• Technical skills can be learned on the job with patience and time. Product managers should not be afraid of not knowing everything about the technical aspect of the product.
• To break down walls and build bridges between product managers and engineers, it's important to understand the product development process and ask the right questions. This way, product managers can better understand the engineers' work and collaborate more effectively.
• Communication is key to successful collaboration between product managers and engineers. The language and tone used in communication can greatly affect the success of those conversations. Product managers should be mindful of how questioned are positioned and worded.

Episode Outline
{00:09] Meet Chiedza
[02:22] Managing confidence
[10:52] Challenges between Engineers and Product Managers
[17:20] Being patient with yourself
[20:01] The Importance of asking the right questions and setting expectations
[26:30] The first 100 days of your career
[29:18] Product management guidance
[38:36] Advice to new product managers