Kate Leto - Product EQ: the secret sauce to hiring great product people

How we hire for Product Management isn't working.

Product teams and organisations focus on finding candidates with specific technical skills like building roadmaps, mastering frameworks for strategy, and OKRS. They look for someone who went to the same school, worked at the same place, who knows who they know.

We need to shift our narrative of what is essential in the people who envision and build our products to include human skills like leadership, emotional intelligence, resilience, self-awareness, and much more. We need to look for those who will add to our culture, and make it better, not just replicate the status quo.

In this talk, Kate will pull from her experience in product management, org design and leadership coaching to introduce practical tools that will change not only how an organisation hires, but how they think of a healthy product management culture and essential product skills.

NB: Kate will be joining us from the UK, so in the interest of a mutually friendly timezone, this will be a lunchtime ProductTank. Our first!

About Kate - https://www.kateleto.com/
Kate Leto’s product management, org design, and marketing background spans more than 25 years. She has had a front-row seat to the evolving ways products are discovered, defined, built, and delivered and now takes her hands-on experience into organizations of all shapes and sizes as a consultant, coach, and advisor; helping to create authentic, high-performing cultures, teams, and products. Her consulting experience has taken her around the world, guiding clients that range from disruptive startups to Fortune 500 companies. Kate’s first book, "Hiring Product Managers: Using Product EQ to go beyond culture and skills", will be available in September through Sense & Respond Press. https://www.senseandrespondpress.com/product-eq