Why ‘CEO of the Product’ Is a Misleading Metaphor

And a suggestion of what to say instead

The Appeal of the ‘CEO of the Product’ Mindset

The phrase “Product Managers are the CEOs of the product” is a phrase I’ve often heard and certainly gets thrown around a lot. It’s an attractive idea—who doesn’t want to be seen as a leader? But in reality, I’ve found that this phrase can be more harmful than helpful. It suggests a level of authority that product managers simply don’t have. It also downplays the importance of collaboration, making it seem like PMs are the sole decision-makers.

Having said that, there are situations where a product manager has to step up and take the lead more actively. I’ve seen this firsthand in transformation settings, where teams aren’t used to decision-making autonomy. In these cases, the PM isn’t just a facilitator—they have to bridge gaps, push for change, and create the conditions for empowerment. And they need to be supported when attempting to do that.

Why ‘CEO of the Product’ Is Misleading

• PMs don’t have unilateral decision-making power
  Unlike a CEO, a PM doesn’t own budgets, not until they are quite senior, and they don’t own hiring, or final calls on company strategy. They work through influence, not authority. If a PM walks in thinking they’re the boss, they’ll quickly find themselves frustrated, and maybe even worse.

• It downplays the role of engineering, design, and business leadership
  Great products don’t happen because one person dictates what to build. The best decisions come from the intersection of engineering, design, data, and business. Treating a PM as a “mini-CEO” can create unhealthy team dynamics, where engineers and designers feel like execution arms rather than thought partners, each playing a pivotal role in discovery and delivery.

• It sets the wrong expectations for early-career PMs
  New PMs who internalize this mindset may focus on owning rather than aligning. The best product managers listen more than they speak, facilitate decision-making rather than force it, and create clarity rather than dictate direction.

But Sometimes, the PM Needs to Step Up

This is where the conversation gets more nuanced. In well-functioning product organizations, PMs are not just connectors and facilitators—they are deeply involved in shaping strategy, defining priorities, and driving business impact.

In my experience at Booking.com—one of the most mature product organizations I’ve worked in—PMs didn’t just ensure alignment. We were deep in the data, formulating hypotheses, prioritizing them rigorously, crafting OKRs, building business cases, and ultimately being the main drivers behind our team’s impact. The role went far beyond facilitation—it required strong analytical thinking, decision-making, and ownership of outcomes.

However, in companies undergoing transformation—where product teams aren’t used to this level of ownership—PMs often need to bridge the gap between what empowered product management looks like and what the organization is ready for.

I’ve been in situations where engineers and designers weren’t used to being part of strategic decisions. They were accustomed to receiving requirements rather than shaping them. In these cases, the PM’s job isn’t just to “influence” but to actively bridge this gap.

This means:

1. Stepping in to make decisions when necessary – When teams aren’t ready to take ownership, the PM has to drive things forward while also showing what good decision-making looks like. If no one is making a call, sometimes you have to.

2. Working tirelessly to shift the mindset – Long term, the goal isn’t to make decisions alone but to bring the team into that process. This takes constant coaching, pushing for transparency, and creating opportunities for engineers and designers to step up.

3. Ensuring business leadership supports this shift – One of the biggest blockers to empowered teams is a business culture that expects PMs to simply deliver against top-down mandates. PMs have to advocate not just within their teams but also upwards, aligning leadership around why empowerment matters. This is easier said than done and less senior PMs need to be supported, unblocked and protected by senior leaders.

The Hidden Challenge: Role Clarity

Another often-overlooked challenge is the assumption that product, design, and engineering teams naturally align on roles and responsibilities. This is rarely the case, especially in organizations undergoing change.

Without a clear foundation for how teams work together, PMs and their teams waste time navigating ambiguity, debating ownership, and sometimes clashing over who does what. I’ve seen teams lose momentum—not because they lacked skills or motivation, but because no one had defined the basic expectations of their collaboration.

This is where strong product, design, and engineering leadership must step in to:

• Define the way of working upfront, ensuring alignment on who drives what.

• Set expectations for decision-making, avoiding gaps or overlaps in responsibility.

• Provide clarity so that PMs and their teams aren’t constantly reinventing the wheel.

Without this, PMs end up firefighting internal conflicts instead of focusing on building great products. A product team should be debating customer problems, not figuring out who owns a backlog or who should talk to stakeholders.

A Better Metaphor: PMs as Connective Tissue, With the Ability to Lead When Needed

So if PMs aren’t CEOs, what are they?

I’ve found two metaphors to be more useful:

🔹 PMs as connective tissue – They ensure that strategy, execution, and user needs are aligned. They don’t control everything, but without them, things fall apart.

🔹 PMs as transformation catalysts – In organizations undergoing change, PMs have to lead by example, pushing teams toward empowerment rather than waiting for it to happen.

The truth is, product management isn’t about either control or pure facilitation. It’s about knowing when to lead decisively and when to step back and empower others—and that balance depends entirely on the context.