As the world becomes increasingly networked and business becomes ever more digital, the role of the product leader is critically important. But leadership is hard. Leading teams or organizations that design and build digital products and services is even harder. Leadership of industry in the 20th century was defined by a top-down, command and control methodology. The introduction of Lean set in motion a change of attitude toward leadership that focused attention more on self-improvement and empowerment of workers on the line. This new way of thinking has gradually found its way into the knowledge economy in the form or methods like Agile, Lean Startup, and Design Thinking. This talk attempts to summarize what we know about effective leadership in the 21st century as applied specifically to the role of product leader, drawing from a diverse array of fields including lean manufacturing, neuroscience, psychology, and software engineering.

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Sam McAfee is a Silicon veteran for 20 years. He helps companies build and scale new digital products, find product-market fit, and build and improve product development capabilities. He works with product executives and teams to develop and ship new digital products from ideas to product-market fit and beyond. He's worked with companies large and small, including Adobe, Sharethrough, Teach for America, Anthem, PG&E, Blackstone, Credit Sesame and many others. He wrote the book, Startup Patterns, and is a regular speaker at product and engineering events around the US. At work or in the community, he is committed to making the world a better and more livable place for all people.