Being a great individual contributor and being a great leader require almost entirely different skill sets — and the transition between them trips up more talented product people than any technical challenge ever does. Product Leadership is what closes that gap: the ability to set direction, earn trust across functions that don't report to you, and get an engineering team, a design team, and a sales team pulling in the same direction without forcing it. The Product Leadership Training Course, delivered by The British Academy for Training and Development, is built for product professionals stepping into, or already navigating, that exact challenge.

This course treats leadership as a practical, learnable discipline rather than a personality trait some people simply have. Participants explore how to lead cross-functional teams through influence rather than authority, how to build genuine trust with engineering, design, and business stakeholders who all have competing priorities, and how to make and communicate difficult product decisions in a way that keeps a team aligned rather than resentful. The course also addresses what "product excellence" actually looks like in practice — not a slogan, but a consistent standard a leader upholds even under deadline pressure and conflicting demands. Participants leave with practical leadership tools they can apply immediately with their own teams, not abstract leadership theory disconnected from the realities of product work.

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Apply Product Leadership principles to lead teams without relying on formal authority
• Build genuine trust and alignment across cross-functional teams with competing priorities
• Communicate difficult product decisions in ways that maintain team buy-in
• Navigate conflict between engineering, design, marketing, and business stakeholders
• Set a clear product vision that genuinely guides day-to-day team decisions
• Coach and develop product managers and team members under their influence
• Maintain a consistent standard of product excellence under real-world pressure
• Manage upward effectively, influencing senior stakeholders and leadership

Target Group

• Senior product managers stepping into leadership responsibilities
• Heads of product and directors of product leading multiple teams
• Product leads managing cross-functional collaboration on a daily basis
• Founders and business leaders overseeing product organisations
• Team leads seeking to strengthen influence-based leadership skills
• Professionals transitioning from individual contributor to product leadership roles

• The Shift from Contributor to Leader
• Why strong individual product skills don't automatically translate to leadership
• Redefining success as a leader rather than as an individual contributor
• Leading Cross-Functional Teams Through Influence
• Building credibility with teams that don't report directly to you
• Earning genuine buy-in instead of relying on positional authority
• Building Trust Across Competing Priorities
• Understanding what engineering, design, and business stakeholders each actually need
• Resolving competing priorities without damaging cross-functional trust
• Communicating Difficult Product Decisions
• Delivering unpopular decisions in ways that preserve team alignment
• Explaining trade-offs honestly instead of avoiding hard conversations
• Setting a Product Vision That Actually Guides Work
• Crafting a vision specific enough to inform daily decisions, not just inspire a slide
• Keeping teams anchored to the vision when priorities shift under pressure
• Coaching and Developing Product Talent
• Supporting the growth of product managers and team members under your influence
• Balancing hands-on guidance with genuine autonomy
• Managing Conflict Within Product Teams
• Addressing disagreement constructively before it damages team dynamics
• Facilitating resolution between stakeholders with genuinely different goals
• Sustaining Product Excellence Under Pressure
• Defining what product excellence actually looks like in daily practice
• Holding standards firm during deadline pressure and resource constraints
• Managing Upward and Influencing Leadership
• Communicating product strategy and trade-offs persuasively to senior leadership
• Securing support and resources for the product organisation's priorities