Emerging technologies, such as generative AI are revolutionizing product design, delivery, go-to-market, growth and more. The fast-paced changes behoove product leaders to continuously learn and expand their exposure to new technologies. Unlike more static fields and functions, if you’re not continuously learning in product, you’re becoming irrelevant. To facilitate this learning, product leaders need communities where they can share knowledge and expertise, while learning experientially in real-world scenarios.

As the breadth and depth of product knowledge and expertise continues to expand and deepen, and as emerging technologies continue to be developed, nearly every industry, sector and organization will become tech-enabled. This expansion of product to new types of use cases, companies, problem scenarios and end users, behooves product leaders to become increasingly specialized. Similarly to how software engineers are now specialized by their technical expertise, product leaders will become more technically specialized but they also must specialize in non-technical skills, to a greater extent than engineers, because they interface with and influence a wide range of stakeholders, from customers to cross-functional executives. As the product landscape evolves rapidly and dynamically, so will the skills and insights required enable effective product design, delivery, and growth.

A critical question not enough companies ask is:  “Do we need a full-time employee, or do we need to achieve results with the right talent?”

Lack of clarity on technology product priorities, challenges and goals, combined with an insufficient assessment of the expertise and competencies required to “move the needle” on product, can prevent companies from identifying and engaging the right advisors, consultants or leaders. Clarity on product stage, domain, customers, tech stack and other facets can enable companies to find the leader(s) best suited to the priorities, challenges and goals at hand.

Women inherently possess key strengths for strong product leadership, including empathy and collaboration, but are often insufficiently recognized or under-valued for what they bring to the table. This is due, in part, to a lack of clarity on the value of non-technical skills.

• Cognitive empathy. Women have measurably higher levels of cognitive empathy, an essential and invaluable trait for leading product. High cognitive empathy gives leaders and managers an edge in understanding, predicting and planning for user and customer behaviors. Higher cognitive empathy, combined with an innate understanding of a population that influences or controls 80% of consumer spending, as well as 80% of healthcare spending, and that is an early adopter of technology solutions for business, healthcare and beyond, women product leaders’ insights are essential to improve go-to-market (GTM) and accelerate product-market fit.

• Collaboration and cross-functional engagement. Neuroscience demonstrates cognitive differences between men and women’s brains as well as evidence of how complementary the two types of brains are. BCG’s Women Are the X-Factor in New Ways of Working article discusses multiple research studies that find women to be more collaborative. Since women are also more adept at combining intuition and logic, women possess essential strengths for cross-functional collaboration and people-centric, or customer-centric, decision-making.

Highlighting the inherent strengths of women is important, since women continue to be broadly underestimated and financially under-valued in business and society. PAC’s data-driven Product-Leader Fit™ process provides the clarity and conviction that companies need to confidently source qualified product consultants and fractional or interim leaders.

As previously mentioned, without gender diversity, collective intelligence remains suboptimal, which results in sub-optimal product decision-making. On issues as complex as go-to-market and product-market-fit in increasingly competitive or noisy playing fields, sub-optimal ideas will only take a product so far.

In 2020, prior to the COVID-related exodus of women from tech, Accenture reported fewer women in tech than in 1984. It also reported that women are more likely to leave tech jobs before age 35. The most common practices companies typically use to address diversity, like unconscious bias training, have been largely found to be ineffective, according to Harvard Business Review. Meanwhile, McKinsey finds that external affinity groups can be quite effective.

Studies also show that gender diversity improves the bottom-line, including by increasing financial outperformance and sustaining profitability. A diversity deficit in any organization negatively impacts innovation, outcomes and the bottom-line.

Tech and tech-enabled companies wanting to fix diversity deficits and optimize their decision-making must be able to tap into resources that enable them to incorporate, over time and in a fit-for-purpose manner, the critical strengths women bring to the table.

For companies to navigate the future of work, McKinsey finds that empathy, agile learning, collaboration, cross-functionally achieved outcomes, and faster adoption of new technologies will be key.

With an increasingly decentralized talent pool, the future of work will not only include more remote and hybrid roles, work will become more fractional, too, opening the door to more advisory, consulting, and fractional and interim leadership opportunities.

A CIO magazine article finds that when companies need consultants, they will increasingly tap into ecosystems of independent consultants with specialized expertise, to deliver outcomes, as part of client engagements increasingly revolving around technology. With tech-enabled decentralized talent, independent experts are able to more efficiently deliver the “desired outcomes at a fraction of the cost by leveraging the latest technologies,” relative to the established, large consultancies.

Remote and decentralized work will increasingly enable talented women leaders in tech the ability to forge their own paths as independent consultants, advisors and coaches. Beyond work-life balance, women want the flexibility and freedom to work on products and solutions that are aligned with their strengths. They want to be valued and recognized for what they bring to the table. They want new pathways for pursuing work opportunities that allow them to flex their strengths, which not only adds more value to companies but is more personally rewarding and satisfying, too.