Leading with Curiosity
I used to think leadership meant having the right answers fast. If I could solve problems quickly and give crisp directives, the team would hit outcomes more predictably. Over time, I learned the harder truth: certainty often feels safe, but it can limit growth.
Every PM can give a recommendation and defend it. That is baseline behavior. But teams do not excel just by following instructions. They excel when they are pushed to think better, see more, and choose smarter. That shift from answer-driven leadership to question-driven leadership is one of the cleanest markers between good and great.
Great PMs treat curiosity as a leadership skill. They do not walk into rooms ready to declare they know everything. They walk into rooms ready to learn. They know that a direct answer ends exploration, while a question opens possibilities no one anticipated.
I learned this lesson the hard way at eBay. I was ready to push an approach for a new landing page that had worked before. I was confident it would deliver. Then someone asked: “What if we are misunderstanding users’ motivations?” The meeting changed instantly. Instead of passive agreement, the room shifted into engaged curiosity. We uncovered a major pain point I had missed, and the team’s insight reshaped our entire approach. That moment taught me that you don’t win by giving answers; you win by expanding the boundaries of how a team thinks.
Great PMs lead with curiosity. They reframe problems patiently to find the right one to solve. They respect the team’s expertise and use questions to distribute intelligence across the room. They make the invisible visible by turning gut feelings into testable hypotheses. Curiosity is not about signaling ignorance; it is about unlocking better thinking in others.
This is the craft. It is also the job.
I codified my 15+ years of experience leading orgs at Meta, Mozilla, GoDaddy, and eBay in my latest book, Level Up: From Good Product Manager to Great Product Manager.
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