Focused product strategy and teams
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TLDR
In this episode, Blair LaCorte—seasoned leader, investor, former CEO of AEye, and coach to 50+ CEOs— breaks down the keys to building product teams that win. Blair shares insights on aligning product strategy with company goals, the importance of saying no and making trade-offs, and why team culture and people patterns matter more than anything. He draws on experiences across tech, aviation, private equity, and defense, offering memorable lessons on scaling organizations, product leadership, and the human side of performance (including when and how to part ways with team members). The episode closes with advice for product managers seeking purpose, growth, and ways to elevate themselves and their teams.
Introduction
Whether you’re a product manager trying to get your team aligned, or a product leader striving to translate executive vision into actionable roadmaps, this episode addresses the real challenges you face every day.
You’ll hear from a leader who has built high-performing product teams and grown organizations across different industries, from taking autonomous vehicle tech company AEye through a $1.8 billion IPO while launching products across automotive and defense markets, to scaling XOJET into one of the fastest-growing companies in aviation history. He’s worked with over 40 companies as a private equity Operating Partner at TPG and now coaches 50+ CEOs through his Pinnacle Performance Elite mastermind. His career started in tech at Sun Microsystems and Autodesk and has spanned hardware, software, and services. If anyone knows what separates high-performing product teams from the rest, it’s our guest, Blair LaCorte.
Summary of Concepts Discussed for Product Managers
Focused Product Strategy & Team Alignment:
Success starts with product managers who grasp both internal operations and external market realities, aligning product decisions tightly to company strategy. Focus is critical—great leaders say no more than yes.
Scaling & Market Fit:
Blair details how autonomous vehicle tech company AEye shifted from pure autonomous vehicles to ADAS (Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems), aligning their tech roadmap with realistic market cycles and cash flow needs.
Team Dynamics & Culture:
For a product team, the type of culture is less important than the consistency of the culture and the consistency of the team. Teams with alignment and clear expectations outperform more talented but chaotic groups. Winning builds healthy cultures; the feeling of progress is essential.
Hard Choices & Leadership:
Removing the wrong team members is tough but essential. Blair emphasizes the importance of honest feedback, quick decision-making, and quickly firing weaker performers to allow the rest of the team to move forward.
Personal Growth & Knowing Yourself:
Blair dives into psychology, personality frameworks, and patterns—urging product leaders to understand themselves, seek feedback, show vulnerability, and continually develop their Johari Window (the intersection of self-perception and how others see you).
Technology vs. Humanity:
As technology advances rapidly, keeping humanity at the center becomes more important than ever. Product managers must weigh the impact of their products, striving for both business value and societal good.
Useful Links
Innovation Quote
“The biggest threat to mankind is when our technology outstrips our humanity.” – Albert Einstein
Application Questions
- How do you decide which product opportunities or features to say no to, and what’s your process for making those tough calls?
- In your experience, what factors contribute most to a consistent and winning team culture? How do you maintain this as the team grows or changes direction?
- What practices have you found effective (or ineffective) when giving feedback or offboarding team members who aren’t the right fit?
- How do you identify your own blind spots as a product leader? Which personality or feedback frameworks have helped you most?
- How could you practice being more vulnerable as well as accepting criticism?
Bio
Blair LaCorte is a groundbreaking and battle-scarred business executive and transformational leader who has leveraged his curiosity, collaborative nature and his competitive spirit into an unconventional and remarkable career journey.
His experiences are also very unique from a functional perspective having taken on full time executive roles across a wide spectrum of business stages, ranging from startup to growth and from restructuring to liquidity events including sales, mergers and several IPO’s.
Thanks!
Thank you for taking the journey to product mastery and learning with me from the successes and failures of product innovators, managers, and developers. If you enjoyed the discussion, help out a fellow product manager by sharing it using the social media buttons you see below.
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