Ibrahim BashirCreator @ Run the Business

The Relationships That Keep Product Leaders #substack #shorts

16 Oct 2026 · 1 min

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In this short commentary, Ibrahim Bashir explains that a Head of Product’s job security depends not only on a good relationship with the CEO but also—perhaps more importantly—on strong, collaborative relationships with cross‑functional partners such as Sales, Customer Success, Marketing, and Engineering. He notes that while other functions are measured by clear, quantifiable outcomes (pipeline, deals, CSAT), product’s impact is harder to quantify, giving product leaders a bit more runway but also making their value harder to prove. Therefore, building bridges, delivering value to these partners, and aligning with their goals is essential for a product leader to retain their role.

Chapters

So, you know, if a head of product gets along with the CEO, it's great. And if they don't, they're out basically. And I would say one thing I've learned from advising a lot of these people and my own experiences is it's not simply about the relationship between the head of product and the CEO. It's as much about the relationship with the cross-functional partners. So how does your head of sales perceive you? How does your head of customer success perceive you? How does your marketing leader perceive you in addition to sort of your head of engineering? And the reason that matters is All of those people are designed to bring the product to market and monetize it and expand on it. And the buck stops with product. And, you know, I've talked about this before in a previous Five Minute Friday, which is every other function in the company has sort of a bar that they're held to in terms of more marketers means more pipeline, more sellers means more deals, more customer success reps means better CSAT scores. And product is different in that every product person you bring in is supposed to give you more leverage, but that's a little bit hard to quantify. And so product in a way gets a pass and more runway than some of these other roles. On the flip side, building bridges and creating value for your cross-functional partners is the way to sort of make sure you keep the job as a product leader.