COURSE · ENROLMENTS NOW OPEN
The Product Leadership Leap
You’re already good at your job. So why aren’t they choosing you?
A career development course for product managers who want to make the leap into people leadership, such as Group Product Manager, Head of Product or Product Director.
Do you want to make the leap into people leadership, and keep getting overlooked?
Perhaps you applied for a role, and your colleague got it (and now they’re your boss ouch!).
Or someone external “with more experience” was hired in over the top of you leaving you to wonder how you’ll ever get the experience if you’re never given the chance.
Or perhaps you’re a product manager and want to be smarter about how you position yourself for a future in people leadership?
THE PROBLEM
Sound familiar?
When asking for feedback about what you need to do to be considered for people leadership, often the reasons shared with you are vague or something you have very little control over. When you ask how you can get people leadership experience in your current role, the response leaves you feeling like you have a better chance at winning the lottery!
This happened to me earlier in my career, and I found it incredibly frustrating. Talking to other product management professionals, this problem is still very real today.
I’ve researched the market and found traditional Australian courses that focus purely on the functional mechanics of being a leader once you arrive, like managing team resources, headcount, and complex product strategies. Which are all great, if you’re already in the role and have a chance to practice them.
But I couldn’t find a program that focuses entirely on the missing puzzle piece: the internal politics, senior stakeholder visibility, how you’re perceived, and personal mindset shifts required for the people making hiring decisions to consider you for the role in the first place. That’s why I designed this course for you.
I teach you what I learned through years of trial and error, alongside what I’ve learned researching subconscious bias and the unwritten rules that I only discovered after making that leap myself.
While I have the utmost respect for Silicon Valley greats – and use their frameworks for the product craft daily – landing a leadership role requires a different playbook. You don't need to be better at product; you are already great at it. You need someone to give you the chance to lead, and standard product courses simply don't teach you how to get that chance.
Australian Made
The Product Leadership Leap is explicitly built for Product Managers who work within the unique dynamics of the Australian tech landscape.
Curriculum Focus
The curriculum focuses specifically on career progression inside product organisations: how to build visibility, influence senior stakeholders, attract sponsorship and demonstrate leadership readiness before they have the next title.
The question we’re really answering is: How do I become perceived as someone the organisation should promote into Product leadership?
THE CURRICULUM • LEARNING OBJECTIVES
In this course, you will learn:
01
How I made the leap from SPM into people leader, and eventually into CPO. One strategy in particular helped me get approached for leadership roles.
How to get to the heart of what could be holding you back from getting to the next level. Unpack vague feedback and learn how to seek structured feedback against common leadership competencies.
02
03
The unspoken things that can hold you back from leadership, and what you can do about them. Explore how perceptions, unconscious bias and unwritten workplace rules can influence who gets considered for leadership opportunities.
How to take control of your career with techniques and strategies to help you get the visibility and build sponsorship needed for the next level. Learn practical ways to make your impact visible, build influence and sponsorship with decision-makers, and develop a plan to start demonstrating leadership potential before the next opportunity arises.
04
What people who've made the leap, and those involved in leadership selection, wish aspiring leaders knew. Hear different perspectives on what helps people get noticed, considered and selected for their first leadership role.
05
You'll leave with a clearer understanding of what might be holding you back, practical techniques to build your leadership visibility and influence, and a plan for what to do differently.
This group cohort is capped at 18 participants, so you’ll have plenty of opportunity to connect with peers, discuss challenges, and get ideas to help you advance your career.
Who you’ll learn from
Hi, I’m Bec Badcock. I’ve made the leap from Senior Product Manager into people leadership, and eventually Chief Product Officer.
I was also a lead instructor at General Assembly, teaching its 10-week Product Management course, earning the #1 NPS in Australia (93.7). I’ve also created and delivered training for teams over the past 20 years, including product and technology at THE ICONIC, Woolworths Group and Marketplacer.
I’ve been mentoring and coaching product managers and product leaders since 2020. This course brings together what I learned making that leap myself and helping others work towards it.
COURSE · WHEN & WHERE
Online, at a friendly time
Friday mornings
9:00am – 11:30am AEDT
Tuesday evenings
6:00pm – 8:30pm AEDT
The course is entirely online via video call. The sessions are timed for Australian Eastern Time (AEST/AEDT). Choose your preferred time when you enrol.
There will need to be a minimum number of people for the cohorts to run.
WHY DO THIS COURSE
You can spend another year of trial and error, or you can take control of your career and get yourself better prepared for the next time a GPM, Head of, or Director role is available.
You have an advantage – you already know the business, and you are ready to take the step up – you just need the people making the hiring decisions to see you in the same way.
Who is this course for?
Product Management professionals (PM, SPM, PPM) who want to make the leap into people management, but aren’t sure how.
Who is this course not for?
GPMs, Heads of, VPs, Product Directors who are already in a people leadership role. The skills you need to master at this point are completely different and there are already plenty of courses on the market that cover these skills.
OPTIONAL ADD ON · LEADERSHIP ASSESSMENT
Find out how you compare to other managers and professionals on common competencies hiring managers look for when selecting people leaders.
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We’re all unique people, with different strengths and, let's be honest, areas we could improve. It’s all part of our professional growth. The problem is, we very rarely get the opportunity to see how we compare to others. And sometimes, it’s hard to know.
But what happens when one of those weaker areas happens to be something you need to get better at in order to be an effective leader?
And what happens when you’re not aware of what that area is?
This gives you a clearer view of your strengths, as well as the areas you might need to work on to become an effective leader. From there, you can decide: is this something I want to change?
Because behavioural shifts take time and practice, it’s better to get started now.
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The SHL Occupational Personality Questionnaire (OPQ32r) measures your preferred behavioural style at work across 32 specific personality characteristics, looking at relationships with people, thinking style, and feelings and emotions. It’s backed by more than 90 independent validation studies over 25 years, across 20 countries and 40 industries – evidence that the OPQ32 is a powerful predictor of workplace performance.
After completing it, you don’t just receive generic personality report like with many personality tests on the internet. We’ll map your profile directly against common competencies companies assess when selecting people leaders.
This gives you a clearer view of your likely strengths, as well as the areas you might need to work on to become an effective leader. From there, you can decide – is this something I want to change?
Because behavioural shifts take time and practice, it’s better to get started now.
This tool is strictly restricted to accredited practitioners, so you can’t just buy it yourself online. In a past life (we all have them in Product!), I ran the psychometrics division at an HR consultancy, where the OPQ32 was commonly used when recruiting managers and executive leaders.
Getting some practice now can be useful too. Should you be asked to complete one in a future selection process, you’ll have reflected on your behavioural tendencies and strategies, rather than caught thinking on the spot when they start to probe.
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Complete the SHL OPQ32r online. Takes around 25 mins.
Have a 1:1 debrief with an accredited practitioner who’ll guide you through your results and compare them to competencies commonly assessed when selecting leaders.
Get a report to keep, refer back to and use as part of your professional development.
Please note: This image is for illustrative purposes. The full OPQ32 Universal Competency Report is ~9 pages with more details for each competency. Download a sample report here.
Join the waitlist for future cohorts
Interested in learning how to get to people leadership? Fill out the form and you’ll be notified when new course dates are available.