The Top Priorities & Business Transformations On Everyone’s Minds…
With the rapid rise of AI and other transformative technologies, businesses face mounting pressure to innovate, launch, and scale products and services to maintain a competitive edge. It’s no wonder that, in our latest market survey, launching a new product ranked as the #3 priority among the top business transformations planned for the year ahead.
Close behind, however, is a focus on achieving profitability—ranked #4—a goal where sales-led strategies and high-performing teams take center stage to drive results. Underwriting this all, however, is the fact that finding talent with the right skill set pulls ahead as the #1 obstacle to executing either.
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Many organizations are wondering: Are our current leaders equipped to bring either our product- or sales-led goals and vision to life? Can we confidently assess our team’s readiness—or spot the talent gaps that could jeopardize our progress for the new year? |
And with good reason — the stakes couldn’t be higher, and the ability to identify and address leadership gaps now can help determine whether your strategy thrives or falters in the future.
Implications for the Financial Services Sector
Specifically, in the financial services sector, the pressure to innovate is compounded by the highly regulated environment and rapidly evolving customer expectations.
Launching new products, such as digital banking solutions or AI-driven investment tools, requires not only speed but also precision to ensure compliance and trust. And success hinges on the ability of product-led leaders to drive innovation while sales-led leaders build the client relationships that fuel adoption and growth.
These dual demands underscore the critical need for leadership teams equipped to align strategy, execution, and talent development the right way.
Expert Insights On Product-Led vs. Sales Led Leadership For Finance Teams
Not all growth strategies are made equal.
Companies in the financial services sector pursuing product-led growth rely on entirely different leadership capabilities than those doubling down on a sales-led approach. However, many organizations often apply a blanket-search, meaning they may look for mostly the same qualities and skills and hope for the best. But if we've learned anything, it's that understanding these distinctions is critical to avoiding leadership gaps that could derail your transformation.
Insights From Julia Stefanie, Chief Product Officer at Treasure Financial
To better learn about their distinctions and the unique leadership gaps for both strategies, we talked to Julia Stefani, Chief Product Officer at Treasure Financial and a product leader with over 15 years of experience at companies like Expedia, SoFi, and Facebook.
Stefani delves into the essential elements for assessing your product- or sales-led leadership team, identifying gaps, and building a talent strategy tailored to your growth model.
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- Julia Stefani, Chief People Officer, Treasure Financial |
Assessing Product Roles in a Product-Led Growth Team
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In a product-led growth model… The product itself drives user acquisition and growth. This allows for a more direct connection with users, enabling the product team to gather rich insights through analytics and user feedback. Because the product is the core growth engine, your team’s ability to understand and react to user needs is paramount. |
Breaking Down Product-Led Leaders & Critical Gaps
Below, we dive deeper into the core roles of product managers, product designers, and data analysts to help you identify potential gaps and understand the impact of missing or underdeveloped skill sets.
1. Product Managers
These individuals are central to the product lifecycle, defining the vision, roadmap, and strategy. They rely heavily on user analytics and real customer feedback to iterate on the product.
Potential Skills Gaps To Look Out For:
- Lack of Data-Driven Decision-Making: Without strong analytics skills or access to reliable data, leaders risk poor decisions on product features, pricing, or customer segmentation, impacting profitability and compliance.
- Failure to Prioritize: In PLG environments, product managers who struggle to prioritize effectively may misallocate resources, neglecting critical features like fraud prevention or user experience enhancements.
2. Product Designers
Designers play a crucial role in creating intuitive and engaging user experiences. They work closely with product managers and engineers to ensure the product is both functional and visually appealing.
Potential Skills Gaps To Look Out For:
- Overlooking User-Centric Design: Because they're a little farther removed from the customer and target user’s pain points than a sales-led organization, PLG designers can miss opportunities for improvement that can impact engagement or satisfaction. And in finance, where trust and usability are paramount, focusing on aesthetics over functionality can lead to solutions that miss the mark.
- Failure to Iterate Quickly: Financial products demand quick adaptation to user feedback and market changes. Delays in refining designs based on insights can stall progress and hurt competitiveness.
3. Data Analysts
Data analysts are essential for measuring product performance, identifying user behavior patterns, and providing data-driven insights to inform product decisions.
Potential Skills Gaps To Look Out For:
- Overlooking Behavioral Insights: Data analysts in PLG environments can often tend to focus only on aggregate data (e.g., total user signups, etc.) and may miss more telling behavioral trends that can reveal underlying issues.
- Failure to Communicate Insights Effectively: Data analysts must be able to distill complex insights into clear, actionable recommendations. A gap in communication skills or the inability to translate raw data into a language everyone can derail any strategy from small to large.
Assessing Product Roles in a Sales-Led Growth Team
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In a sales-led growth model… The sales team plays a pivotal role in driving user acquisition and growth. Unlike a product-led growth approach, where the product itself is the primary driver of adoption, an SLG model relies on human interaction, relationship-building, and tailored solutions to attract and retain customers. As Stefani tells us, "Building a successful sales-led growth (SLG) team requires a clear understanding of how product roles adapt to support a strategy centered around human interaction and relationship-building." |
How It’s Different: Breaking Down Sales-Led Leaders & Critical Gaps
1. Product Managers
While product managers in SLG-led teams still run customer research and analyze product funnels, in a sales-led model they must work closely with the sales team to understand customer needs and tailor the product to their specific requirements. They often collaborate with sales enablement teams to create effective sales tools and training materials.
Potential Skills Gaps to Look Out For:
- Weak Sales Alignment: Product managers may lack experience collaborating with sales teams or understanding the nuances of customer-specific requirements, leading to a disconnect between product capabilities and sales needs.
- Insufficient Focus on Customization: Product managers in a sales-led environment may struggle to, but must be able to prioritize customization or develop features tailored to key customer segments.
2. Product Designers
Designers play a crucial role in creating intuitive and engaging user experiences, but in a SLG strategy, their focus may be more on creating sales enablement materials and supporting sales efforts.
Potential Skills Gaps to Look Out For:
- Limited Sales Enablement Experience: Designers that are more used to a PLG strategy may lack the skills to create materials that resonate with sales audiences, such as pitch decks, demo interfaces, or other sales enablement materials for client presentations.
- Disconnected from Data: Sales-led product designers might not be aware of friction points within the product itself, which means design changes could be based more on guesswork and a limited purview.
3. Data Analysts
Data analysts can play a similar role in both models, but in a sales-led model, they may focus more on collaborating with customer success teams, analyzing sales data, and identifying opportunities to improve the sales process.
Potential Skills Gaps to Look Out For:
- Sales Data Expertise: Analysts in an SLG environment must have in-depth experience with or regularly utilize tools to specifically analyze CRM data, forecast sales trends, or track key performance metrics critical for customer (and adjacently, sales) success.
- Strategic Insight Communication: Sales-led data analysts must be able to translate complex data findings into actionable recommendations that directly (and specifically) support sales strategies.
Assess Your Product Team With the Help of Expert Julia Stefani
“While the core roles of product managers, designers, and data analysts are similar in both product-led and sales-led growth models, the emphasis on different aspects of the product lifecycle and the way they interact with other teams can vary significantly,” shares Stefani.
To thrive, companies must embrace these unique demands of their chosen growth model and ensure their leadership truly aligns with it.
Hire Better Through the Hunt Club ExpertAccess Program
Julia Stefani is a product leader of over 15 years and part of the ExpertAccess Program, which puts first-string operators in your back pocket for all things talent, so you can hire better, smarter, and faster.
