605: Leadership styles for each phase of product development – with Anshul Garg

ByChad McAllister

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Four phases of leadership for product managers

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TLDR

Anshul Garg, Principal Product Manager – Tech at Amazon and author of The Four Phases of Product Leadership, shares his practical framework for adapting leadership styles to each stage of the product lifecycle. We explore how product leaders can avoid becoming bottlenecks by flexing their approach as products move from discovery to maturity. Learn how to match your leadership to your product’s evolution and empower your teams for success.

Introduction

Here’s a reason good product leaders stall out: The leadership style that made them successful at one product stage becomes the very thing holding them and their product back at the next stage. The leadership a product needs in its scrappy, ambiguous early days is not the leadership it needs when it’s scaling — or when it’s mature and needs renewing. Our guest has led product across global organizations and now leads product at Amazon, and he has built a practical framework for matching how you lead to the phase your product is in. His name is Anshul Garg, Principal Product Manager – Tech at Amazon and author of the book The Four Phases of Product Leadership.

Summary of Concepts Discussed for Product Managers

Why Product Leadership Styles Need to Change with the Product
Anshul describes how product leaders often get stuck by sticking to a single leadership style as their products move through vastly different stages. Products and teams benefit from situation leadership, since they need different types of direction and support as they evolve. Failing to adapt can stall growth or even sink projects.

Four Phases of Product Leadership
Anshul describes his leadership framework, which breaks down the product lifecycle into four phases. For each phase, a different leadership style is needed:

  • Discovery: Directive—providing clarity amidst ambiguity and forming a strong vision.
  • MVP: Coaching—empowering the team to find solutions, learning from early customer feedback.
  • Growth: Supporting—enabling leaders within the team, letting go of micromanagement, and scaling effectively.
  • Maturity: Delegating—creating space for team autonomy while staying alert for market shifts to ensure ongoing relevance.

Coaching in the MVP Phase
When product leaders move from a discovery phase where directive leadership is required, to the MVP stage where they need a more hands-off coaching approach, they can often struggle with letting go of control, navigating ego, and avoiding becoming the bottleneck as a product moves to new stages. Product leaders should realize they are not losing authority or relevance but are actually expanding their skills and impact on the product, because empowering others multiplies a leader’s impact.

Supporting in the Growth Phase
By the growth phase, it is important that supporting leaders have been prepared to lead their teams. The product leader is no longer in every conversation. They enable the supporting leaders to make good decisions. If supporting leaders aren’t trained, the product development process can slow at this point. Anshul says that the role of the leader isn’t to be the smartest person in the room but to make the whole room smarter.

Delegating in the Mature Phase
At this phase, the team shouldn’t depend on the leader for every decision. The leader should instead spend their time closely following how the market is moving.

Useful Links

Innovation Quote

“Make decisions when you have about 70% of the information you wish you had.”  – Jeff Bezos

Application Questions

  1. Which leadership style do you find yourself most comfortable with, and how has that helped or hurt your products in different phases?
  2. Can you recall a time when holding onto your early leadership habits became a bottleneck for your team or product?
  3. How do you encourage psychological safety and experimentation during the MVP phase in your organization?
  4. What mechanisms have you set up to ensure the transition from supporting to delegating leadership as your product matures?
  5. How does your team monitor for shifts in the market that might signal it’s time to reinvent or retire a mature product?

Bio

Product Manager Interview - Anshul Garg

Anshul Garg is a Product Leader, Speaker and Author who transforms complex business challenges into elegant digital product solutions. With 19+ years at industry-leading organizations including Amazon, Capital One, and Nationwide Insurance, he has delivered over $100 million in annual business value through strategic product initiatives. 

With an MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Mumbai, and an engineering degree from National Institute of Technology Jamshedpur, Anshul combines strategic vision with technical depth, specializing in launching AI-driven zero-to-one products, orchestrating large-scale digital transformations, and leading diverse, cross-functional teams. 

Beyond building products, Anshul builds leaders. As PDMA DMV Chapter Head, Advisory Board Member at Products That Count and Brand Ambassador for GIMI, he shares insights on product management, adaptive leadership, and emerging trends. He fosters environments where innovation and personal growth flourish together, building high-performing teams that consistently deliver exceptional outcomes. 

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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