The Leadership Advantage

Leadership Advantage - Issue 22 by Andrea Michalek Why some teams ship game-changing features in six weeks while others stall for six months. I’ve been obsessing over a question lately: Why do some teams move impossibly fast while others grind through endless cycles? I’ve worked with teams at every stage: early startups, high-growth scaleups, and mature product orgs. What separates the fast from the frustrated isn’t brilliance or better tooling. It’s how the team works together, how they make...

Leadership Advantage - Issue 21 by Andrea Michalek What you’ll learn in 5 minutes: How to move from managing tasks to multiplying talent through proven frameworks used by product leaders at high-growth companies. What is the environment where you have done your best work? Who are the leaders who inspired you to do more? Or was the team culture that made you want to step up? What anti-patterns have leaders around you created that harm the team’s performance? As a new leader, leadership felt...

Leadership Advantage - Issue 20 by Andrea Michalek Hi Leaders, I’ve told the story of founding Plum Analytics many times, but I rarely mention what happened three weeks after I started the company: my father was diagnosed with cancer. We had started Plum Analytics based on what we thought our target customers wanted: better metrics for research evaluation. We began with a market opportunity, a business plan, and a logical next step. But suddenly, my mission became much deeper. It wasn’t just...

Leadership Advantage - Issue 19 by Andrea Michalek Hi Leaders, Picture this scene: Your engineering team just closed their most productive sprint ever. You shipped three major features this quarter. Stakeholders are sending congratulatory Slack messages. And yet… You’re staring at your dashboard, wondering if any of this actually moved the needle on breakthrough impact. When I created a new category in scholarly metrics at Plum Analytics, we faced a measurement problem most product leaders...

Leadership Advantage - Issue 18 by Andrea Michalek Hi Leaders, Over the past two weeks, we’ve built the foundation of operating rhythm: • daily and weekly systems that create momentum, • and monthly and quarterly cycles that ensure strategic alignment. Today, I’m giving you diagnostic tools to assess whether your current rhythms are actually working or secretly undermining your team’s effectiveness. Is Your Rhythm Working?5 Critical Questions Most teams think they have good rhythm because...

Leadership Advantage - Issue 17 by Andrea Michalek Hi Leaders, You don’t need more time, you need better rhythm. Your product team has all the necessary meetings, and yet you’re always scrambling. 1:1 meetings only happen when you can find the time. Strategic thinking gets pushed aside by urgent requests. You’re shipping, sure. But it feels chaotic and disconnected from the customer. And deep down, you know there’s a better way. Last week, we talked about scaling yourself through better...

Leadership Advantage - Issue 16 by Andrea Michalek Hi Leaders, Imagine the scene: You’re waving goodbye to your last Zoom call of the day. You’re running late for dinner. And the kicker is that you spent the entire day in meetings, and haven’t touched your own work all day. If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. As a leader, this is the battle that we all face. But can I be truthful here? The problem most likely lies with your approach. The easiest path is usually to: keep doing what you...

Leadership Advantage - Issue 14 by Andrea Michalek Hi Leaders, When I look back on the most pivotal moments of my career, there’s one thing that stands out above all else: the relationships I’ve built. It wasn’t my education, technical skills, or just being in the right place at the right time. It’s the people I’ve connected with. It’s the relationships I’ve built. These connections have opened doors, created opportunities, and given real meaning to the work I do. Over time, my network has...

Leadership Advantage - Issue 15 by Andrea Michalek Hi Leaders, We set goals to move forward. But what happens when life derails our plans overnight? Everyone knows about setting goals. We set them at work, at home, and in the organizations we support. Goals give us direction. They define success and help us measure progress. And there’s another practice I’ve found equally powerful: setting daily intentions. Unlike a goal, an intention isn’t about success or failure. It’s about focus. No...