Product leadership is a rewarding but challenging role, requiring mastery of diverse skills and the ability to navigate a complex ecosystem. In this session, we’ll explore the key hurdles product leaders face, from internal barriers like mindset, skill and knowledge gaps, to managing the dynamics of their teams and relationships with bosses. Beyond direct control, we’ll discuss external challenges such as misaligned technology leadership, organizational system dysfunction, and navigating uncooperative peers and stakeholders. This talk offers actionable insights and approaches to help product leaders identify and overcome these obstacles, empowering them to thrive in their roles and drive meaningful impact within their organizations. Whether you’re a seasoned product leader or aspiring to step into the role, this session will equip you with tools to tackle what’s standing in your way and thrive in one of the most demanding roles in any company. Randy Hale is an empathetic change leader who helps leaders gain clarity on challenges and embrace possibilities with enthusiasm. He has deep expertise with Product Operating Model Transformation, Business and Product Strategy; Product Leadership; Organizational and Strategic Portfolio Transformation; and Executive Coaching. Having personally faced challenges as a Product Leader, he deeply empathizes and recognizes the recurring patterns in nearly every client he has consulted with. He has guided startups and Fortune 100 companies in driving strategic change to enhance employee engagement, speed up time-to-market, boost customer satisfaction, and accelerate revenue growth.

Developing physical products—those that integrate hardware, software, and firmware—is uniquely challenging. Unlike software, physical products can't be easily "updated" in the field. Teams must navigate long procurement lead times, high production costs, and multi-disciplinary collaboration across engineering, manufacturing, software, and procurement. Traditional Waterfall methods dominate because many Agile approaches, designed for software, fail to address these realities, leaving hardware teams stuck with inefficient, often chaotic processes. The Modified Agile for Hardware Development (MAHD) Framework bridges this gap. MAHD adapts Agile principles to the constraints of physical product development, enabling organizations to achieve superior results by focusing on hardware-first strategies. Since 2017, MAHD has been successfully implemented in over 100 hardware organizations, leading to transformational outcomes, including: * Faster time-to-market without sacrificing quality. * Seamless cross-functional collaboration across engineering, software, manufacturing, and procurement. * Accelerated learning cycles to align teams, adapt quickly, and reduce risk. * Effective customer feedback loops for early concept validation and precise feature prioritization. In this session, MAHD Evangelists Dorian and Vishal will share three critical elements of the MAHD Framework that help hardware organizations achieve competitive, technical, and organizational success. Attendees will gain insights to: * Improve collaboration across disciplines. * Incorporate Agile principles into physical product development. * Deliver hardware products faster, smarter, and more profitably. Join us to learn how MAHD can transform your hardware development process—and give your team a lasting competitive edge. Get a head start and peruse what MAHD is all about at http://mahdframework.com.