The Curator Leader (Not the Visionary)
The best product leaders don't own the ideas — they build environments where great ideas bubble up and get chosen
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 3
- Confidence
- 87%
A model of product leadership that reframes the leader from prolific idea-machine to curator of people, ideas, technologies, and strategies. The leader doesn't need the strategy to come from them; they need a great strategy that everyone has bought into and is executed well. Use when defining what 'good' looks like for a senior product/GM role.
Origin
Asked about the best product leaders he's worked with, Mosseri says they are 'less visionary and more curators' — they have taste and their own ideas, but embrace that they can't originate everything and instead create conditions for good ideas to surface.
Core principles
- 01Care that there's an amazing strategy everyone bought into — not that it came from you
- 02Curate people, ideas, technologies, and strategies rather than authoring them all
- 03Team-building is itself curation: fit each hire to the leadership team, weighing complementary skills, weaknesses, and chemistry
How to run it
- 1
Optimize for a great, bought-into strategy
Detach ego from authorship. Whether the strategy comes from you or a lead, what matters is that it's excellent, everyone has bought in, and it's executed well.
Pro tip You still need some of your own ideas — it's hard to curate well with none.
- 2
Build the environment for ideas to surface
Create conditions in which great ideas bubble up and are chosen or decided upon, rather than trying to originate everything yourself.
- 3
Curate the team for fit and chemistry
When hiring, weigh not just whether the person is strong for the role but how they fit the leadership team — complementary skills, covered weaknesses, and trust/rapport.
Pro tip A leadership team with strong trust and rapport can work through almost anything; without it, anything can become an issue.
Watch out Two people you love who can't get along is a personality issue, not a competency issue — sometimes you just have to split them.
In the wild
For an area like trust and safety with engineering, product-staff, data-science, design, and research leads, Mosseri makes sure the five complement each other on skills and weaknesses and have good 'vibe' — trust and rapport.
→ Chemistry (more art than science) becomes a first-class hiring criterion alongside competency.
Common mistakes
Insisting the vision must be yours
Wanting to personally own vision/strategy and avoid hands-on curation wastes the leverage of a whole team's ideas.
Is it for you?
Best for
Senior product leaders and GMs building and running multi-function leadership teams
Not ideal for
Very early founders who must supply the core vision themselves
From the transcript
“I don't really care if I'm hiring a strong lead for an area if the strategy comes from them or comes from”
“they need to create an environment in which great ideas bubble up and are”
“A leadership team with strong trust and rapport can work through most anything.”
From the episode
Adam Mosseri: AI is a tailwind for authenticity