For 20 years, I've transformed product challenges into success stories across fintech, VR, and telecom. My superpower? Not having all the answers but knowing how to extract them from the brilliant minds around me.

Being comfortable with the uncomfortable, I've driven major initiatives from zero-to-ones to replatforming and redesigns and learned the true meaning of "leader without authority" and how effective facilitation drives real impact.

Today, I share these battle-tested techniques with product leaders wanting to unlock their team's potential. Through my "How to Run High-Impact Discovery Workshops" course, I'll help you transform good ideas into exceptional products by mastering collaborative discovery.

Personal Story: The day I stopped being the “ideas person” was when the magic started happening

As a Jr Product Manager, I thought my job was to come up with all the ideas. I worked in isolation, afraid to show vulnerability or admit I didn't have all the answers.

But as I grew and learned to truly collaborate with my team, something shifted. I realised that the best ideas come from the team, not me. My real role? Create an environment that nurtures amazing ideas: make the why and what clear, add helpful constraints, and then step back to guide rather than control.

I remember the exact moment when this clicked. I was working on a new app with this brilliant product designer. We had built trust, understood each other's strengths and weaknesses, and how we complemented each other.

One day, before a meeting to define the app's end-to-end flow, I had what I thought was a solid solution to a challenging problem. But I told myself: "Ady, keep your mouth shut. Let him speak first, give him space." And I did just that, I listened. And guess what? His approach was 10x better.

Since then, I've learned to be one of the last to speak in meetings. I observe and guide more. I make sure everyone has a voice, not just the loudest ones. Sometimes, I'll even gently push the quiet ones to speak up; there are often hidden gems in their thoughts.

Now, I wear the “source of ideas” hat less and the “ideas and people galvaniser” hat more often. The benefit? The team feels empowered and more driven to work on their ideas. Better solutions and a happier team? I'm in, what's not to like?