Breakthrough Conversations for Product Managers

Hosted by Niteesh Elias and Dr. Jeffery Yip

Fri, Jul 24, 2026

4:00 PM UTC (1 hour 30 minutes)

Virtual (Zoom)

Free to join

Invite your network

What you'll learn

Read resistance — what's really behind every "no"

A four-layer framework that reveals what's actually driving pushback — not just what people say, but why.

Practice unlocking alignment in real time

Through a live role-play, practice the moves that shift people from objection to honest conversation.

Leave with techniques you can use next week

Conversation tools from negotiation research and org psychology, built for the conflicts PMs face daily.

Why this topic matters

PMs depend on people they can't direct. When conversations stay at the surface — at stated positions — alignment breaks down silently. Decisions get made, then unmade. Progress stalls on the same issues. Learning to move past positions to what actually drives people is the highest-leverage skill a PM can build.

You'll learn from

Niteesh Elias

Product Leader & Founder (Honeywell Technologies + Aerospace)

Niteesh Elias is Director of Product Management at Honeywell, where he helps build the capabilities and practices that enable product leaders to succeed across a global $38 billion technology enterprise. He is also the co-founder of Listening Labs, a mission-driven organization which helps leaders and teams unlock insight, trust, and meaningful action through better conversations.

Over the past twenty years, Niteesh has worked at the intersection of product management, leadership, organizational transformation, and human-centered design. His work is grounded in a simple belief: the quality of our outcomes is shaped by the quality of our conversations.

Through his teaching, Niteesh helps leaders listen more deeply, navigate complexity, build trust, and create the conditions for meaningful change. His courses blend practical tools, real-world leadership experience, and reflective practices that participants can immediately apply to their work and lives.

Dr. Jeffery Yip

Executive Leadership & Org Psychology Expert (Simon Fraser University)

Jeffrey Yip, PhD, is Associate Professor of Management at Simon Fraser University and a leading researcher on leadership conversations and listening.

For more than twenty years, Jeff has helped leaders develop the skills needed to build trust, navigate change, and lead effectively in complex environments. His research and teaching focus on listening, leadership development, coaching, and organizational transformation.

Jeff has published in Harvard Business ReviewMIT Sloan Management Review, and leading academic journals, and is known for translating cutting-edge research into practical tools that leaders can immediately put into practice. A Fulbright Scholar, he holds degrees from Boston University and Harvard University. 

Previously at

Honeywell
Center for Creative Leadership
Harvard University
See all products from Niteesh

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