Business Fluency Masterclass for Product Leaders

11am - 11pm ET (2 hours)

Everything starts with understanding the business. This foundational module focuses on building financial literacy so product leaders can deeply understand the economic engine behind their decisions.

Key Learnings:

You'll learn to break down your company's revenue mix, trace the "flow of funds" from a customer's initial commitment all the way to realized margin, and identify the metrics that make up the Executive Leadership Team (ELT) scoreboard.

Outcomes:

You'll leave with a clear revenue map, an ELT Scoreboard, and visual model you can use to connect product initiatives directly to specific stages of the company's commercial revenue architecture.

1:30pm - 3:30pm ET (2 hours)

This module trains product leaders to build a strategic bridge connecting tactical, bottom-up product work to top-line corporate goals.

Key Learnings:

You'll learn how to connect product initiatives to executive priorities and identify work that consumes resources without creating meaningful value.

You'll also learn how to stop pitching and defending features and instead reframe product work as Fundable Units of business investment based on customer and business outcomes, and their alignment to the corporate scoreboard.

Outcomes:

You'll gain the ability to eliminate "shadow work," reclaim R&D capital for high-leverage bets, and audit your overall portfolio to ensure it perfectly aligns with the company's financial targets.

11am - 1pm ET (2 hours)

Not every roadmap item deserves funding. This module teaches leaders how to evaluate opportunities before significant resources are committed by transforming them into defensible, business-legible investments that can withstand board-level scrutiny.

Key Learnings:

You'll learn how to explicitly identify the assumptions behind an initiative and surface the danger zone of low-confidence, high-consequence asks.

You'll also learn to explicitly size the upside and downside of a bet, and establish predefined Stopping Conditions before significant resources are wasted.

Outcomes:

The creation of structured Investable Bets that connect product decisions to business impact, helping you make decisions based on evidence instead of politics.

1:30pm - 3:30pm ET (2 hours)

The final module anchors on Decision Discipline, preparing product leaders to gracefully handle inevitable roadmap shocks, budget cuts, and arbitrary mandates.

Key Learnings:

You'll learn the Lock, Adjust, Kill (LAK) framework to evaluate which bets are highly durable versus those that should be paused or scoped down.

Crucially, you'll learn a trade-off structure that empowers you to argue not in terms of project allocation, but in terms of business outcome commitment, by explicitly defining what work will stop, who will be impacted, what financial risks will increase, and what the choice ultimately costs the business.

Outcomes:

You'll leave with a practical way to decide what to fund, what to change, and what to stop — and the confidence to defend why using business logic, not opinions, politics, or prioritization scores.

"If I could inject one skill directly into my product leaders' brains, it would be this. Business Fluency for Product Leaders teaches product leaders the ability to connect their work to business outcomes, and the ability to speak the language of the executive team."

— CPO of $85M B2B SaaS RegTech platform

"There's nothing like this out there. if you're only comfortable with babysitting engineers, AI is going to take your job. The assessment alone is incredibly valuable because organizations are at very different levels of maturity. This is practical, relevant, and solves a problem product leaders actually have."

— CPO of $156M B2B SaaS platform & tech-enabled service company

"This is really important for our industry. The Business Fluency Maturity Model makes it incredibly easy for product leaders to understand where they are today, where they need to go, and why business fluency is vital."

— SVP, Global Product & Strategy, $1.9B B2B hybrid SaaS + hardware + tech-enabled services company.

"This is the missing part of our profession. And this course teaches the exact kinds of conversations product leaders should be having."

— VP, Product Management, $120M B2B health-tech company

Business fluency isn't just about knowing business terms or memorizing financial jargon.

Business fluency is being able to connect product investments to business outcomes.

Most product leaders can talk about roadmaps, priorities, features, delivery, and maybe even customer satisfaction. Business-fluent leaders can explain how those same decisions impact the things that actually matter: revenue, retention, profitability, growth, and company goals.

Business fluent leaders don't ask for resources to build features. They make the case for investments that deliver business results.

That's because business-fluent leaders understand how the company makes money, how executives measure success, and how product investments contribute to growth, retention, and profitability.

That's the difference between managing a roadmap and leading business growth.

The expectations for product leaders are rapidly changing.

You're no longer expected to simply ship features, manage roadmaps, or run discovery.

You're expected to drive growth, improve retention, make smart investment decisions, and influence company strategy.

Yet many still spend their time talking about features, roadmaps, and delivery dates.

The challenge is that most product leaders were never taught how to do this.

Business fluency closes that gap.

Business fluency gives you the ability to connect product decisions to revenue, profitability, and company goals. It helps you earn executive trust, make better trade-offs, and show how product contributes to business success.

In short, it's what allows you to lead product as a business, not just a delivery function.

The leaders who can do this become trusted business partners. The ones who can't often struggle to gain influence beyond the engineering team.

Business Fluency for Product Leaders (BFPL) is a hands-on training program created by Mike Smart and Shardul Mehta.

The goal is simple: Help product leaders move beyond managing roadmaps and feature requests and start thinking like business leaders.

Instead of treating product work as a list of things to build, you'll learn how to manage a portfolio of investments tied directly to company goals.

This isn't a theory-heavy course full of models and buzzwords. It's built around real-world scenarios, practical exercises, and the kinds of decisions product leaders face every day.

BFPL is delivered as a highly interactive two-day live cohort-based workshop. It's divided into four modules, each focused on a key skill product leaders need to connect product decisions to business outcomes.

You'll spend less time listening to lectures and more time working through realistic business cases, discussions, and exercises.

• Speak the language of the business with confidence.

• Connect product decisions to company goals and business outcomes.

• Build stronger business cases and earn executive support.

• Make better investment and trade-off decisions.

• Align teams around measurable business results.

Most importantly, you'll learn how to lead Product Management as a business function, not just a delivery function.

"I really love the term 'Business Fluency.' It's not just understanding the business. It's being fluent in how the business operates, what it's trying to achieve, and how your role in Product contributes to those outcomes. It's all connected. I love it!"

— Head of Product, $441M B2B SaaS workflow platform

"This course creates clarity and ownership. The value goes beyond product teams. I can see it helping sales, customer success, and other cross-functional teams align around the same business goals."

— GM & CPO, B2B health-tech platform

"This course is addressing a real problem that just isn't being addressed today. Product leaders have a huge opportunity taking this course, because they desperately need a better way to connect their work to business outcomes."

— CPO, $84M B2B hybrid SaaS + tech-enabled services platform

"This course gives product leaders a practical way to understand where they are today and what the next stage of growth looks like."

— CPO, $45M B2B SaaS Cybersecurity platform

"This is exactly the kind of thinking that helps product leaders become more effective business leaders."

— Chief Product Strategist, B2B SaaS marketplace platform

Most product leaders feel pulled in too many directions.

Executives want growth. Sales wants features. Customers want fixes. Engineering wants focus.

Meanwhile, you're expected to make smart decisions, align stakeholders, and prove the business impact of your roadmap.

The result is constant prioritization battles. Endless roadmap debates. Competing requests. Limited resources. And a feeling like you're accountable for business results but have little control over how decisions get made.

The root problem is that most product leaders were never taught how to connect product decisions to business outcomes.

Everyone talks about outcomes over outputs.

Few explain which outcomes actually matter.

Or how to deliver against them.

Business Fluency for Product Leaders solves this by teaching you how to connect product investments to the company scorecard: revenue, retention, profitability, and company goals.

Instead of debating features, you'll learn how to evaluate opportunities, make trade-offs, and align teams around measurable business results.

The result is better decisions, greater executive influence, and a roadmap that clearly supports the business.

Most product management training teaches you how to be a better product manager.

BFPL teaches you how to be a better business leader.

Most PM courses focus on processes, frameworks, prioritization methods, delivery, and product craft. Those skills are important, but they don't always help you answer the questions executives care about most:

• How does this drive growth?

• What's the return on investment?

• What are the risks?

• What should we fund?

• What should we stop?

BFPL was built to help product leaders answer those questions with confidence.

You'll learn how to connect product investments to business outcomes, evaluate opportunities as investments, make better trade-off decisions, and communicate in the language executives understand.

The course is highly practical and built around realistic business situations, exercises, and decision-making scenarios.

BFPL is a first-of-its-kind course about business leadership for product leaders.

Most PM training helps you deliver features.

BFPL helps you lead the business.

Almost every product management course tells you to focus on outcomes instead of outputs.

The problem is that most never define which outcomes actually matter.

BFPL does.

We believe outcomes should be tied directly to financial results.

Because executives don't fund features. The fund profitable growth.

That's why BFPL teaches product leaders how to connect product decisions directly to business outcomes.

You'll learn how to:

• Connect product initiatives to revenue, retention, and growth.

• Evaluate roadmap items based on customer and business value.

• Turn features into investable bets with clear business outcomes.

• Measure impact instead of activity.

• Make trade-offs based on expected business results.

Most PM training tells you outcomes matter.

BFPL teaches you which outcomes matter, how to connect product work to them, and how to make better decisions because of it.

The result is a roadmap organized around business outcomes, not features shipped.

By the end of the course, you'll think, communicate, and make decisions very differently.

You'll learn how to connect product decisions to business outcomes, influence executive conversations, and lead with greater confidence.

Participants typically leave with:

• Greater influence with executives and stakeholders.

• Stronger business cases for product investments.

• Better prioritization and trade-off decisions.

• More alignment across product, sales, customer success, and finance.

• A practical way to connect product work to revenue, retention, and growth.

• More control over their roadmap and less time reacting to competing demands.

Most importantly, you'll stop thinking like a roadmap manager and start thinking like a business leader.

Instead of defending features and priorities, you'll be able to explain how product investments create measurable business results.

And, as a result, you won't be viewed as engineering's babysitter; you'll be viewed as a strategic operating partner of the business.

"After learning this framework, I immediately wanted to share it with other product leaders. The concepts are practical, relevant, and worth discussing with anyone leading a product organization."

— SVP of Product, Design & Technology, $50M B2B enterprise SaaS CMS company

"I love the actionable framing this course provides. It's a fresh way of thinking about product leadership, and it's already changing how I talk about product inside my organization. I can't wait to bring these ideas back to my product community and start changing the conversation."

— Group Product Manager, $60M B2G enterprise software provider

"This course is a real differentiator. There are plenty of product courses out there, but nobody prepares you for the mindset shift required to operate at the executive level."

— CPO, $15M B2B SaaS GovTech/RegTech company.