PwC UK

Amazon

Capital One

Coda

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Brennan Collins

VP Product before 30, Startups & Large Enterprises, Success in both Product & Services Companies

October '25 Cohort

November-December 2025

Jan-Feb 2026

March 2026

Spring 2026

From Demands to Wins

Most PMs master delivery but stay stuck as order-takers. This guide shows the four pillars that separate feature shippers from product leaders: Strategy, Delivery, Customer Experience, and Adoption &amp; Growth. Each pillar includes goals, key activities, and three things you can do this week to shift from execution mode to strategic influence. 28 pages. Zero fluff. Immediate actions for Monday.

The Four Pillars of Product Management

Stop executing others' roadmaps. Build strategy that gets funded, speak the language of business, and win stakeholder buy-in.

VP Product. 500+ PMs Stuck to Strategic

Product Executive & Educator. 
Coached 500+ PMs from Stuck to Strategic

The Influential PM: Strategy, Stakeholders, Significance

Product Manager

Senior Product Manager

Product & Design Manager

Sr. Product Manager 

Entrepreneurial Strategist

Head of Product - Core APIs

Deloitte

PRGX Global

FinThrive

Healthmine

You execute roadmaps you didn't create, manage requests you can't push back on, and watch less capable PMs get promoted because they learned to speak the language of business before you did.The gap is the altitude of your language. You're solving problems at the feature level while decisions get made at the business level - and nobody taught you how to close that distance.This course does. In 4 weeks, you'll build the strategic toolkit that mid-career PMs are missing:<ul><li>Connect your features to business KPIs: Build a metrics ladder from what you ship → what executives fund</li><li>Defend your roadmap with logic, not opinion: Turn stakeholder demands into strategic wins (students call this "Product Judo")</li><li>Craft vision and strategy like a skill, not a gift: 9 frameworks that make the abstract concrete</li><li>Apply everything to YOUR product in real-time: Every session includes exercises on your actual work - not unrealistic case studies</li></ul>AI tools show up in the course where they save you time. But the strategic thinking that makes you promotable? That's human work. This course teaches both.

From Delivery Mode to Decision-Maker: The Strategic Product Leadership Course

Think like a business owner, not a delivery manager

Map customer needs to business metrics executives care about

Craft a vision and strategy using frameworks, not mystical talent

Transform stakeholder feature demands into defensible strategic moves

Speak the language of revenue, pricing, and business models 

Build your case for promotion with artifacts that prove you're ready

This is not an entry-level course.  These are advanced topics.  See my free content for PM foundations and breaking into product management

3 to 10 years experience in Product Management

No one-and-done projects here.  You need to have felt the joy and pain of good and bad decisions (yours or someone else's).

Experience shipping multiple iterations of the same product

This shouldn't be about your salary (but that comes with it).  You should be intrinsically motivated to grow your abilities and scope

A desire to lead products strategically, not just ship features 

Mid-career PMs stuck in delivery mode who want to think more strategically and earn a seat at the decision-making table.

Experienced product managers who want to speak the language of business and defend their roadmap with metrics that executives respect.

PMs preparing for promotion who need a portfolio of strategic artifacts - vision, roadmap, metrics, business model - to prove they're ready

“Good PMs say no” is a myth.  And it’s costing you influence.

VP Product before 30. Coach of 500+ PMs

Reached VP of Product before 30. Coached 500+ PMs. 36+ promoted in 12 months.

It's 3:47 PM on a Thursday, and your VP of Sales sends you an urgent message:"Three enterprise prospects asked about ACH payments this week. All of our competitors have it. We're losing deals. Can we get this on the roadmap for Q2? I need a timeline ASAP."What do you say back?Most product managers pick one of three losing moves: 1) Get Defensive: They defend their existing roadmap and burn political capital. 2) Gatekeep: They ask their standard checklist of questions before answering and frustrate the VP. 3) Give In: They say, "Sure, I'll look into it," and build the wrong thing for three months.There's a fourth option: I call it Stakeholder Judo.In this 3-hour workshop, you'll practice four techniques that change the dynamic from "Build this ASAP" to "Wow, you have this covered."

PMs with 3 to 10 years of experience who regularly receive feature requests from executives or sales leaders.

PMs who have strong product instincts but struggle to translate their reasoning into language that wins rooms where they're outranked.

PMs who've been told to "be more strategic" but nobody showed them what to say differently on a Thursday at 3:47 PM.

Stay Strategic: What to Say When a VP Hijacks Your Sprint

Reached VP of Product before 30. Coached 500+ PMs. 36 promoted in 12 months.

How to lean in with six questions that turn a feature demand into a conversation your VP wants to have.

Ask Six Questions That Uncover the Real Problem

Use the Reframe Madlib to reflect a stakeholder's real problem back better than they described it, building trust.

Reframe Any Stakeholder Request in 60 Seconds

Apply both techniques to a real stakeholder request from your work during the session.

Walk Away With Words You Can Use Today

Why Your Stakeholders Always Win and How to Win With Them

Spot whether your decision maker is a Risk Shield, Credit Catcher, or Tribal Guardian and change your pitch accordingly

Identify the Three Hidden Stakeholder Archetypes

Three questions that reveal what each stakeholder is actually optimizing for before you walk into the room.

Plan How to Handle Each Stakeholder in Advance

Walk away with a ready-to-use AI prompt that refines your stakeholder strategy before any high-stakes meeting.

Stress-Test Your Approach to Win Them Over with Confidence

Tell Strategic Stories That Get to Yes (With AI)

Award-Winning Speaker; Product Executive; Dozens of Students Promoted

How to build empathy before introducing your idea. Most PMs lead with features, but you need the audience to care first

The 3-Act Structure for Product Pitches

See side-by-side examples of the same pitch at three levels. Learn what's missing and what is required to level up

Good → Better → Best Strategic Story Transformation

Why "Meet Linda, a 23-year nurse" beats "42% of nurses have burnout." How to open with a protagonist and scale to impact

The Micro to Macro Shift: Start real then expand to wow

A ready-to-use prompt that forces you to structure your pitch strategically. But it only works if you've done the work

An AI Prompt You Can Use Monday

Think Like a Strategic PM in 45 Minutes

Use the Four Pillars framework to see where you actually spend your time vs. where strategic PMs spend theirs

Diagnose why you're stuck in delivery mode

The Strategic Filter that forces you to evaluate alternatives, connect work to business metrics, and sound strategic

3 questions that separate PMs from Delivery Managers

A simple communication format that makes you a product leader in standups, hallway conversations, and exec updates

Reframe your work using the 60-second Café Update

Bridge User-Buyer Tension: Interviews, Journey Maps, KPIs

Former VP Product; trained 300+ PMs; $50M+ product revenue

See how to connect customer workflows to executive KPIs - even when users and buyers have seemingly competing incentives

Map user journeys to buyer economics

Practical customer interviewing techniques that reveal pains, moments of truth, and measurable outcomes

Run interviews that surface insights, not opinions

Turn quotes and tasks into a visual journey map with leverage points tied to KPIs

Map a customer journey from a single conversation

Combine the customer journey with the Product Metrics Ladder to define bets, KPIs, and a user story map development plan

Draft an exec-ready, hypothesis-driven roadmap

From Stakeholder Demands to Strategic Wins

Startup & Enterprise Product Exec. Coached 300+ PMs from stuck to strategic.

Turn vague asks like “Add AI” into outcome-driven initiatives that earn trust and advocacy.

Reframe Random Feature Requests into Strategic Initiatives

Learn a simple framework to connect features to customer outcomes, product outcomes, and business results.

Climb the Product Metrics Ladder

Walk away with a tool you can use tomorrow to transform stakeholder demands into strategic conversations.

Elevate Your Influence Immediately

Stop fighting feature requests. Learn how to champion and reshape them so stakeholders become your biggest advocates.

Brennan Collins turns feature PMs into strategic leaders

Brennan Collins

About Brennan

Courses

The Influential PM: Strategy, Stakeholders, Significance

Workshops

Stakeholder Judo: pushing back on execs without losing trust or influence

Lightning Lessons