The Missing Seat on Most Manufacturing Leadership Teams
In many middle-market manufacturers, a product role isn’t represented at the leadership level. Operations, sales, and engineering usually have a seat, but the person accountable for product growth is often missing.
That’s surprising when you think about it. Growth doesn’t just come from selling. It comes from products that are differentiated, priced well, and aligned with real customer needs.
Without a product voice at the table, leadership conversations naturally focus on execution and operations. You review quality, cost, and delivery. All of that matters, but without the product perspective, you risk missing what the market is asking for next.
Adding a product leader to the team changes those conversations.
You gain a forward-looking perspective. Someone who tracks customer behavior shifts, spots opportunities, and connects product strategy to business growth. They bring clarity to roadmaps, help navigate tradeoffs, and they align teams on what’s worth investing in and what’s not.
Some companies promote a product leader into the executive team. Others rotate product managers in to represent their line during key meetings. Either way, what matters is having someone consistently responsible for representing product growth.
So if you’re on a leadership team, ask yourself:
Is product growth actively represented?
And if not, what might you be missing by leaving that seat empty?
