{"id":143037,"date":"2026-01-29T11:00:43","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T16:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/?post_type=articles&#038;p=143037"},"modified":"2026-06-02T09:44:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T13:44:16","slug":"the-business-of-learning-episode-93-applying-product-management-principles-to-your-ld-strategy","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/articles\/strategy-alignment-and-planning\/the-business-of-learning-episode-93-applying-product-management-principles-to-your-ld-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"The Business of Learning, Episode 93: Applying Product Management Principles to Your L&#038;D Strategy"},"author":52,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tags":[2582,3749,34323],"class_list":["post-143037","articles","type-articles","status-publish","hentry","tag-business-of-learning","tag-ld-strategy","tag-product-management","global_topic_tax-measurement-and-analytics","global_topic_tax-strategy-alignment-and-planning"],"acf":{"sponsored":false,"gated":false,"gated_content_type":"","file_attachment":null,"gated_content":"","form_instruction_header":"To access the full article, please fill out the form below:","pardot_html_embed":"","author_override":true,"author_name":"Training Industry, Inc. ","author_image":"","author_bio":"","excerpt":"Discover how L&D leaders can apply product management principles to act as strategic partners.","main_content":"<iframe style=\"width: 100%; height: auto; aspect-ratio: 16\/9;\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/v0v2v01b36g?si=cc3JI8vf9X31qAy-\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe>\r\n\r\n<iframe style=\"border: none; min-width: min(100%, 430px); height: 150px;\" title=\"Business of Learning Ep. 93: Product Management in L&amp;D\" src=\"https:\/\/www.podbean.com\/player-v2\/?i=9jjik-1a30a33-pb&amp;from=pb6admin&amp;share=1&amp;download=1&amp;rtl=0&amp;fonts=Arial&amp;skin=1&amp;font-color=auto&amp;logo_link=episode_page&amp;btn-skin=7\" width=\"100%\" height=\"150\" scrolling=\"no\" data-name=\"pb-iframe-player\"><\/iframe>\r\n\r\nLearning and development (L&amp;D) teams are increasingly expected to think beyond programs and courses to operate more like strategic partners to the business. But what does that actually look like in practice? One approach is applying product management principles to how L&amp;D designs and delivers learning.\r\n\r\nIn this episode of The Business of Learning, we spoke with Rashi Kakkar, global portfolio leader, leadership and development at McKinsey\u2019s Leadership Center of Excellence, to explore how product management mindsets can help L&amp;D teams align learning more closely with business outcomes and learner needs.\r\n\r\nTune in now for insights on:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>The similarities between product management and modern L&amp;D processes<\/li>\r\n \t<li>What L&amp;D can learn from product managers about taking a more strategic, business-first approach<\/li>\r\n \t<li>How customer-centric thinking can improve learning design and impact<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nMore Resources:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>[Infographic] <a href=\"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/articles\/strategy-alignment-and-planning\/infographic-4-tips-to-ensure-training-brings-value-to-the-business\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">4 Tips To Ensure Training Brings Value to the Business<\/a><\/li>\r\n \t<li>[Course] <a href=\"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/continuing-professional-development\/master-classes\/strategic-planning-master-class\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Strategic Planning Certificate<\/a><\/li>\r\n \t<li>[Wiki] <a href=\"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/wiki\/strategy-alignment-and-planning\/strategic-alignment\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Strategic Alignment<\/a><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<em>Begin your journey to strategic alignment and become a trusted business partner. To access the Strategic Planning Toolkit, please fill out the form below:<\/em>\r\n\r\n[hubspot type=\"form\" portal=\"47185625\" id=\"cddf14b4-03fb-44f9-9dd5-9a62a800e4b3\" version=\"v4\"]\r\n\r\n<em>The transcript for this episode follows: <\/em>\r\n\r\n[Ad]\r\n\r\n<em>The Certified Professional in Training Management credential, or CPTM, is designed to convey the essential competencies you need to manage a training organization. When you become a CPTM, you gain access to alumni resources like monthly peer roundtables, and a full registration to the Training Industry Conference &amp; Expo. If you start today, you could earn the CPTM credential in as little as two months. To learn more, visit<\/em><em>\u202f<\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.trainingindustry.com\/cptm\"><em>www.trainingindustry.com\/cptm<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><em>\u202f\u202f\u202f\u200a<\/em>\r\n\r\nMichelle Eggleston Schwartz: Hi. Welcome back to The Business of Learning. I'm Michelle Eggleston Schwartz, editor in chief here at Training Industry.\r\n\r\nSarah Gallo: And I am Sarah Gallo, senior editor. I'm excited to be here for our first recording of 2026, and to kick off this year, we're sitting down with Rashi Kakar, global portfolio leader, leadership and development at McKinsey's Leadership Center of Excellence to discuss product management principles and how they can help guide your L&amp;D strategy. So Rashi, thanks so much for being here.\r\n\r\nRashi Kakkar: Thank you so much for having me.\r\n\r\nMichelle Eggleston Schwartz: Yes. Thank you for joining us today. I'm excited about the conversation. And to kind of kick things off, I would just love to hear from your view, what are the biggest similarities between how product managers operate and how L&amp;D teams should operate when developing managing learning programs?\r\n\r\nRashi Kakkar: Yeah, and, and I think maybe the good place to start is also just defining what a product is, right? When people hear the word product, I think there's this confusion as to what it really is. And if you really sort of think about a product, it is a bundle of value. It could be tangible, intangible, that it solves a customer's problems, right? Or their needs. And so if you really think about it, right, a product really is what \u200aL&amp;D services provides to the business, right? It could be in, in different sort of forms. It could be training, it could be job aids, it could be sort of, you know, AI tools, etc. And so once you understand that, you know, we are in the business of actually providing services to the business, you understand that. But there are a lot of similarities between the world of product management and the principles there and L&amp;D, right? So I think, as you said, what are some of the similarities? I think first big similarity to me at least, is this like \u200aprovider of service, creator of value, which means you are not, you know, support, you are not somebody in the background, but you are more strategic. You are someone who's actually responsible for driving impact and solving. Sort of tangible, intangible, wants, needs of these, these end customers. So the way I think about L&amp;D functions, and I think where you can draw sort of similarities from product managers is you are almost like, you know, the R&amp;D or the research and development lab for your people. And if your people are products that are creating value for your business, you are sort of the product managers who are helping enhance, you know, these, these folks and helping drive some business growth, innovation value. So that's, that's sort of the similarities in parallels, and I think it starts by recognizing and understanding that we are in the business of providing services and value which leads to strategic sort of unlocks.\r\n\r\nSarah Gallo: Definitely, thanks for sharing some of those similarities. I think that will be really helpful in just framing our conversation today. And with that, can you dive a little bit deeper into what specifically L&amp;D professionals can learn from product managers about taking a more strategic and business first approach to training, design and delivery.\r\n\r\nRashi Kakkar: Yeah, so I think good product managers do a couple of things, right? One, like I said, they drive and deliver business impact. They marshal resources together and they also are constantly identifying solving the needs of their, their customers, right? And so I think what this really means is, you know, I guess three things, and very classic consulting style one is, you are strategic, do drive value for the business. You do something. Product managers do this very well. It's called continuous discovery, right? So the idea is, you know, understanding your, the needs of your learners, your users, your customers is not a one-off thing that happens at the start of a project or at the start of, you know, even a quarter, but it's something that you're in constantly, right? Like, how do you constantly stay in touch with the people whose needs you are serving? that you can always sort of tinker and improve your interventions and you can always say, \u201cHey look, these are their sort of needs. We're solving it and these are emerging needs that we're discovering through this process of continuous discovery that need to be solved.\u201d And so, in a lot of ways you are constantly in the business of understanding, you know, your own sort of internal companies operations, the businesses, like what are the levers. How do all the different teams interact? And you also at the same time have a good sense of the market, right? Like, who are our competitors?\u200a What is our industry? What is changing there? So that we can constantly keep delivering those sort of interventions, et cetera, to our people. Right? And so, I think the one, one difference that I always like telling people who come from the world of L&amp;D and you know, I sort of pivoted into L&amp;D from a world of product management, is this difference between product versus project. \u200aI think in L&amp;D, a lot of us function in this project, sort of a world, which was very sort of waterfall that we started ended. Someone would give you requirements, you would go into a black box, develop it to kind of throw it across the wall at some, and then then move on to the next project, right? So a project has this like finite stop start. And a product really is something that never finishes, right? So a product, think of it as Instagram, right? It never finishes that are product managers who are focusing \u200aon the newsfeed, who are focusing on the chat functionality. And, and so you spend your entire sort of day thinking about, are we meeting the needs of these people, right? Are we marshaling the right resources? Are we solving the right problems? Um, so, so I think to your point, like what, what is it that you know they can learn? I think learning how to be, know, just this idea of continuous discovery, always knowing the needs of the people you are serving. Before someone comes and gives you requirements, you actually go tell them, \u201cHey look, we are so close to these individuals. We know what's happening in the company and broader, broader ecosystem that we feel A, B, C things would be helpful, right? It's doing that and then having this mindset of, it's not a one and done thing, like I own the outcome. And so if today I launch something, I'm going to check the results, I'm going to look at the measurements, I'm going to see if the actual impact is being realized. If not, we're going to keep sort of tinkering it, right? It's not this thing that. Someone told me to do, I did it and I went into, you know, item number two of my backlog. Not really, right? Like you own sort of the end outcome. And then how you do it is this tools, it's the owning the, you know, why is this important for me? What values is it going to unlock for our business?\r\n\r\nMichelle Eggleston Schwartz: Yeah, that's such a good point. I love how you kind of broke that down of thinking of training as a project. It does kind of seem like one and done when you kind of view it as a product. It's this continuous learning experience that we know learning is; it's a journey. It never ends. And so kind of having that mindset, I think, is really important. \u200aThinking of learners as our customers is really important. And it's really key in product management, this idea of customer centricity, how can L&amp;D apply that same mindset where they think of their learners as customers to better meet business and learner needs?\r\n\r\nRashi Kakkar: Yeah, so I think one of the points I already raised, I'm not going to talk about that a lot, is this idea of continuous discovery, right? It's, it's almost like if you are an L&amp;D team, depending on, you know, whatever the size of your team is, how do you break the team down? Where way you have product managers who sort of own parts of the product or parts of the journey, right? How do you sort\u2026. If your \u200aentire employee lifecycle is a journey from onboarding all the way until they leave or how they progress in an organization, how do you get people in your team to sort of own chunks of that journey? Right. So someone owns, say onboarding, someone owns early career development. Someone owns like. manager layer, someone owns executive, and then how do these people constantly stay in touch with the business and are understanding the needs? Right? So the idea of like, I think s discovery is very helpful where you are, you've always got, let's just say, you know, relationships, et cetera with the business. I think the second thing that a lot of product managers do very well is this idea of dog fooding. And, and what dog fooding really means is kind of tasting your own creation in a way. And what this really means is instead of you building an intervention and throwing it, how do you go and actually experience it? How do you have someone from your team experience it from way a customer would experience it for the first time or your learners would, right? And so this means you actually go and sit down, you know, if you are part of an enablement function, a sales enablement function, right? You go actually sit down with the BDRs AEs and see what their day to day looks like. See if your tool you've created or the training you've created actually helps them. Right? So this idea of dog fooding actually tasting what you creating, I think is, is very helpful with this whole [idea of] customer centricity. And then the last thing really is caring about the outcomes, right? So the outcome is not, \u201cI got a training module created.\u201d That's not success. The outcome is, \u201cI led to the business goal,\u201d right? So again, with the sales example, if you are trying to train, say, sales reps, the outcome for L&amp;D \u200amanagers not, \u201cHey, I got this great like sales training,\u201d it's to say, \u201cDid it actually lead to a bump in whatever it is that we were tracking?\u201d Right? If it's like BDRs, did it actually lead to a bump in the number of calls they set up for me? If it's AEs, did it actually help? 10% of them close their quotas every quarter, et cetera. So I think all that together helps enhance customer centricity. And good product managers do that where, um, they don't think of their job as, as you know, we do a bunch of things and it's done for them, it's like, I know what my customers need. I know it before anybody else tells me. I'm constantly tinkering and making sure you know what they need is getting sort of serviced. Most importantly, is it leading to the right outcomes. Right? \u200aAnd if it's not going back with this experimentation mindset saying our hypothesis was training was a right answer, but actually it was not training. tried it and it didn't lead to the outcomes. And the right answer is something else. It could be a job aid, it could be, you know, it could be the entire sort of culture and the team needs to change, et cetera.\r\n\r\nSarah Gallo: Yeah, I think those are such great points. Like it's not just about, \u201cHey, I delivered this course,\u201d as an outcome, but \u201cHey, here's how this course I delivered led to improved performance, which supported this business priority.\u201d That's huge. And of course, not easy to do. It's a common challenge we often hear from our listeners and our readers. So I'd love if you could share a little bit more about how adopting product management principles, like roadmapping or prioritization frameworks, can kind of help bridge that gap.\r\n\r\nRashi Kakkar: Yeah, so again, you know, road mapping, prioritization frameworks and a bunch of these tools, et cetera, I think are really important. But I think to bridge that gap, really a couple of things, right? One is skills and one is the mindset, right? We'll touch on the skills. I think the first and foremost is that mindset, right? How do you create that ownership mindset in L&amp;D, and how you make them really feel like nobody needs to invite us to a table. We have our own strategic table and we need to invite people to it. You know, we're drivers of business growth. So I think that's really important, I think that starts by understanding. So a mentor once told \u200athis to me that, you know, the only sort of metrics that the chief executive officer at an organization, the C-suite, really cares about other CFO metrics and attribution's really hard. Like, I get it, it's not always easy to sort of attribute. Things to certain interventions, but how can you, you know, learn to read P&amp;Ls, learn \u200ato read sort of you know, understand the operations of your own business, but as much as possible, how do you tie in things that you do to those CFO metrics, right? I think that really helps you become a little bit more strategic and bridge bridges. Helps bridge that gap. And then the other thing really is going in always with a perspective, right? So the reason why there is this um, sort of, I guess, perception or used to be that L&amp;D is like an order-taker or it's something that lags the business needs is because of this. You know, project sort of mindset where there was a backlog, there was this input requirement. Someone from the business would say, \u201cHey, we need this,\u201d and a lot of L&amp;D people would, you know, create the best training in the world and they'd use all the instructional design principles and everything else that they know to create it and then throw it back. And that always sort of makes you an order-taker, not strategic, right? So [what] the product management thinking does is flips it, right? You actually go to the business and say, \u201cLook, we are constantly in touch with these people. We're keeping an eye on the market. These are the A, B, C shifts that are likely coming or other needs of your people, and therefore are the interventions we want to create, right? What do you think about it?\u201d Right? So it's a little bit of like, um, more than just a tool. \u200aIt's that, that mindset shift of, I actually own the \u200a impact. Which is how do I enhance the capabilities in, in these human beings? How do I help them grow and develop? And then you kind linking that back to strategic sort of business priorities and then being able to talk, right? Not being afraid of spreadsheets and numbers.\r\n\r\n[Ad]\r\n\r\n<em>As a training professional, your job is to effectively manage the business of learning. You probably tune into this podcast to gain insights on L&amp;D trends being used by some of the most innovative thought leaders in our market. But did he know that Training Industry also provides data-driven analysis and the best practices through our premium research reports? Our entire catalog including reports on deconstructing 70-20-10, learner preferences, the modern learner experience and AI\u2019s impact on L&amp;D, just to name a few, can be found at<\/em><em>\u202f<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/research\/measurement-and-analytics\/learning-measurement-for-modern-business-making-sense-of-iso-30437\/\"><em>trainingindustry.com\/shopresearch<\/em><\/a><em>. New insights create new ways for L&amp;D to do business. Let Training Industry research reports take your training initiatives to new heights. Go to<\/em><em>\u202f<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/research\/measurement-and-analytics\/learning-measurement-for-modern-business-making-sense-of-iso-30437\/\"><em>trainingindustry.com\/shopresearch<\/em><\/a><em>\u202fto view the entire catalog.<\/em><em>\u202f<\/em><em>\u00a0<\/em>\r\n\r\nMichelle Eggleston Schwartz: Love that. What are some of those key skills from product management that you think would be most valuable for L&amp;D professionals who want to operate more strategically, so what skills should they be focusing on?\r\n\r\nRashi Kakkar: Yeah, so I think, I think three big skills, right? One, like I said, so one of the big things that a product manager does is like shape the project a product, right? Sorry. So, so how do you shape the product, right? Which is. Are you constantly gathering insights from your end users, uh, from the other stakeholders? So in some cases it could be, you know, their managers, their bosses from, from their ultimate customers, right? If you are sort of \u2026 customer support reps have their own customers, right? Like how are you shaping the product by harnessing the insights that come from like your users and all the stakeholders around them, and then how do you sort of build the product? You marshal the right resources, you prioritize things. You sort of take a strategic call and say, if we need to do 10 things in this quarter. A, B is the most important. So how do you one shape the product? The second most important thing is like shipping the product that they say, right? Like, how do you make sure that high quality sort of product is a shipped or delivered to your customers on time? Every time there are no surprises in it, and it's sort of meeting the end needs of these people and driving impact, right? And so this is the whole idea that I set of \u200a experimentation, right? Thinking it's okay to sort of ship out things that are 80% done and testing it in the market. A lot of times we go into this black box in L&amp;D, we obviously take a lot of pride in our sort of trainings, our interventions, and so you wait till it's perfect and then you launch it. So instead of doing that, how do you sort of launch something that's 50, 60% ready and go test it out and say, this is an experiment, this is a pilot. And then kind of look at that and, and tinker things. Right. And so shipping the product is very important and which shipping is equally important, is like the communication, the marketing around it. Right. I think a lot of, sorry, technologists do this where, you know, they'll code the best sort of technology product and they'll ship it. And then they wonder why do our customers not come, or why do people not sort of \u200abuy our product? And a lot of times I think in L&amp;D, we do the same thing. We'll spend a lot of energy and time on like the thing, less time in trying to communicate it, convince people that you know, them sitting for this training or them sort of giving us their time and energy for these next three hours is going to create value for them, right? So that's the other sort of thing is like some of these basic principles of marketing, of copywriting, I think is really, really helpful is how you ship the product, but how do you get people entice to, sort of go through that experience and help them understand the value behind whatever you've created? And then the last thing is just like synchronizing people, right? Like good product managers do that. They sort of align stakeholders. They make sure everybody has the same vision, the same goal. Everybody understands, you know, the roadmaps and the priorities and the tradeoffs. And so how do \u200a you, across the organization, across all these different sort of businesses you are serving or, or different teams, how do you go and sort of synchronize all the people to actually create the interventions you want? So again, lots, lots right through that, but if I had to just summarize it, it would be how do you shape the product? How do you ship the product? And then how do you synchronize the people?\r\n\r\nSarah Gallo: I love that. Those are great points. I want to kind of circle back to something you mentioned earlier, which was about being an order-taker. And it's kind of easy to fall into that trap, right? If we're not thinking strategically. Do you have any advice for learning leaders who do want to shift from operating as order takers to being more of those strategic business partners?\r\n\r\nRashi Kakkar: Yeah, so I know I've, I've said a whole bunch of things to do and I think that's what freaks people out, because they're like okay, now this is an entire new discipline I need to learn with its own sort of jargon and its own tools and its own sort of frameworks. And I think all that's well and good, but the most important thing I'd focus on is this idea of like this ownership mindset and, and this idea of, you know, you are not less than the business.\r\n\r\nLike how do you get comfortable talking about the business so that you. Start showing up differently. Right. And a lot of ways you sort of train your colleagues and you train people. How to deal with you. It's like, you know, you, you sort of, how you show up trains how people sort of see you and, and work with \u200ayou. And so I think one of my first sort of big advice that I always give learning \u200aleaders is that, you know, really, really like lean into your expertise, right? Like someone who works in finance has that expertise in finance and the junior most coordinator that kind of shows up saying, \u201cLook, I'm a CPA\u201d or \u201cI have this expertise.\u201d And people give them advice and input, but they can push back and say, \u201cThat's all well and good, but I have done this training. I'm part of this function and this is eventually sort of my answer.\u201d So I think the same thing in, in learning or in even like broader people function, we need to be more comfortable doing where everybody feels like they can do it and it's well and good to take advice and inputs from everybody.\u200a But I think at some point telling people look like, you know, you all have a perspective on how learning and development needs to happen, how talent management, people management needs to happen. All well and good. We take your input, but eventually I am the expert in this discipline. This is my day job. I spend my time thinking about it. I've kind of gone to school, focused\u00a0 on this and then showing up as you know, an expert, right? So I think that to me is the biggest sort of thing that I think a lot of people in our profession need to do. I think a lot of people [who] join L&amp;D functions, people functions, they're generally sort of empathetic. They generally want to help people. But I always tell people, your job is not to make everybody else sort of feel good and make yourself feel miserable. Your job is to help the humans in your organization develop to the best of their capabilities and unlock impact by people. I don't like calling people the word resource, but that's what really is, right? The groups of people who work for you, how do they perform to the best of their ability so that all that growth can be unlocked, and that's what your job is. And you should really lean into that expertise and sort of push back when someone's sort of kind of bullying you into doing things you don't want to do. So I think that to me is the biggest advice to shift from order-taker to strategic business partner. Like all these skills and tools are easy to learn. It's the mindset that's the hardest.\r\n\r\nMichelle Eggleston Schwartz: I love that. Staying focused on your learners. Before we wrap up today, I'd love for us to shift our focus towards the future, so as learning functions evolve, what does the L&amp;D professional of the future look like and how might the role resemble that of a product manager?\r\n\r\nRashi Kakkiar: So I've actually done a lot of thinking about this and I think, and this might freak some people out, and again, this is just Rashi's opinion, right? This is, I speak on nobody else's behalf, but just Rashi who's thinking about this. I feel like the future L&amp;D professional will need to have like three big levers that they need to be very strong in. And then this is where I see people will freak out. But I think one, you've got to really understand technology inside and outside, right? You have to be able to sort of understand speak the language that your chief digital officer, chief technology officer, speaks, you've got to understand, you may not know how to build the technology or code things, but you really have to understand how to unlock technology, right? And I think in this world of AI, et cetera, where there's a lot of talk about AI agent tech workforces and humans and agents working together, you've got to not just only focus on how do you sort of upscale humans to work with technology, but maybe, you know, 10, 20 years later the L&amp;D folks are also figuring out how do we actually upskill these agents? How do you sort of work with the technology teams to make sure that these\u00a0 agents are also sort of meeting the needs of the organization the way, you know, the, the people side of the workforces, right? So I think technology is one lever you really need to understand. I think the second lever really is like understanding business, right? So exactly what your chief operating officer understands, right? Like operations, like how does this business really work? Like what business are we in? How do we make profits, you know, what are our costs? [And] drivers, what are our revenue drivers? \u200aWhat is the landscape that we operate in and what is changing? So really like understanding, you know, what the chief operating officer sort of thinks about is like. Like, how does our business really work? Right? And then the third thing obviously is like the L&amp;D skills, the people skills, right? Like that's an entire discipline in itself, but like, how do you sort of drive people, grow people, the talent management, how do you build institutional capability? So to me, I really think that, you know, we're at a very interesting inflection point where, and this is why I sort of started making a career pivot. When people ask me, you know, you've come from a world of product, like why are you moving into the people space? I truly feel like chief people officer, the chief learning officer, talent management, whatever you want to call it, I think that role, like this is the inflection point where if we all rise up to the occasion, this role becomes really, really critical in organizations. Because you know, we are at that point where there's a lot of talk about, about enhancing human capabilities. How do we sort of reimagine the way businesses operate with like AI\u00a0 coming in, et cetera. So to me, a learning leader of the future really needs to not just know their own discipline, which is learning development, people management, but also add to it, you know, business, learnings, things that you'd learn in an MBA plus, like a little bit of tech into it. And that's where I think you then, uh, you know, really get your CEO's ear.\r\n\r\nSarah Gallo: Awesome. I love that we're kind of ending on that hopeful note for the future. So with that, Rashi, thanks so much for speaking with us today. How can our listeners get in touch with you if they'd like to reach out?\r\n\r\nRashi Kakkar: So I'm available on all text-based social media platforms, which means, you know, I think still LinkedIn is probably the best way. I\u2019m on Twitter\/X, I'm on Substack, I'm on Threads, Blue Sky. You can just find me on any of these platforms. My first name, last name, and yeah, that's the best sort of ways to get in touch with me. And I obviously love listening to folks who've got thoughts on this or perspectives, and I'd love to know. you know, what sort of resonated or if they disagree with any of this stuff. It's always fun jamming on this as an idea.\r\n\r\nMichelle Eggleston Schwartz: For more resources on topics like this one, check out the episode description or visit the show notes on our website at trainingindustry.com\/ podcast.\u00a0 And don't forget to rate and review us wherever you tune in, tune in to The Business of Learning. Until next time.","full_width":false,"content_band":[{"acf_fc_layout":"social_callout","blockquote":""}],"tice_sponsors":"","custom_dfp_keywords":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.8 (Yoast SEO v27.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Business of Learning Ep. 93: Product Management in L&amp;D<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Discover how L&amp;D leaders apply product management principles to become strategic partners driving measurable business impact outcomes.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/articles\/strategy-alignment-and-planning\/the-business-of-learning-episode-93-applying-product-management-principles-to-your-ld-strategy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Business of Learning, Episode 93: Applying Product Management Principles to Your L&amp;D Strategy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Discover how L&amp;D leaders apply product management principles to become strategic partners driving measurable business impact outcomes.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/articles\/strategy-alignment-and-planning\/the-business-of-learning-episode-93-applying-product-management-principles-to-your-ld-strategy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Training Industry\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TrainingIndustry\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-06-02T13:44:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/ti-logo-stacked.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@TrainingIndustr\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"23 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/trainingindustry.com\\\/articles\\\/strategy-alignment-and-planning\\\/the-business-of-learning-episode-93-applying-product-management-principles-to-your-ld-strategy\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/trainingindustry.com\\\/articles\\\/strategy-alignment-and-planning\\\/the-business-of-learning-episode-93-applying-product-management-principles-to-your-ld-strategy\\\/\",\"name\":\"Business of Learning Ep. 93: Product Management in L&D\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/trainingindustry.com\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-01-29T16:00:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-06-02T13:44:16+00:00\",\"description\":\"Discover how L&D leaders apply product management principles to become strategic partners driving measurable business impact outcomes.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/trainingindustry.com\\\/articles\\\/strategy-alignment-and-planning\\\/the-business-of-learning-episode-93-applying-product-management-principles-to-your-ld-strategy\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/trainingindustry.com\\\/articles\\\/strategy-alignment-and-planning\\\/the-business-of-learning-episode-93-applying-product-management-principles-to-your-ld-strategy\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/trainingindustry.com\\\/articles\\\/strategy-alignment-and-planning\\\/the-business-of-learning-episode-93-applying-product-management-principles-to-your-ld-strategy\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/trainingindustry.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Articles\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/trainingindustry.com\\\/articles\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"The Business of Learning, Episode 93: Applying Product Management Principles to Your L&#038;D Strategy\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/trainingindustry.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/trainingindustry.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Training Industry\",\"description\":\"Articles, research and tools for the L&amp;D professional. 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