The Power of Storytelling for Cross-Functional Alignment (with Ronke Majekodunmi, Director of Product Management @ Promevo)

One Knight in Product

About the Episode

Ronke Majekodunmi is a product leader and featured Product School speaker who is passionate about using the power of storytelling to help drive cross-functional alignment. We spoke about storytelling, as well as some stories from her own career.

A message from this episode's sponsor - My Mentor Path

This episode is sponsored by My Mentor Path. I'm a passionate advocate for mentoring, and believe it to be one of the highest-leverage activities you can undertake to get ahead in your career. I try to do my part, but am but one man, so I helped set up this FREE mentoring community to try to help out at scale. Sign up now as a mentor, a mentee, or both!

Episode highlights:

You can't just walk into a new leadership job & trash the old team's work

It doesn't matter where you worked before - there's always context and a reason for old decisions. Take time to understand them. Oh, and make sure you leave a clean audit trail when you move on!

When looking at a new job, work out your non-negotiable questions

Ronke has moved jobs for the wrong reason before and this has inspired her to make a list of questions she must have satisfactory answers to before moving. Create your own list and don't get buyer's regret.

Product leaders should be Chief Storytelling Officers

Storytelling is one of the best ways to drive cross-functional alignment and get everyone in the company on the same page. You should craft an inspirational story and ensure that everyone from top to bottom knows it.

Creating stories collaboratively drives alignment

Don't just go off into your ivory tower and write something yourself. Build shared ownership by getting the team to collaborate. This means you can start to let go, not need to be in every meeting, and empower the teams.

It's important to be in control of your own story

Ronke has had some bad work experiences in the past and this has inspired her to "run her race her own way", be her authentic self and give back to the community. We can all make a positive difference to other people's lives.

Contact Ronke

You can catch up with Ronke at her website. You can also connect with her on LinkedIn or Twitter .