Product Council

What is a product council? 

A product council is a cross-functional group of senior stakeholders within an organization who meet regularly to align on product strategy, review major initiatives, and make high-level decisions that impact the direction of the product. Its purpose is to ensure that the Product Team is working on the most valuable opportunities for the business, with clear strategic backing and support.

Eek, sounds a bit epic, doesn’t it? A bit like the Justice League of product people, the galactic senate of roadmaps and strategy, the knights of the round table of product discovery. Let’s dial it back on the grandiose though, shall we. 

At its core, a product council is simply the space where big decisions get vetted. It’s where product leaders present their thinking, share upcoming bets, and get input from the people who hold the purse strings, manage operations, or have a direct line to the customer. 

So the people in a product council are important. You want folks who understand the business, trust the Product Team, and aren’t just there to say yes or no but to ask the right questions.

Popularized by Marty Cagan in his Product Management book Inspired,  this gathering of the big-wigs helps set the strategy of your product straight. 

What does a product council do? 

A product council shouldn’t exist just to rubber-stamp your ideas and initiatives. This group should perform various actions, focusing on things like:

🔭 Reviewing product strategy

Is the product solving the right problems for the right customers? The council looks at how well the product vision aligns with business goals and market opportunities.

📈 Tracking progress on major initiatives

Big bets need oversight. The council checks in on key projects, feature rollouts, or experiments, helping unblock or redirect as needed.

🧮 Prioritizing high-impact decisions

Not every roadmap item makes the cut. The council helps evaluate trade-offs and ensure teams are working on what matters most.

🤝 Aligning teams across the org

With leaders from Product, Marketing, Sales, and Ops often in the room, it’s a great space to surface misalignments early and get everyone pulling in the same direction.

✅ Making go/no-go calls

Launch or delay? Pivot or persevere? Councils often weigh in on big calls when stakes are high and perspectives vary.

🧠 Challenging assumptions

A good product council doesn’t just nod along. It asks tough questions, brings outside-in thinking, and keeps the Product Team honest about what success really looks like.

Who should be in a product council? 

A product council brings together key decision-makers from across the organization to ensure that product strategies are aligned with business objectives. The composition may vary depending on the company’s size and structure but typically includes the following roles:​

• Product Manager

The Product Manager is central to the council, providing detailed updates on product development, presenting new ideas, and offering insights into the product’s performance and direction. Their deep understanding of the product ensures that discussions are grounded in current realities.​

• Vice President of Product

This executive oversees the Product Management function as a whole and ensures that the product strategy aligns with the company’s broader goals. Their presence ensures that the council’s decisions are implemented effectively across all Product Teams within the organization.​

Depending on what your organizational chart looks like, this role might be replaced by the Product Director or even the Head of Product if they’re the most senior role under the CPO. This is something that can happen for all VPs of each department.

• Vice President of Development (Engineering)

Responsible for the teams running the technical execution of product initiatives, this role provides insights into feasibility, resource allocation, and timelines. Their input ensures that the council’s strategies are technically sound and achievable.​

• Vice President of Sales

Bringing a customer-facing perspective, the VP of Sales shares insights on market demand, customer feedback, and sales performance. This ensures that the product strategy is aligned with customer needs and market opportunities.​

It’s important to get both sides of the sales process, including the Customer Success side. If that’s fulfilled by two senior roles in your organization, you want them both on your product council.

• Vice President of Marketing

This role ensures that product positioning, messaging, and go-to-market strategies are effectively communicated to the target audience. Their insights help align product features with market trends and consumer expectations.​

• Vice President of Finance

Providing a financial perspective, the VP of Finance (or FD) assesses the economic viability of product initiatives, ensuring that investments align with the company’s financial goals and constraints.

Depending on the size of your company, you may also throw in the Chief Operating Officer (COO) into the mix, especially for smaller companies. This role is able to chime in on overarching business direction and ensure alignment with company-wide objectives.

How often does a product council meet? 

There’s no one-size-fits-all cadence, but most product councils find that meeting once a month strikes the right balance. It gives teams enough time to move initiatives forward, gather insights, and come prepared with meaningful updates without letting too much time pass between strategic conversations.

This monthly rhythm helps maintain momentum and alignment across departments. If meetings are too infrequent, decisions stall, priorities drift, and teams can end up pulling in different directions without realizing it.

That said, early-stage startups or fast-moving Product Teams might meet more often, while mature orgs with stable roadmaps may stretch to every 6–8 weeks. The key is consistency and keeping the product council sessions valuable and not just a standing calendar invite.

What are the benefits of a product council?

At its core, a product council solves the main problem of priorities shifting on a dime. These high-level alignment meetings make sure direction doesn’t change on a whim, saving teams from the whiplash of reactive decision-making. 

By keeping senior stakeholders in the loop, you’re also setting more realistic expectations: ones they’ve helped shape.

Other benefits of a product council include:

✅ A chance to get approval

A product council isn’t the place for endless chatter about five-year visions and far-off ambitions. It’s a focused opportunity to present your ideas, share progress, and get the all-important green light. When the right people are in the room, you can get buy-in faster, with fewer backchannel conversations and less politicking.

🤝 Exposure to decision-makers

Getting face time with executives gives you a clearer sense of what matters most to the business. It also gives them a window into the trade-offs and challenges you’re juggling. Over time, this kind of visibility builds trust and makes your job as a Product Manager a lot smoother.

🔄 Encourages cross-functional collaboration

A product council brings together perspectives from Product, Engineering, Sales, Marketing, and beyond. That mix of viewpoints helps you spot risks earlier, surface better ideas, and make decisions that work across the org – not just in a product bubble.

Product council vs customer advisory board

As a Product Manager, you’ve got more than one type of council at your disposal. Another key group worth assembling is a Customer Advisory Board: a hand-picked team of existing customers who represent a healthy cross-section of your user base. You can speak with them regularly to gather feedback, uncover pain points, and better understand the user experience.

If you’ve never come across the term Product Council before, it’s easy to confuse the two – especially since Customer Advisory Boards are sometimes called Product Advisory Boards.

Let’s clear things up:

• Product Council: A group of internal stakeholders who help make strategic decisions about the product.
• Customer Advisory Board: A group of customers who provide feedback, share insights, and help validate product direction.

Both are useful. Just don’t mix up who’s giving you buy-in and who’s giving you reality checks.

How do you run a product council meeting? 

A product council puts your organization’s biggest players together in a room – you better not make it a waste of their time! To run an effective product council meeting, follow these steps and best practices:

Step 1: Set an aim for the meeting 

Before the meeting, define exactly what you want to achieve. Whether it’s getting approval for a new feature or aligning on strategic priorities, knowing your goal will keep the discussion on track and productive. 

Having an aim stops someone from derailing the meeting by focusing on what they want to talk about.

Step 2: Prep your persuasion tactics 

As a Product Manager, this is your opportunity to pitch new ideas and secure buy-in. You’ll need to back up your proposals with both quantitative and qualitative data. Numbers make a strong case, but user opinions, feedback, and emotions add valuable context to the story. Be ready to explain why your direction makes sense – and how it aligns with overall business goals.

Step 3: Send out an agenda 

Share the agenda ahead of time. Your agenda should include:

• Who’s invited: Only include decision-makers or key stakeholders.
• The aim: What are you hoping to achieve in this meeting?
• Discussion points: Be specific about the topics that will be covered.
• Action Item Review: A quick review of any open action items from previous meetings.
• Critical Issues/Challenges: Address any urgent blockers or challenges.
• Feedback/Questions from Stakeholders: Allow time for additional concerns or feedback.
• Wrap-up and Next Steps: A quick recap of the meeting and clarification of responsibilities moving forward.

Step 4: Start with a product review 

Kick things off by reviewing the current state of the product. What’s working well? What’s not? Go through your key metrics, OKRs, and recent achievements. Be transparent – don’t shy away from discussing failures as well as successes.

It’s also a good idea to review the product roadmap and showcase one recent feature or release. Explain why it was built, how it aligns with business goals, and how it benefits the product.

Step 5: End with an exploration of opportunities and priorities

The second part of the meeting should focus on future opportunities. As the PM, you’ll share your thoughts on what should be prioritized and why. This is where you’ll gather most of your feedback from stakeholders. 

Make sure to depersonalize any disagreements. Just focus on the points of contention and identify ways to compromise or work around them.

Step 6: Make your decisions

Use the feedback and discussion to make key decisions. Sometimes, there can be a deadlock where no one agrees on the next steps. If that happens, present a few alternative options to help break the stalemate. The goal is to leave the meeting with clear action items and decisions on what to do next.

Product council meeting best practices

When following those steps to put together a product council, make sure that you’re also using these best practices for an effective, constructive meeting and avoiding a heated room of HiPPOs arguing with each other. You don’t want an angry hippo 🦛!

Share your roadmap 

Instead of just talking about your roadmap, show it. Before the meeting, share a dynamic, up-to-date version of your product roadmap with all attendees. 

Tools like ProdPad allow you to easily adjust the level of detail based on each stakeholder’s needs and communicate your roadmap properly, ensuring everyone is aligned on what’s coming next. With real-time updates, your stakeholders can stay in the loop on changes as they happen.

Choose the right people 

Keep your council small and focused. Only invite those with decision-making power or direct influence over the product. This helps avoid the meeting turning into a drawn-out discussion where decisions are delayed.

Set a time limit 

You don’t need an entire day to hold a successful product council meeting. Aim for 45 minutes – this is typically the maximum time people can stay focused without the meeting losing momentum. Setting a time limit keeps the conversation on track and respects everyone’s time.

Close the loop after the meeting

After the meeting, send out a follow-up email or Slack/Teams update, summarizing key takeaways, action items, and decisions made. This serves as a reference point for everyone, ensures accountability, and allows everyone to track progress before the next meeting. 

Assemble the council

A product council isn’t just a meeting – it’s where critical decisions are made and cross-functional collaboration thrives. Bringing together key stakeholders ensures that product initiatives align with business goals and stay on track.

Its role is to prioritize, track progress, and challenge assumptions to keep everything aligned with strategic objectives. It’s about more than getting approval; it’s about asking the right questions and keeping teams focused.

To run an effective council, set clear goals, share an agenda beforehand, and maintain consistency. When done right, the product council becomes the engine driving your product and company forward.

In a product council, you’re sharing your roadmap with your stakeholders. Give them a dynamic, relevant roadmap view through ProdPad. Our tools make sharing your roadmap easy and effective, helping your entire organization to get up-to-speed with what’s changing and what’s planned.

Try it out for free with a free trial.