Wednesday, January 28, 2026: Empower, Align, Deliver — Building Product Teams That Exceed Expectations

Jeff Lash Posted on January 12, 2026 Posted in Meetings

Speaker: Daniel Hawks

STL PM – Building Product Teams That Exceed Expectations – 2026-01 Download

Good products don’t fail quietly. They fail loudly, slowly, and expensively—often because teams were busy solving the wrong problems or weren’t given the space to truly own the work.

This talk focuses on what actually separates teams that deliver from teams that stall.

Across startups, scale-ups, and enterprise environments, the same pattern appears again and again:

Clear problems beat perfect plans
Trust beats control
Alignment beats hustle

When leaders align teams around the right problems and then step back just enough, teams do their best work.

What You’ll Learn

How strong alignment prevents wasted effort
Why autonomy without clarity leads to confusion
How to give teams ownership without losing accountability
Leadership habits that scale across company sizes
Real-world lessons from product, design, and engineering teams

Think of it like setting a destination before a road trip:

Everyone can take different routes
Everyone can drive at their own pace
But no one wonders where they’re headed

That shared direction is what unlocks speed, creativity, and real results.

About the Speaker

Daniel Hawks is a product leader with deep experience building and guiding high-performing teams across consumer and enterprise environments.

He is currently Director of Product at KNOWiNK and has previously held senior product leadership roles at NielsenIQ and Label Insight. His background spans startups, scale-ups, and large organizations, giving him a clear view into what helps teams thrive—and what causes them to struggle.

In addition to his industry work, Daniel has served as an Adjunct Instructor at Washington University in St. Louis, where he taught software engineering and helped shape the next generation of product and technology leaders.

His strength lies in turning real customer and business problems into focused, effective product strategies—and helping teams do their best work by combining clarity with trust.

Who Should Attend