From Building Products to Owning the Business

Dave Bottoms

1. 1© 2025 Upwork Inc. Proprietary and confidential. Do not distribute.
Redefining Product Leadership

From Building
Products to Owning
the Business

2. 2© 2025 Upwork Inc. Proprietary and confidential. Do not distribute.
Dave
Bottoms

SVP,
General Manager
Upwork Marketplace
Lead Upwork Marketplace BU,
$700M Revenue, $4B in GSV

Oversee Product, Design,
Engineering, Growth Marketing
Monetization & Operations

Joined from Meta in 2022

Started in product mktg, then
PM, now full P&L ownership
??????
linkedin.com/in/dbottoms/

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125+
categories of
work
10k+
skills
$4B+
Gross Services
Volume
$25B+
in lifetime talent
earnings
180
countries with
Upwork talent
832k+
active clients

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My journey
from Product
Builder to
Business
Leader

25+ Years in
Silicon Valley




Product
Roles
1996
2001
2008
2019
2020
2023
GM
Roles
2011

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What
makes a
great
GM?

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Expectations:

How
GMs
operate
Own the business,
Not just the product

Full accountability for
performance, resource allocation
& Growth
Think big,
Act bold

Ambitious, non-incremental
strategies. No sacred cows.
Scrappy, lean,
impact-obsessed

Build to prove, not to grow.
No empire-building
Win for the company,
nurture your team

Prioritize company success and
develop exceptional talent.

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Watch outs:

What
sets
GMs
back
Disconnected from
the business

Not connecting between
strategy, business, product and
operations
Avoids taking big,
bold swings

Plays it safe, inadvertently
defaults to small moves.
Constrained by
today’s limits

Fails to explore what could be
done with different and/or more
Over-reliant on
one lever

Focuses only on product, not the
entire business system

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GMs operate at
the nexus of
multiple domains
to balance
customer value &
business impact

Business Acumen

Own outcomes through
revenue, margin, and tradeoffs.
Product Intuition

Deep customer
understanding to drive
product engagement
Operating Rigor

Drive cross-functional
execution with structure
and cadence.

UX $$$
Data

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The
Product
Leader
Mindset
Owns the Roadmap

Success defined by
adoption, usage and user
engagement

Aligns XFN teams

Prioritizes depth in product
details

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Owns the P&L

Success defined by
revenue, growth, margin,
and ROI

Sets vision and direction
across Product, GTM, Ops

Prioritizes impact,
trade-offs, and scale
The
GM
Mindset

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A day
in the
life
Product
Vision
Are we on
track to
ship X?
Prioritizing
Features
Team
Alignment
Weekly
Sprint
Reviews
Usability
feedback
Business
Vision
Prioritizing
Levers
Weekly
Funnel &
Revenue
Reviews
Will
shipping X
move the
needle?
Resource
trade-offs
& portfolio
view
Unit
economics
& payback
period

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Case Study:
Get-to-Green



What is your
Playbook if
the Business
Is trailing
target?

Build More
Features
Double
down on
engagement
metrics
Ship
Faster
Pressure
test the
funnel
Focus on
revenue
levers
Reprioritize
and
reallocate

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Segmentation +
GTM strategy
Resource
Allocation Leadership
Revenue
Optimization
Business
strategy
Business
Foresight
Cross
Functional
Amplify and
elevate your
product
superpowers to
operate like a GM

●prioritize
●influence
●decide & act

Customer
Empathy
Roadmap
Prioritization
XFN
Influence
Data-driven
testing
Vision
Setting
Product
Intuition

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Start
running
business
rhythms
Look for
leverage,
not just
launches
Start to
own
business
outcomes
Make the shift

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Thank You!

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What’s a
GM?