Google

Stripe

Anthropic

Instagram

Amazon

Yue Zhao

Chief Product  & Technology Officer, First PM @ Thumbtack, Ex-Instagram & Meta

Oct24

August24 - ExecPres

Dec24 - ExecPres

Oct24 - ExecPres

Feb24

Feb25 - ExecPres

Feb 2025

EP June 25

Sep25

Dec 2025

Mar26

Jun26

Cohort 1

Your superpower is a strength that makes you stand out as a leader. It is what you can do better than most as a leader. Superpowers often start as innate preferences honed through experience.&nbsp; Take a short quiz to find your executive superpower and in what contexts it is most valued.

Discover Your Superpower

Have you felt the sudden attention shift to focus on someone entering the room? Or the collective sigh of relief when someone speaks up during a group meeting to put the discussion back on course? Or the unmistakable voice of respect one person uses for another? This is executive presence. It is made up of multiple components put together, and it can be learned.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Components of Executive Presence

Use AI to make you irreplaceable. Build a system that works every time with prompts, skills, playbooks, and more.

Chief Product Officer, Executive Coach

Chief Product & Technology Officer, Executive Coach, Writer

Outsmart the Room: AI-Powered Executive Communication and Influence

Co-founder

UX Research

Design Manager

Creative Director

Senior Product Manager

IT Director

Sr Manager

Product Marketing Specialist

Sr Director, Software Engineering

McKinsey & Company

Thumbtack

Harvard University

★★★★½ from students at Google, Anthropic, Stripe, Amazon, OpenAI, Twilio, Fidelity, and more.<h4>You're a high performer. So why aren't you being treated like one?</h4>You deliver results. You get strong reviews. But in the meetings that matter, with the executives who matter, you're talked over, passed over, or simply not in the room.This is not about doing more work. It's how you show up.This course teaches you to use AI as a strategic partner who knows your stakeholders, your communication gaps, and your political landscape, and helps you navigate all of it.You'll learn the frameworks that experienced leaders use to command rooms, land ideas, and build the relationships that drive decisions. Then you'll build those frameworks directly into your AI so the next time you prep for a high-stakes meeting, draft an executive update, or map a tricky stakeholder, you have a prepared strategic partner already on your side.No coding. No intimidating connectors or API calls. Simple prompts and playbooks for your AI that transform how you show up.

Get heard. Get credited. Get promoted. With AI as your secret weapon.

Show up differently in every room you walk into

Say more with less

Walk into any high-stakes conversation fully prepped

Build the relationships that actually drive decisions

Become someone executives trust and sponsor

You're a Senior Manager, Director, or Principal IC at a tech company with 4+ years of experience

You do great work but aren't getting the recognition or promotion. You feel talked over in meetings or passed over for key opportunities.

You want AI to help you think and navigate, to be your strategic partners and secret weapon in corporate politics.

Doing a lot but not getting noticed?Feeling stuck in place?Wondering whether you should stick it out or head elsewhere? Learn how to tailor your work to best leverage your leadership superpowers.Did you know that at the highest levels of leadership, companies are often looking for spiky talent, not "well-rounded" leaders?Shift your mindset. Ruthlessly prioritize your time to focus on the work that helps you stand out. When you align your work to your superpower, you'll deliver more impact, get noticed, and move up into executive leadership fast. --- Focus on strength-based growth* Take your leadership strengths and what you love to do and turn them into your superpower* Learn real-life examples of superpowers of famous executives like Fiji Simo, Steve Jobs, and more.* Know potential pitfalls (or “shadows”) of your superpower* Manage multiple superpowers and adapt them to different leadership roles Craft your career trajectory * Craft your pitch for projects that showcase your superpower* Turn your superpower into your personal brand* Ditch the work that isn't getting you ahead. Get promoted* Build a positive cycle of delivering impact and advocating for your work* Incorporate your superpower into performance reviews and promotion processes --- When you reach a certain level in the workplace, it is no longer about shoring up your weaknesses.Instead, focusing on your strengths will get you further, and faster. Learn how to align your work to your superpower and career progression not only possible, but inevitable. --- What you will learn* Map your superpower to the type of projects and work environment that uniquely values your strengths.* Prioritize how you spend time and what projects you take on* Learn how to delegate or say "no" to projects that fall outside your superpowers* How to advocate for your wins and build your personal brand* Translate your superpower into a strong promotion narrative. --- Course content is based on Yue's personal experience leveraging her leadership superpowers to get promoted from PM to CPO in less than 15 years, landing mission-critical roles at Tier 1 startups and Meta alike. She also leveraged her superpowers to transition industries from consulting to product management to venture capital. Alumni from: Slack, OpenAI, Instacart, Guild Education, SurveyMonkey, Paypal, Braze, Meta, Instagram, Thumbtack, Sequoia-backed Tier I Startups, Google, Capitol One, Figma, Microsoft, and more. Well-loved and EffectiveA version of this course was run on Reforge with 90% promoters for the content and 98% promoters for the instructor. -----This is one of three Maven courses by Yue designed to help women and minority leaders fast-track to the C-suite. * Mastering Executive Presence &amp; Communication: https://maven.com/yuezhao/execpre* Chart Your Path to Executive Leadership: https://maven.com/yuezhao/superpowers* Self-Advocacy and Influencing Upwards: https://maven.com/yuezhao/selfadvocacy For more, Yue also runs The Uncommon Executive Leadership Launchpad, an 8-week leadership transformation program that helps women and minority leaders fast-track to executive levels. The program covers the topics above and adds additional topics like sponsorship, relationship building, and building sustainability in your career. It also combines curriculum with coaching and community in a way you will not find anywhere else. Check out the full program here: https://www.yuezhao.coach/accelerate ----

Chart Your Path to Executive Leadership Through Focusing On Your Strengths

Course syllabus

Focused discussions on the week's material and live Q&amp;A.

Thursdays each week

Personal projects with each lesson are designed to apply theory and examples to your specific environment.

Projects for Async Feedback

Refined and honed through workshops and classes taught at top tech and consumer companies, each lesson is packed with tactics and examples that are relevant and applicable to you and your workplace.

Well-loved, easy-to-digest lessons 

Course schedule

Leaders with more than 4 years of work experience in their industry looking to hone in on an area of strength.

High-achieving leaders who want to deliver more impact while raising the bar for their team.

Leaders who want to figure out what type of company or work is the best fit for their strengths and leadership style

Who is this course for

What you’ll get out of this course

Are you a turnaround guru? Visionary leader? Team builder? Are you uniquely able to see the special talent in others? Stay extra calm under pressure? Follow a proven method to identity your superpower based on your strengths and passions.

Discover Your Leadership Superpowers

Startups look for visionaries. Scaling growth companies look for seasoned operators. Work with me to transition to projects and places where you'll be invaluable to the business.

Supercharge your impact at work - become irreplaceable and get promoted

Learn tactics to advocate for your business impact and wins. Get feedback from myself and the community on your personal brand -- the external articulation of your superpower.

Build your personal brand to land a stretch role 

Superpowers help you deliver more impact with less work. Learn tactics and frameworks to improve your energy flow throughout the day, recharge quickly between meetings, and maintain a sustainable workload while taking on stretch projects.

Decrease your stress and improve your work-life balance 

Get tailored support throughout the course through projects and live Q&amp;A sessions. Hear directly from Yue how she aligned her superpower to her career, landing her in the C-suite and a 7-figure income in 15 years.

Get personalized feedback (not just theory)

Chart your path to the executive level by leaning into your leadership superpowers. Find environments that value you for who you are.

About the book

A book for aspiring executives who feel stuck in high-performing middle management roles. 

CPTO, Author, Executive Coach; Ex-Meta, McKinsey, Thumbtack

The Uncommon Executive: Breakthrough to the C-suite As A Minority

60 minutes of executive coaching with Yue

CPO, CTO, Ex-Meta, McKinsey, Thumbtack

1:1 Executive Coaching with Yue

Your career ladder just got a new rung. Do you know how to best climb it? 

CPTO, Executive Coach, Writer

Chief Product & Technology Officer, First PM @ Thumbtack, Ex-Instagram & Meta.

The old playbook said: manage people to get ahead. But with AI, managers are being pushed into IC roles. Super ICs are taking over the work of multiple people. How do you navigate these shifts and come out ahead? People around you are giving you a lot of hot takes ("management is dead!" "SaaS is dead!" "We're all builders!"). But it's daunting to figure out what's right for you based on your strengths, your situation, your career goals. This workshop gives you the tools to reflect, map, and iterate on your career path (because no one else is going to do this for you). Whether you're debating whether to go Super IC, trying hard to stay in management, or figuring out what to do now that you've been pushed into a Super IC role without asking for it, this is the workshop that will help you map a path forward.

Understand whether the Super IC path is right for you, and how to build influence, impact, and career momentum in either scenario.

Diagnose your career path with clarity

Understand where Super IC shines 

How to transition upwards to Super IC

How to navigate a forced Super IC transition 

The Manager Who Misses Building: You've been a manger and are good at it. You got into management because it was the only way to move up.

The Manager Who Got Pushed To IC: Your company just eliminated a layer, or stopped backfilling, and you're asked to take on IC work.

Early Career Figuring Out the Path You're trying to understand how AI is changing the career ladders. You want more than a "hot take".

Build your influence strategy with stakeholder mapping

CPO, CTO, Executive Coach

OpenAI

Microsoft

CPO, CTO, Executive Coach. Ex-Meta, McKinsey, Thumbtack

Feeling stuck on key decisions? People nodding in agreement yet projects fail to progress? New leadership revisiting decisions and randomizing your team?In larger organizations, the informal "org chart" can hold more power than the official org chart. And it can be challenging to navigate. Influence maps are a great way to clearly understand the people dynamics of a decision, project, or proposal. It allows you to see strategies and paths forward that may not have been obvious, or realize where you need to spend more time. In this one-hour workshop, you'll learn how to draw influence maps, what to look for in them, and how to create an action plan based on the learnings.

You want to grow your influence in your organization.

You have a key project or proposal to land

You work in an 100 person+ organization in a cross-functional role

Super IC or Manager? How To Move Up as AI Transforms Orgs

Chief Product  & Technology Officer, Executive Coach (Instagram, McKinsey, Thumbtack), Founder

Hilary Gridley

Product Leader & Writer | WHOOP, Dropbox, Big Health

Rise of Super ICs, VPs going back to building. Learn how the "management path" is evolving at the leading companies.

How "middle management" is changing

How to decide whether to go Super IC or Manager. How to break down your decision process.

What Factors Are Critical To Consider

What skills and traits are important to develop regardless of the path

Where To Invest

How To Manage Up Effectively

CPO, CTO, Executive Coach. Ex-Instagram, McKinsey, Thumbtack

How To Leverage Upwards Communication Opportunities

Why Managing Up Is Not Status Updates

3 Step Framework for Upward Communication

How to handle questions and short replies from executives

When Things Go Wrong

Prep for High-Stakes Leadership Meetings With AI

CPO & CTO, Executive Coach. Ex-Meta, Instagram, McKinsey

Use ChatGPT to quickly identify stakeholder goals, incentives, and pressures.

Understand stakeholder priorities fast

Apply AI prompts to predict objections, risks, and questions so you can prepare responses in advance.

Find your Zen through prep and practice

Use AI to reframe tense situations, respond empathetically, and use language that aligns with each stakeholder.

Resolve conflict with empathy

AI-Powered Stakeholder Management

Chief Product Officer, Executive Coach, Author, Ex-Meta, Thumbtack, McKinsey

Pitching an idea is not about writing a doc. Learn how to get buy-in for your ideas every time.

Well-tested framework for pitching your ideas

Difficult stakeholder? Tricky group meeting? Use AI to run scenarios and help you prep.

Prep for your conversations with AI

Sometimes, it's not about logic. It's about managing your emotions and fears.

Practice your emotional responses

How To Frame Your Ideas So They Are Heard

Chief Product Officer, Ex-Meta, Instagram, Thumbtack, Executive Coach to VP+

Learn what people think matters and what truly matters when it comes to landing your ideas. Hint: it's not the data.

Common mistakes leaders make when trying to be heard

Learn how to quickly reframe your approach to put the other person first and lower their defensiveness.

Two proven frameworks for buy-in even when you disagree

Sharpen these timeless skills using GenAI to prep and refine your approach.

How to use AI as your practice partner

How To Use GenAI to Nail Executive Communication

Executive Coach, CPTO, Author

Use GenAI to come up with FAQs for your executive meeting. Practice your answers and get feedback

Yue Zhao will enable you to thrive in the age of AI

Yue Zhao

About Yue

Courses

Outsmart the Room: AI-Powered Executive Communication and Influence

Unleash Your Superpowers: Chart Your Path To Executive Leadership

Workshops

Manager vs. Super IC: How To Make Your Next Career Move

Influence Maps: Navigating The Hidden Org Chart

Lightning Lessons