What Alexandre Dumas, Andy Warhol, and Dale Chihuly Can Teach B2B SMBs About Product Leadership
SMBs looking for a product strategy often think hiring a certified product manager is the answer. After all, isn't a credentialed expert supposed to solve everything? Yet time and again, businesses bring in PMs who follow the same templated frameworks, prioritize the backlog, and measure success in sprint velocity—only to realize later that they still don't have a winning product.
That's because great products aren't built by following checklists. They're crafted through intuition, strategy, and market awareness—just like great art. If you want to understand real product leadership, you'd be better off studying Alexandre Dumas, Andy Warhol, and Dale Chihuly than memorizing Agile principles. Here's why.
Dumas: The Product Visionary Who Knew His Market
Dumas wasn't just a writer; he was a master of serialization and systematic production. He understood that his 19th-century audience craved episodic storytelling, so instead of releasing novels all at once, he published The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo in serialized form. Readers became addicted to his cliffhangers, ensuring they bought the next installment. Taking his approach further, Dumas founded a production studio staffed with writers who turned out hundreds of stories under his personal direction, editing, and additions—creating what was essentially a 19th-century content factory that scaled his vision beyond his individual capacity.
That's product leadership. Dumas didn't just write for art's sake—he shaped his content delivery model to fit what the market wanted. He optimized distribution, engagement, and monetization in a way that today's SaaS companies and content-driven businesses could learn from.
Lesson for SMBs: A great product isn't just about features; it's about understanding and adapting to how customers consume and engage with it.
Warhol: The Disruptor Who Redefined Value
In my early twenties, while working at Warner Amex Cable Communications’ NYC headquarters, I found myself in an unexpected place—Andy Warhol's Factory. Through my "bohemian" friends on the periphery of Warhol's world, I occasionally spent time observing the legendary artist at work. What struck me wasn't the mythology or the scene, but Warhol's intense focus and systematic approach. Behind the celebrity persona was a mind constantly calculating cultural value and market position.
Andy Warhol didn't paint soup cans because he loved Campbell's Tomato Soup. He did it because he understood mass production, branding, and consumer culture. He turned commercialism itself into art, blurring the line between high and low culture. He didn't just create art—he created a movement.
What I witnessed firsthand was that Warhol's Factory, despite its bohemian reputation, operated with surprising structure. The artist himself was methodical—constantly assessing which images, people, and ideas had cultural currency. This wasn't random creativity; it was calculated market analysis disguised as art.
That's what great product leaders do. They don't just optimize features; they redefine markets. Think about how the iPhone turned a phone into an ecosystem, or how Salesforce transformed CRM software from a tool into a cloud-based subscription model. Warhol saw where the world was headed before others did—and the best product leaders do the same.
Lesson for SMBs: Your product isn't just what you sell—it's how you position it in the market. Differentiation matters.
Chihuly: Scaling an Art Form Like a Business
Dale Chihuly revolutionized glassblowing. Historically, glass artists worked solo or in small teams, producing one-of-a-kind pieces. Chihuly, recognizing the limitations of this model, built a scalable production process—creating immersive glass installations with large teams, allowing for mass distribution and broader reach.
He didn't just make beautiful glass; he scaled an art form and made it commercially successful. He didn't get stuck in the craftsman mindset—he thought like a CEO.
Lesson for SMBs: Building a great product isn't enough—you need a system that allows you to scale and sustain it.
The Problem with Certified Product Managers
Too many SMBs fall into the trap of thinking that hiring a certified product manager means they're getting a great product leader. In reality, what they're often getting is someone trained to follow established frameworks—but great products aren't built by frameworks alone. They require vision, strategy, and an understanding of human psychology, culture, and business.
The best product leaders think like Dumas, Warhol, and Chihuly. They understand the audience, know how to differentiate, and build systems that scale. They don't just prioritize backlogs—they shape markets.
If your business is struggling with product-market fit, the answer isn't another certification—it's leadership that understands how to align product with revenue operations and business growth.
Beyond the Checkbox Approach
What makes the artistic approach to product leadership so powerful is that it focuses on outcomes rather than processes. Consider how each artist approached their work:
Dumas focused on reader retention and recurring revenue (through serialization), not just completing manuscripts
Warhol created a unique value proposition that disrupted existing markets, not just technical execution
Chihuly built scalable systems that maintained quality while expanding reach, not just individual craftsmanship
Contrast this with the conventional product management approach that often emphasizes:
Completing sprint commitments on time
Feature development velocity
Backlog management and burn-down charts
Adherence to standardized methodologies
While these metrics have their place, they represent the means, not the ends. A perfectly executed sprint that delivers features nobody wants is still a failure.
Applying Artistic Product Leadership in Your SMB
How can B2B SMBs implement these artistic principles in their product strategy? Here are practical steps:
1. Distribution Strategy (The Dumas Approach)
Examine how customers actually consume your product, not just what features it has
Consider whether alternative delivery models (subscription, episodic releases, tiered access) might better match customer behavior
Focus on creating "can't-miss" moments that drive ongoing engagement
2. Market Positioning (The Warhol Method)
Identify opportunities to redefine your category rather than just competing within it
Look for connections between seemingly disparate trends that might signal a market shift
Question industry assumptions about what customers value and why
My time observing Warhol taught me something crucial: what appeared chaotic or spontaneous to outsiders was often the result of careful calculation. He constantly evaluated cultural shifts and positioned his work to capitalize on them. The same approach can transform your product strategy—looking beyond industry conventions to spot emerging patterns others miss.
3. Scalable Systems (The Chihuly Framework)
Build processes that maintain quality while expanding reach
Develop teams and structures that don't depend on individual "genius"
Create production systems that blend creativity with repeatability
The Leadership Difference
What ties these approaches together isn't methodology—it's mindset. The artist-as-product-leader understands that great products emerge from a deep understanding of:
Human psychology and behavior
Cultural context and timing
Business model innovation
Systematic execution
This combination is rare precisely because most product training focuses exclusively on the last point while neglecting the first three.
For B2B SMBs, this insight offers a competitive advantage. While larger competitors might have more resources for conventional product development, the artistic approach to product leadership provides a framework for differentiation that doesn't depend solely on budget or team size.
Rethinking Product Strategy
The next time you're evaluating your product strategy or considering a product leadership hire, ask yourself:
Are we looking for someone to manage a backlog, or someone who can envision where the market is heading?
Do we need faster execution of existing ideas, or fresh thinking about how we create and deliver value?
Are we trying to incrementally improve our current offering, or fundamentally rethink our approach to the market?
The answers to these questions should guide not just who you hire, but how you approach product development itself.
Great product leadership, like great art, isn't about following trends—it's about understanding them deeply enough to get ahead of them, and sometimes even to create them. Dumas, Warhol, and Chihuly each transformed their respective fields not by mastering existing rules, but by recognizing when and how to break them in service of a larger vision.
Your business can do the same.
Ready to approach product leadership differently?
I help B2B SMBs align product strategy with revenue operations to drive sustainable growth. By applying these artistic principles to your product approach, you can create offerings that don't just satisfy customers but capture market share and accelerate sales cycles.
Schedule a complimentary consultation to explore how I can help transform your product strategy from checkbox management to market leadership that delivers measurable revenue impact.
