Marco Zima Simonella

Cruise ship or raft?

In 2011, my boss asked me a question that changed how I think about leadership:

"Do you want to lead a cruise ship or a small raft?"

The "cruise ship" was a big, high-revenue product in an established business unit.

The "raft" was a small team in a new, messy space with no guarantees and lots of politics.

I chose the raft.

That choice forced me to learn fast: leading without a playbook, navigating conflict between stakeholders, and making decisions under pressure with incomplete data.

Since then, I've spent 15+ years as a product leader:

→ Leading cross-functional product and marketing teams in complex organizations.

→ Building teams where people feel safe to disagree, push back, still trust each other, and move fast.

→ Coaching leaders who were thrown into "leadership" but still felt like they were improvising every day.

I'm also a certified Simon Sinek WHY Coach, because I've seen what happens when leaders are technically capable but completely disconnected from why they lead.

Now I partner with Product Leaders and Executives who are deep in the hardest part of the job:

→ You're managing across teams and orgs, but misalignment keeps turning into conflict… and it always lands on your desk.

→ You're the one holding the tension between executives who want speed and teams who need stability.

→ The ambiguity doesn't go away at your level. It just gets more costly when you get it wrong.

This is where leadership starts being about how much pressure you and your teams can take without breaking.

I help Product Leaders and Executives:

→ Find their anchor, the core leadership drivers that filter hard decisions and hold up under stakeholder pressure.

→ Navigate conflict between teams, orgs, and executives without losing trust or momentum.

→ Build teams that can handle ambiguity without burning out or waiting to be told what to do.

→ Develop the PMs around them into leaders who hold up under pressure, not just in calm water.

👋 Follow me on LinkedIn for practical content on product leadership, conflict, and leading through ambiguity.

🛟 Grab the Rafted Toolkit: Navigating conflict and team misalignment? Download the free 10-page guide from my website.