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Introduction: A Different Kind of Power Inside Global Tech
For years, the global technology industry has celebrated scale, speed, and engineering excellence—often pointing to India as a powerhouse of execution and technical depth. Yet beneath this familiar narrative, a quieter transformation is unfolding. Inside complex global product organizations, influence is no longer defined solely by hierarchy or job titles. Instead, it is increasingly shaped by those who can create alignment across fragmented teams, competing priorities, and uncertain decisions.
Indian women are emerging as central figures in this shift. Working between functions rather than above them, they are shaping outcomes through trust, judgment, and clarity. The career and contributions of Dhvani Unadkat, through her roles at PayPal and Amazon Ads, offer a clear lens into how this form of leadership operates—and why it is becoming essential to modern product strategy.
Summary of the Original Leadership That Lives Between the Lines
The article highlights a growing change within global product organizations, where leadership is no longer limited to formal authority or senior titles. Instead, influence is increasingly exercised through alignment—bringing people, perspectives, and priorities together so decisions can move forward effectively.
Traditionally, Indian talent in technology has been recognized for execution strength and technical expertise. While these strengths remain, a subtler evolution is taking place. Indian women, in particular, are influencing product decisions not by commanding teams, but by earning trust and helping organizations navigate ambiguity. Their impact is visible in how they connect engineering, compliance, marketing, design, and customer teams—often operating in roles that sit between functions rather than at the top.
The article explains that modern products are built by globally distributed teams, where even small decisions can ripple across markets, regulations, and user trust. In such environments, alignment does not happen naturally. It requires someone to actively maintain shared understanding as products evolve.
Dhvani Unadkat’s work is presented as a practical example of this influence. In her roles at PayPal and Amazon Ads, she worked at the intersection of engineering trade-offs, regulatory constraints, and go-to-market strategy. She observed that while customer insights existed across teams, each group interpreted them differently. As products scaled, the original intent behind decisions often became diluted, leading to misalignment.
To address this, she developed a framework called Beyond VOC (Voice of Customer). Rather than replacing traditional research or data, Beyond VOC focuses on tracing how customer insights move through organizations and identifying where meaning is lost. The framework has been used during launches, planning cycles, and retrospectives to surface issues early, before they become costly problems.
The article notes that the growing recognition of Beyond VOC—set to be featured at GTM Alliance 2026 and discussed on Products That Count—signals a broader industry acknowledgment that misalignment is systemic, not accidental.
Finally, the piece explores why Indian women may be particularly effective in these roles. Many of the skills required—prioritization, coordination, and managing competing demands—are developed through lived experience rather than formal training. Although this work often remains invisible, its impact shows up in smoother launches, clearer decisions, and fewer last-minute fixes. As products grow more complex, this form of leadership is becoming central to the future of global product strategy.
What Undercode Say: Why Alignment Is Becoming the Real Competitive Advantage
Product Complexity Has Outgrown Traditional Hierarchies
Modern digital products are no longer confined to a single roadmap or team. They operate across borders, regulatory systems, and cultural expectations. In this environment, traditional top-down leadership structures struggle to keep pace. Decisions made in isolation can quickly create downstream chaos. Alignment, not authority, becomes the real control mechanism.
The Rise of “Invisible” Product Leaders
What stands out in Dhvani Unadkat’s story is not just her framework, but the nature of her influence. Product marketers, program leaders, and cross-functional operators increasingly act as the glue holding organizations together. They rarely own final decisions, yet they shape how decisions are understood and executed. This is leadership that lives between the lines.
Trust as a Strategic Asset
In large organizations, trust is often underestimated as a strategic resource. When teams trust someone’s judgment, they listen earlier, share concerns faster, and resolve conflicts before they escalate. Indian women in these alignment roles often become trusted intermediaries, precisely because they are perceived as focused on outcomes rather than personal authority.
Beyond VOC as a Symptom, Not Just a Solution
The Beyond VOC framework is powerful not because it introduces new data, but because it exposes how meaning degrades as information moves across teams. This highlights a deeper truth: most product failures are not caused by lack of insight, but by misinterpretation and fragmentation of existing insight.
Misalignment Is a Structural Problem
The article correctly points out that misalignment is not an exception—it is built into the structure of large organizations. Different incentives, metrics, and vocabularies create natural drift. Frameworks like Beyond VOC gain traction because they acknowledge this reality instead of pretending alignment is automatic.
Cultural Conditioning and Systems Thinking
Indian women’s effectiveness in these roles may also reflect a form of systems thinking shaped outside the workplace. Navigating shared responsibilities, constrained resources, and layered expectations builds an intuitive understanding of trade-offs. In global product environments, this translates into an ability to see second- and third-order effects of decisions.
Why Product Marketing Is Evolving
Product marketing is no longer just about messaging and launches. In complex organizations, it becomes a strategic function that connects customer truth to internal decision-making. Professionals who excel here increasingly influence what gets built, not just how it is sold.
Quiet Impact, Measurable Results
Although this work often lacks visibility, its outcomes are tangible. Reduced rework, clearer prioritization, and faster execution are signs of strong alignment. Organizations may not always reward this labor explicitly, but they depend on it more than they realize.
The Future Belongs to Connectors
As AI, regulation, and global expansion increase product complexity, the demand for connectors will only grow. These are people who translate, reconcile, and align across domains. Titles may lag behind, but influence will continue to shift toward those who can hold the whole system together.
Fact Checker Results
✅ The article accurately reflects current trends in global product organizations toward cross-functional alignment.
✅ The role of Beyond VOC aligns with documented challenges around customer insight fragmentation.
❌ While broadly valid, the article relies on qualitative observation rather than quantified performance data.
Prediction
🔮 Alignment-focused roles will become formalized as product complexity increases.
🔮 Product marketing and strategy functions will gain deeper influence over roadmap decisions.
🔮 Organizations that fail to reward invisible alignment work will face growing execution friction.
🕵️📝✔️Let’s dive deep and fact‑check.
References:
Reported By: www.deccanchronicle.com
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