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Career cheat codes for product leadership (part 1)

Hello Product Leaders!

During my career journey, I often felt confused and wondered why I wasn't getting promoted despite thinking I was doing a great job, aka great execution and delivery!

It took me years to figure out why…

And today, I want to share a few key principles that will help you reach the next step in your career.

So let’s dive in.

Table of Contents

• The Hard Skills Paradox

  • 1- Don’t work FOR someone, work WITH

  • 2- Work in public

  • 3- Ask assumption-breaking questions

• Key Takeaways

• How I Can Help

In Case You Missed Them

👉️ 3 High-Leverage Career Frameworks for PMs (Link)
👉️ Elevate Your PM Communication Game in 5 min (Link)
👉️ Build my Executive Presence as a Product Manager (Link)

The Hard Skills Paradox

One paradox of career progression is the hard skills paradox, that to grow professionally, individuals often need to step outside their comfort zones and engage in behaviors that may feel unnatural. This paradox highlights the tension between the desire for stability and familiarity versus the necessity of taking risks to advance in your career.

Psychologically, this phenomenon can be explained by the concept of the "growth mindset" versus the "fixed mindset," as proposed by psychologist Carol Dweck, detailed in her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

Now…Let’s get to the uncomfortable part…

1- Don’t work FOR someone, work WITH

First thing first, the mindset code.

If you want to do well in your career, it's important to change how you think about your company hierarchy and collaboration.

People tend to think I’m working FOR them, that’s wrong.

Start reframing it as working WITH them.

The key here is about your mindset.

This means seeing yourself as a partner who brings value and works together towards common goals, the company goals.

Don't just follow orders, but actively contribute to the team's greater plan and success. If you push good ideas, people will follow.

When you build this mindset, you'll feel more involved, empowered, and respected in the company.

Trust me.

This will make a big difference in your career and your growth.

• ✅ Mindset shift: Approach every interaction with bosses as equal collaboration.

2- Work in public

With the mindset out of the way, the second cheat code. Work in public.

• Be vocal about your achievements. It's not about showing off, but ensuring that everyone recognizes the value of your work. That’s it.

• Big mistake: Don’t expect your managers to remember all your successes, they won’t.

It’s in our human nature to remember failures and negative experiences more than anything else. That’s the negativity bias.

You need to counterbalance that.

It's a delicate balance between confidently showcasing your contributions and avoiding the perception of selfishness or taking all credit.

Remember, visibility and perception matters in a corporate environment.

Nobody likes it but that’s the reality.

• ✅ Make sure to advocate for yourself and your accomplishments, and don't shy away from owning your successes.

• ✅ I use Onenote to capture all my successes every quarter and keep them warm for appraisal seasons. Do something similar.

3- Ask assumption-breaking questions

People think being confident means having all the answers, but it's actually about asking smart questions.

As a leader, I've noticed that people who ask good questions in meetings always stand out, even if they don't have all the solutions and that’s okay.

For example, instead of just saying no to options A and B, you could ask

How can we solve this problem in half the time?

That completely ignores A and B but this gets everyone thinking differently and might lead to a better solution. This is leadership in the making right there!

I know one VP in my organization who does this all the time, she is really good at suggesting new ideas in a way that doesn't make others feel threatened.

This helps everyone share their thoughts and come up with better solutions.

So, being confident isn't about knowing everything, it's about asking the right questions and being open to new ideas.

• ✅ Become this person and ask questions.

• ✅ I use those questions all the time. Try them next time:

  • What if we flip the problem and try to achieve the opposite outcome? What are the sure ways to fail, so we do not go there?

  • What assumptions are we making about the root cause of the problem? Ask first principle questions.

  • Great this is the 3-year plan, how can achieve this in 6 months now?

  • What are the underlying principles guiding our current approach, and are they still relevant?

Key Takeaways

How I Can Help

Here are more ways I can help:

1. Upgrade to Growth plan to increase your PM impact faster

2. New Course: Manage Your PM Career to Product Leadership

3. Advertise with us? Get in touch today here

Get 1% Better Every Day. Execution Matters Most.