A significant gap exists between leadership's strategic decisions and the team's ability to implement them. Leaders assume that mission statements or strategic pillars are self-explanatory, but frontline workers often lack clarity on how these goals translate into daily tasks, leading to wasted effort and misalignment.

Friction between teams often arises from deeply misaligned values, not just personality clashes. A "move fast" team measured by DAUs will inevitably conflict with a "reliability" team measured by uptime SLAs. True alignment requires shared goals, not just shared projects.

Product leaders often feel pressure to keep executive discussions confidential. However, effective leaders break this norm by immediately sharing and translating high-level business goals for their teams. This transparency empowers individual PMs to connect their daily work to what truly matters for the company's success.

Product initiatives often seem disconnected from company goals because teams struggle to articulate their work in terms of business impact. This forces executives to pay a 'translation tax' to justify product investments to the board and C-suite, undermining the product team's credibility.

When a product team is busy but their impact is minimal or hard to quantify, the root cause is often not poor execution but a lack of clarity in the overarching company strategy. Fixing the high-level strategy provides the focus necessary for product work to create meaningful value.

The term "product strategy" can create silos, suggesting it's separate from the business's main goals. Instead, frame it as the "product plan" for executing a unified business strategy. This reinforces a "one team" mentality across all departments.

Product leaders believe their teams lack the fundamental skills and knowledge to connect product plans to business outcomes. It's not just about how they present information, but about whether they've done the core thinking to make the connection in the first place.

Product managers often fail to get ideas funded because they speak about user needs and features, while executives focus on business growth and strategic bets. To succeed, PMs must translate user value into financial impact and business outcomes, effectively speaking the language of leadership.

The most critical skill gaps for product managers are not technical but relational and financial. The inability to make a compelling business case to diverse audiences and to move from a cost-only to a full profit-and-loss mindset are primary reasons for failure in the role.