Lower in the organization, strategy is handed down as clear directives. At the VP/CPO level, you form strategy from ambiguous inputs: the CEO's thoughts, board meeting undertones, and informal conversations. Much of what's important is known but not written down or widely shared.
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A lack of written documentation for strategic initiatives is often a deliberate tactic, not an oversight. By keeping big bets as verbal directives, executives can later pivot, reframe failure, or deny the original premise, effectively gaslighting their teams. This prevents creating a clear record for accountability.
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.
Unlike in big tech where CPOs can be purely visionary, startup CPOs must constantly shift their focus between strategy and execution. This 'pendulum' might swing from 80% strategy in the beginning to 80% execution pre-launch, requiring hands-on leadership to be effective.
Culture isn't created by top-down declarations. It emerges from the informal stories employees share with each other before meetings or at lunch. These narratives establish community norms and create "shared wisdom" that dictates behavior far more effectively than any official communication from leadership.
A product vision won't stick unless it's marketed internally. CPOs should build an internal communications plan using compelling storytelling, multiple formats (video, text), and frequent repetition. This marketing-like approach is essential to rally the organization and ensure the strategy is remembered and acted upon.
Truly effective strategic clarity involves translating the complex PE investment thesis into a simple "strategy on a page." The best CEOs communicate this relentlessly until every employee, regardless of role, understands the company's vision and their specific contribution to it.
The transition from manager to director requires a shift from managing tactical details to 'directing.' A director's value comes from high-level strategy, cross-departmental resource connection, and solving organizational problems, not from knowing more than their direct reports.
For valuable strategic input, convene a large group of the company's highest performers, regardless of their level or title. Including top individual contributors in vision-setting often yields better insights than a meeting of only top executives.
In times of strategic ambiguity, teams can become paralyzed. An effective director doesn't wait for perfect clarity from above. They step into the vacuum, interpret available signals, and create a clear line-of-sight connecting their team's work to broader business objectives, even if it's imperfect.
Instead of developing a strategy alone and presenting it as a finished product (the 'cave' method), foster co-creation in a disarming, collaborative environment (the 'campfire'). This makes the resulting document a mechanism for alignment, ensuring stakeholders feel ownership and are motivated to implement the plan.
