To be truly successful, a product leader cannot just focus on features and users. They must operate as the head of their product's business, with a deep understanding of P&Ls, revenue drivers, and capital allocation. Without this business acumen, they risk fundamentally undercutting their product's potential impact and success.

It's not enough to improve engagement or NPS. A product manager's job is to understand and articulate how that metric connects to a financial outcome for the business. Whether it's growth, margin, or profitability, you must explain to leadership why your product goals matter to the bottom line.

While context switching is a PM's tool, it becomes destructive without focus. A leader's job is to protect their team by setting crystal-clear goals and outcomes. This allows product managers to context-switch *productively* within a defined scope, not be pulled in unrelated directions.

With only 12% of product teams finding profit-centric goals rewarding, leaders must reframe work. By connecting business outcomes to the emotional, human progress customers are trying to make, leaders can inspire teams far more effectively than with revenue targets alone.

Executives and investors care about lagging business indicators like ARR and churn, not leading product indicators like user engagement. It is the PM's job to connect the dots and clearly articulate how improvements in product metrics will directly result in moving the high-level business needles.

It is a product manager's job to understand the company's financial goals. Instead of waiting for leadership to share this information, great PMs take ownership by actively seeking it out. This means building relationships with finance and other departments to understand the metrics that truly matter to the business.

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.

Creating products customers love is only half the battle. Product leaders must also demonstrate and clearly communicate the product's business impact. This ability to speak to financial outcomes is crucial for getting project approval and necessary budget.

While execution skills are table stakes, the leap to leadership requires the ability to create clarity amidst conflicting incentives and chaos. Senior PMs are trusted because they can synthesize complex situations, align teams, and simplify decision-making, enabling others to move forward effectively.