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.

In a truly product-led company, the product organization must accept ultimate accountability for business-wide challenges. Issues in sales, marketing, or customer success are not separate functional problems; they are reflections of the product's shortcomings, requiring product leaders to take ownership beyond their immediate domain.

A simple mental model to distinguish between a Product Manager and a Director is altitude and time horizon. PMs operate at a low altitude (tactical, user-focused) with a short horizon (sprints, weeks). Directors operate at a high altitude (strategic, portfolio-level) with a long horizon (quarters, years).

As you move up the product ladder, your strategic time horizon expands. ICs and Directors focus on quarters, VPs on the year, and CPOs must own the 3-5 year vision. Thinking long-term is a core CPO responsibility that no one else in the product organization will own.

A fundamental shift from PM to Director is where you derive professional satisfaction. As a PM, joy often comes from shipping products and solving user problems. As a Director, your primary source of joy must come from seeing your team members succeed, grow, and have an impact.

Optimal product leadership structures separate the long-term, visionary role from the tactical, execution role. One person focuses on the big picture and selling the future ("the house"), while the other translates that chaos into immediate, actionable work ("fixing the walls").

Many founders become too attached to what they've built. The ability to unemotionally kill products that aren't working—even core parts of the business—is a superpower. This prevents wasting resources and allows for the rapid pivots necessary to find true product-market fit.

While many individual contributor PMs thrive on being scrappy and avoiding rigid process, a director's effectiveness is measured by their ability to create scalable systems and consistent practices. Overcoming an "allergy to process" is a mandatory step in the transition to a leadership role.

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.