Most companies don’t fall apart because their teams lack talent. They stall because their teams lack direction.
Product managers are trained, onboarded, and often surrounded by a sea of tools and processes. But when you ask them what matters most and why they’re building something, how it connects to company goals, or what success looks like then the answers are rarely clear.
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Product Teams struggle not because they aren’t trying. But because leadership hasn’t made the direction clear enough.
The Real Problem Isn’t Capability. It’s Clarity.
Many teams are busy but not aligned. They’re working long hours, shipping features, fixing bugs, chasing customer requests — yet nothing seems to move the business forward. If metrics stay flat and leaders feel disconnected from the product team, it’s a signal that something upstream is missing.
That “something” is usually strategy.
A strategy that lives in a founder’s head doesn’t count. A set of disconnected OKRs doesn’t count either. A real strategy turns a vague mission into specific direction.
It tells teams what to focus on, what to deprioritize, and how their work ladders up to something meaningful.
When It’s Time for Stronger Leadership
At certain inflection points, companies need more than hard-working teams, they need cohesive leadership. These moments often arrive quietly:
- You’ve moved beyond one product and are juggling a portfolio
- You’re growing into new geographies or customer segments
- Your product org has passed the 8–10 PM mark
- Different execs are pulling in different directions
- No one can explain how current work connects to long-term goals
When this happens, product leadership needs to step up — not just to manage execution, but to bring alignment, focus, and narrative clarity.
“If your teams can’t tell you why they’re working on something, it’s not their fault. It’s yours.”
How to Spot a Strategy Problem (Not a People Problem)
Here’s what misalignment often looks like:
- Teams are shipping constantly, but core business metrics don’t change.
- People are overloaded, yet leadership feels progress is slow.
- Everyone has their own roadmap format.
- Roadmaps are packed, but priorities aren’t clear.
- Executives can’t trace features back to any strategic goal.
- PMs can’t explain how their work contributes to the company vision.
In short, people are working in the dark. Not because they lack motivation or skill, but because the lights haven’t been turned on.
What Good Strategy Actually Feels Like
A real strategy creates coherence. Teams can explain their priorities in plain English. Different functions — sales, marketing, product, customer success — all point in the same direction. Tradeoffs become easier to make. Priorities are stable enough to matter, flexible enough to adjust.
Leaders don’t just set a vision and walk away. They do the hard, often invisible work of aligning intent with execution.
That means:
- Writing down strategic intents (not just taglines)
- Prioritizing a few key bets for the next 12–24 months
- Connecting those bets to product initiatives
- Translating initiatives into team-level problems to solve
And then, sharing it. Discussing it. Iterating on it. And reminding everyone of it regularly.
Leadership Is Also About Designing for Scale
As organizations grow, chaos creeps in. Product leadership must act as connective tissue. That includes:
- Standardizing roadmaps just enough to compare and roll up
- Setting a rhythm of check-ins and retrospectives that work
- Helping teams access insights from users, markets, and data
- Coordinating with sales, marketing, and finance to avoid silos
When these elements are in place, things get lighter. PMs stop second-guessing. Cross-functional tensions ease. Stakeholders feel heard. Progress becomes visible again.
If You’re a PM: What Can You Do?
You don’t need to wait for someone to hand you a strategy. You can start building your strategic muscle by asking better questions:
- What are we really trying to achieve with this product?
- What customer behavior are we trying to change?
- What tradeoffs are we making — and why?
- What would I do differently if I were leading this?
Talk to sales. Sit in on customer calls. Ask your leaders about the bigger picture. Strategy isn’t some secret skill — it’s a habit of seeking connection between choices, data, and direction.
Team Alignment Test
This simple diagnostic can help you spot where clarity is breaking down across your product teams.
| Question | Your Team’s Response | Is it consistent across the org? (Yes/No) | Follow-Up Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| What are you working on right now? | __________________________ | Yes / No | ____________________ |
| Why is that the most important thing to work on? | __________________________ | Yes / No | ____________________ |
| What customer problem does it solve? | __________________________ | Yes / No | ____________________ |
| How does this connect to our company’s strategic goals? | __________________________ | Yes / No | ____________________ |
| What does success look like? What metrics will improve? | __________________________ | Yes / No | ____________________ |
| Who else in the company depends on this work? | __________________________ | Yes / No | ____________________ |
| What would you stop working on if priorities shifted tomorrow? | __________________________ | Yes / No | ____________________ |
How to Use This:
- Ask these questions in 1:1s or team retros
- Look for divergence in the answers — especially on strategy
- Share findings upward to spark alignment conversations
Strong product leadership doesn’t begin with tools or training.
It begins with direction.
When you give teams context, they make better decisions. When you give them meaning, they move faster. And when you show up with clarity, they follow.
