Why PM Directors Struggle
Read on my website / Read time: 5 minutes
Recently, I had an interesting call with a Product Director. He was an excellent Senior Product Manager and some time ago his company promoted him to Director - a role he had coveted for some time. He's enjoying a fat salary, has a team of Product Managers, and is leading some cool products.
Sounds like what every PM aspires to until you look under the hood.
He booked a call with me because he's drowning in chaos. And being in such a visible role, he was desperate for some guidance. Negative feedback was piling up, he and his PMs were frustrated with each other, delivery was chaotic, and no one was following his roadmap.
He has a fancy title and is making more money than ever, but came to me stressed out by his situation.
It didn't take long for me to understand what the problem was here:
He's still working like a Creator in a role that requires him to act like an Operator.
The Creator-to-Operator Shift
Today, I want to walk you through one of the most common reasons why new Directors of Product struggle, and how you can avoid falling into the same trap.
If you're a high-performing individual contributor Product Manager (IC PM), getting promoted to Director feels like the next logical step. But what most people don't realize is that the Director role isn’t just "IC PM, but more." The Director of Product Management role is a completely different job.
Not recognizing this is exactly where people trip up.
Most new Directors think their job is to be a "super PM" — more decisions, more involvement, more control. They get involved in every detail, feel the need to be the decider on every product decision, micro-manage every PM's backlog, and even dictate how their PM's should do their job ("be like me") vs. coaching them.
But that mindset leads to burnout, team frustration and stagnation, and lack of strategic impact.
Becoming a Director is not about doing more product work. It's about changing the type of work we do.
To succeed at the Director level, we have to stop being a creator and start thinking like an operator.
Here's what I'll cover today:
- Why our value changes at the Director level
- What it means to operate instead of create
- Why this shift is hard — and where most new Directors get stuck
- What operating actually looks like in practice
- 5 steps to help you make the transition successfully
Our Value Changes at the Director Level
As an IC PM, we're a creator. We build products by leading decision making, solving problems, and driving execution.
At the Director level, our success comes from how well our team performs. That means:
- Our impact becomes indirect: we lead through others.
- We're judged not on team output, but team outcomes.
- We're expected to create systems, not specs.
Many first-time Directors miss this shift. They stay too close to the details, slow their teams down, and burn out trying to do too much themselves.
What It Means to Operate Instead of Create
Operating means building the conditions for great product work to happen at scale and over time.
At the Director level, we're no longer the one writing the story or making the final call. We're building the infrastructure that enables others to do that well.
Think of it this way:
- Instead of building features, we're building teams.
- Instead of owning the roadmap, we're owning the strategy and structure behind the roadmap.
- Instead of solving problems, we're making sure the right people are solving the right problems, the right way.
In effect, an Operator role tries to create more leverage from the resources that are available by building the right teams and systems.
That's what we're doing at the Director level.
Why the Shift Feels Unnatural
This transition is hard for one simple reason: it challenges our identity.
We get promoted because we were an exceptional creator. Letting go of that work feels like abandoning what made us successful.
We miss the dopamine hit of shipping features. The direct praise. The clarity of owning something from start to finish. (I miss it even today.)
As a Director, the feedback loop is longer. The work is fuzzier. The wins come through other people.
But the sooner we stop defining ourselves by what we ship, and start focusing on what our team achieves, the faster we'll thrive in the role. (And the better leader we become — which is what the job really is: leadership.)
What Operating Actually Looks Like
Here are 5 key areas where strong Directors operate effectively:
1. Hiring and Org Design
As a Director, we're responsible for shaping the team. That includes recruiting, onboarding, team structure, and long-term capacity planning.
- What roles and skills do we need on our team?
- Do we have the right people?
- Do we need more people? Why?
- How do we hire the best people?
- Who is best suited to do which job?
- What's the best reporting structure?
- What tools and resources do we need to get the job done?
Whether we've inherited a team or are able to create one from scratch, the job is always about team building.
2. Strategy and Portfolio Management
At the Director level, we need to zoom out from individual roadmaps and focus on portfolio-level decisions.
- Are our teams aligned to the company's priorities?
- Are we making the right bets across time horizons?
- Do we have adequate budget and resources to execute our plans?
3. Coaching and Performance
As PM Directors, our job is to help our PMs grow. NOT by fixing their work, but by teaching them to fix it themselves.
We give feedback, manage performance, and help team members develop judgment and confidence.
4. Process and Execution Systems
A PM Director is responsible for designing how product work flows through the org.
This includes rituals, decision-making models, performance criteria, and communication processes.
Our job is to build the product development engine itself—not the product.
5. Cross-Functional Leadership
As a Director, we spend more time with our peers in engineering, design, marketing, sales, finance, and all the other cross-functional departments. Our job is to create alignment, resolve friction, and make sure Product Management has a clear voice at the leadership table.
Summary
When you get promoted to Director, you're not just leveling up, you're changing games entirely.
Here's what to remember:
- The job of a Director isn't to do more product work. It's to enable better product work.
- You win by building strong teams, scalable systems, and clear strategies.
- Operating means stepping back from the work and stepping into leadership.
Your Next Steps
If you're a PM preparing for the Director role, or you've just made the leap, here's how to start operating, not creating:
- Redefine success. Focus on outcomes delivered through your team, not by you directly.
- Create clarity. Document how decisions get made, how priorities are set, and how performance is measured.
- Coach your PMs. Ask questions to encourage their thinking. Don't be too quick to offer answers. Help build their judgment, not just their output, and back them when they make mistakes.
- Invest in cross-functional trust. Align with your peers early and often. Don't wait for conflict. Build relationships of trust.
- Let go of the spotlight. Your greatest wins will come when your team succeeds without needing you in the room.
If you want to go deeper into what the Director role entails — including how to know if you're ready and how to prepare — I wrote about that here.
Becoming a Director isn't about scaling you. It’s about building the system. And if you can make that mindset shift, the impact you'll have will go far beyond any feature you ever shipped.
