The Product Leadership Stack: From IC to Executive Influence
A framework for turning product skills into organizational influence, one level at a time.
🎧 Now a Podcast Conversation
Check out the latest episode of The Product Leader’s Playbook, where our AI hosts dive into how product leadership evolves across the 4 C’s, Craft, Collaboration, Clarity, and Culture, and explore how to unlock new forms of leverage as you grow from IC to executive.
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“The consolation of imaginary things is not imaginary consolation.”
— Roger Scruton
The VP asks a simple question: Which product investment should we prioritize next quarter, and why?
You glance at your roadmap. It’s full of features, user stories, and research plans. But suddenly, none of it seems to matter. They’re not asking what you’re building. They’re asking what you believe.
This is where many product leaders reach their ceiling. Not because they lack talent, but because they haven’t evolved how they think. They’re still solving for velocity while the organization is solving for vision. They’ve mastered execution, but the job has shifted to orchestration. They’re fluent in output, but now the business needs outcomes, clarity, and confidence.
What got you here will not get you there. Not unless you’re willing to let go of what made you successful in the first place.
Why Product Managers Plateau
Most product careers are built around short feedback loops. You ship features. You show progress. You move fast. You’re promoted for closing gaps and pushing forward.
But eventually, that model breaks. You can’t A/B test your way to strategy. And you can’t gain influence by doing more of the same.
The Product Leadership Stack is a model I recommend to help product leaders navigate that shift from execution-focused contributors into high-leverage operators. It outlines four levels of growth that reflect how product leadership evolves:
Craft → Collaboration → Clarity → Culture
Together, these form the 4 C’s of Product Leadership, a simple but powerful lens to understand where you are, where your team might be stuck, and what kind of leverage is required at each stage.
I refer to it metaphorically as The Leverage Ladder, where each rung builds on the one below, but each requires a different mindset. Every level introduces a new form of leverage. And at each step, the only way up is to release your grip on the level below.
The Product Leadership Stack
1. Craft – Delivering Value Through Execution
Every PM starts here. You create value by solving problems. You manage backlogs, prioritize tickets, write clear specs, and close feedback loops. This level is all about building credibility through action.
But craft has a ceiling. If you stay here too long, you risk becoming a high-output builder who isn’t invited into high-impact conversations. You’re shipping fast, but not shaping the future.
Failure Mode: The Craft Trap - You equate volume with value and mistake feature velocity for strategic contribution.
Executive Cue: You’re delivering consistently, but leadership isn’t bringing you into strategic discussions.
Craft builds credibility. But credibility must evolve into clarity.
2. Collaboration – Aligning Teams Around Shared Outcomes
Once you master execution, your value shifts. You’re now judged by how well you align others. This level is about facilitating shared understanding across functions and teams. You work across design, engineering, marketing, sales, and data to build the connective tissue that holds the product effort together.
But collaboration is not coordination. It requires shaping direction, not just distributing context.
Failure Mode: The Diplomat Dilemma - You spend so much time making everyone feel heard that no one feels led.
Executive Cue: The team is active, but not aligned. You’re the hub of communication, but not the center of direction.
Collaboration is not about smoothing every edge. It is about sharpening collective focus.
3. Clarity – Driving Strategy Through Decision-Making
This is where product leadership truly begins. You’re no longer just managing delivery, you’re defining direction. You craft product narratives. You define principles. You say no with confidence because you’re clear on what matters most.
Clarity is not about having all the answers. It’s about framing the right questions and guiding better decisions.
Failure Mode: Vision Inflation - Strategy becomes so abstract that it stops informing choices.
Executive Cue: You’re asked for guidance, and you respond with options rather than a point of view.
Clarity is what transforms activity into progress. Without it, even strong teams drift.
4. Culture – Designing the System That Builds the Product
At the highest level, your job is to scale thinking, not tasks. You build the systems that drive decision-making, performance, and improvement, long after you leave the room.
This is where you codify strategy into rituals. You define what great looks like across hiring, onboarding, planning, and execution. You shift from building roadmaps to building the environment where roadmaps emerge with focus and intention.
Failure Mode: Ghost Culture - Rituals exist, but no one knows why. The team goes through the motions, and alignment decays without your presence.
Executive Cue: You feel indispensable. The team depends on you for clarity that should already be built into the system.
Your roadmap is temporary. Your culture is inherited.
Where Most Teams Get Stuck
Misalignment often happens when people on the same team are operating at different levels of the stack.
A senior PM is still optimizing craft, but the business needs clarity. A Director is focused on collaboration breakdowns, while the executive team is waiting for a strategic narrative. A product leader is building culture, but their team is still asking for backlog grooming.
This misalignment creates friction, but the root cause is structural, not personal.
If your team is struggling, ask not just what they are missing, but which level they are stuck on.
The Leverage Ladder: A Tool for Growth and Coaching
The 4 C’s of Product Leadership are not just milestones. They are operating modes. And the best leaders know how to help their teams shift between them.
Each level of the Product Leadership Stack represents a deeper kind of leverage:
This is not just a personal growth model. It’s a coaching framework. Use it to develop your team, shape your org, and calibrate your own evolution.
The Executive Moment
Picture yourself in a QBR. Sales wants enterprise features. Marketing is pitching a brand pivot. Finance is pushing for margin protection. Everyone looks to product.
They are not asking for a roadmap. They are asking for judgment.
Can you say, with clarity, what matters most, and why?
That is the moment this entire model prepares you for.
Reflection: Where Are You on the Stack?
Are you solving problems one level below the impact you’re expected to create?
Are you building leverage, or maintaining control?
Are you developing systems, or depending on your own effort?
What you let go of defines how far you can grow.
The Product Leadership Stack gives you the map.
The Leverage Ladder shows you how to climb it.
🎧 Want to Go Deeper?
This article is discussed in a podcast episode of The Product Leader’s Playbook, streaming everywhere:
🔹 Spotify | 🔹 Apple Podcasts | 🔹 YouTube | 🔹 Amazon Music
Know a PM, product lead, or Head of Product ready to grow? Share this article with them. This is how real product leadership begins.