6 Mindset Shifts That Separate Great PMs from Good Ones
The Craft of Great Product Management: 6 Big Ideas That Will Elevate Your Thinking
Great product management is a blend of art, strategy, psychology, and just enough chaos control. While many product managers are trained to focus on shipping fast and optimizing metrics, the best ones play an entirely different game. They think more deeply. They zoom out. They understand people, not just process.
If you’ve ever felt like you’re drowning in busywork, stuck in endless alignment meetings, or unsure why your smartest arguments still don’t land—this is for you.
This article uncovers six big ideas that will flip how you think about your work. They aren’t the typical platitudes about roadmaps or backlogs. These are hard-earned truths about how product really works in high-performance teams, how to unlock greater influence, and how to shift from being a doer to being a force multiplier.
Let’s dive into the first mental model that will instantly clarify why so many smart teams still get stuck,
1. The Three Levels of Product Work: Impact, Execution, and Optics
Most PMs focus their time and energy on doing things right. But here’s a better question: Are you doing the right things, for the right reasons, and are you making sure people actually know?
There are three levels at which product work happens:
Impact: the why—what outcomes you're driving, for customers and for the business.
Execution: the how—getting features built, tickets moved, deadlines met.
Optics: the perception—how your work is seen by stakeholders, teammates, and leadership.
Here’s why this matters: Most conflicts in product teams don’t arise because people are incompetent. They arise because people are operating at different levels of this triangle without realizing it.
👉 Ever felt like your leadership team keeps pushing back on a plan that seems perfectly reasonable to you?
That’s because you're thinking about execution (“How do we get this built efficiently?”) while they’re thinking about impact (“Will this move the needle in the market?”).
👉 Or maybe you’re frustrated that another team is getting all the credit while your team did the actual heavy lifting?
They’re playing the optics game better—communicating, building excitement, and surfacing their wins.
What high-performing PMs do differently:
They align up: They make sure their team’s execution ladders directly into clear, impactful goals. Not just OKRs, but strategic narratives.
They manage perception, thoughtfully: Not through empty status updates or over-polished decks—but through visibility, clarity, and storytelling. They understand that internal awareness creates momentum.
They call out misalignment early: If stakeholders are fixated on impact and your team is heads-down in delivery, it’s your job to bridge that gap—not just defend timelines.
A mindset shift:
You don’t have to pick one level to live in. The best PMs move fluidly between them, zooming out to re-anchor around outcomes, then diving into execution when necessary, and resurfacing to communicate progress and build trust.
Think of it like a camera lens. Sometimes you need the wide-angle view to show the full landscape of impact. Other times, you need to zoom in and fix the pixel-level issues in execution. But every now and then, you flip the lens to face the team—making sure everyone sees the picture clearly.
Success isn’t just about delivering great work. It’s about delivering the right outcomes, executing efficiently, and ensuring the story is understood. Master all three layers—and your influence, clarity, and momentum will grow exponentially.