i’m trying to be methodical about the pm→founder vs head of product tradeoff. i’ve seen suggestions here to quantify skill gaps and set milestone-driven experiments, and the idea of a ‘founder-readiness score’ appeals to me. i want to translate my current pm metrics (activation, retention, launches led, cross-functional hiring experience) into a score that predicts success at either path. has anyone built a simple rubric that balances skills, network, and financial readiness? how did you weight those inputs and which thresholds mattered most?
a score is cute, but people forget the messy parts. i’ve seen 90+ ‘readiness’ candidates fail because of team dynamics or stubborn optimism about revenue timelines. quantify ego risk: how much will you lean on founder charisma? then score concrete things: repeated growth lifts, hiring/firing experience, P&L exposure. weight the money part heavier — no runway, no heroics. numbers help, but expect surprises. don’t pretend a rubric replaces brutal conversations with your future cofounder or spouse.
also, stop conflating head of product with founder-readiness. head of product needs stakeholder politics and scaling process; founder needs fundraising grit and sales chops. both overlap, but the missing 20% kills you. learn which 20% you lack and prioritize that. no one scores soft grit perfectly on a spreadsheet.
i made a mini rubric: product impact 40%, people mgmt 30%, business acumen 30%. it helped focus my learning. maybe try something similar?
also track 3-month experiments for each weak area. results matter more than theory.
I’ve used a pragmatic rubric when mentoring PMs leaning toward either path. Break readiness into four pillars: product execution (measurable launches and impact), go-to-market competence (direct revenue or sales enablement experience), people & hiring (leading managers, documented hires), and financial literacy (basic unit economics and cash modeling). I suggest weighting depending on goal: for founder path, give GTM and financial literacy 35% each; for Head of Product, emphasize people & execution. Validate the rubric by running three time-boxed experiments (customer revenue pilots, leading a hiring cycle, building a simple P&L). Use the experiments to update your score quarterly. Which pillar would raise your score the most with one focused experiment?
this is a great idea — pick one pillar and run a 90-day experiment. you’ll be surprised how quickly your score moves!
i built a crude scorecard when deciding between head of product and founding. i tracked five items weekly: launch impact, user interviews led, closed revenue-influencing deals, hires made, and simple cash models completed. the surprising outcome: small wins in revenue conversations lifted founder confidence far more than additional feature launches. scoring gave me permission to pursue sales exposure while staying in my role for another year, which proved decisive later.
If you prefer a lean version: start with three signals — paid customer conversion, independent channel CAC, and ability to run a hiring cycle. Score each 0–100 and require a 70 median to consider leaving. It’s coarse but actionable and faster to measure. Which of those three can you measure this month?