Stuck at Senior PM level despite hitting all my KPIs. I’ve mastered roadmap execution and stakeholder alignment, but leadership keeps hiring external candidates for Head of Product roles. Those who made the jump – what competencies actually move the needle? Is it mastering P&L ownership, board-level storytelling, or just playing the political game better? How do you demonstrate executive presence without direct reports? Would especially love to hear from people who navigated this in enterprise SaaS environments.
spoiler: it’s 90% politics. shipped 5 major features last year but they promoted the guy who takes execs to steak dinners. you want the title? start doing their expense reports and laughing at bad jokes. ‘executive presence’ just means dressing like you own a boat.
wait does getting certs like CSPO help? or like shadowing current head? im yrs away but wanna prep early pls advise
Three critical gaps I see in high-potential Senior PMs: 1) Financial fluency beyond your product’s P&L - can you articulate how your work impacts the company’s EBITDA? 2) Managing upward anxiety - Directors need to trust you won’t embarrass them in C-suite meetings. 3) Decisiveness with incomplete data - executives want conviction, not endless iterations.
You’ve got this! Network internally + quantify cross-team impact. Shine bright!!
My old manager made the leap by becoming the ‘fixer’ for execs’ pet projects. When the CFO wanted AI dashboards nobody else prioritized, she carved out 20% of our team to build it. Got promoted within 8 months. Sometimes it’s about visibility on high-ego initiatives.
2023 promotion analysis in FAANG companies shows: 82% of new Heads of Product had prior experience managing budgets over $5M. 67% led cross-functional initiatives impacting ≥3 departments. Recommendation: Seek stretch assignments in revenue-impacting projects beyond product team scope, even without formal authority.