On the Blue Angels, and navigating altitudes in product
A metaphor about how to navigate different altitudes, while avoiding "altitude sickness", as PMs and product teams
A few weeks back, in the middle of a routine early morning Zoom meeting at work, I suddenly felt my office shake - followed by a loud, booming sound. Thankfully there wasn’t an earthquake or explosion or anything troubling of that sort. It turned out that the Blue Angels had chosen that day to do a low altitude fly-over our quant, quiet suburban neighborhood, en-route to their annual Seafair performance.
If you are not familiar, the Blue Angels are a special aerobatics squadron of the U.S. Navy & Marine Corps, comprised of naval pilots that are widely considered “the best of the best” in terms of their flying skills. In shows across the country, the Blue Angels perform daring aerobatics maneuvers in extremely tight-knit formations. Their aim is to demonstrate & inspire a culture of extreme excellence, high performance and stellar teamwork to the 15 million+ people who see them every year.
After a short break to enjoy the flyover with my neighbors, it was a bit jarring to “return to earth” and context-switch back to my regular work. The next set of meetings on my calendar were:
A recurring execution check-in with my product teams, discussing progress against our near-term goals & roadmaps, and identifying emerging risks we need to mitigate.
A handful of 1:1s with cross-functional partners to discuss resourcing and team dynamics topics that were top of our minds.
A Product Review with several leaders & stakeholders to dig into a high-impact product decision that could influence roadmaps across multiple groups.
At the end of the day, I couldn’t help but reflect on the juxtaposition of these experiences. While the Blue Angels and tech/product management work certainly don’t have a ton in common :) - the criticality of being able to perform & navigate various “altitudes” as a tight-knit team felt like a common thread to pull on.
In the case of the Blue Angels - their formations can fly as high as 15,000 ft and as low as 50 ft in literal altitude. They can touch speeds as high as 700mph, while at times converging their fighter jets to be as close as 10-20 inches apart. Awe-inspiring, really!
How might we achieve that level of performance and coordination as PMs and product teams?
PM archetypes & altitudes
One of the most common whack-a-mole, moving-target challenges for PMs is determining the “right” altitude to operate at any given time. PMs are often given feedback that they’re “too deep” into execution with their teams, and that they need to “zoom out” more so they can see the forrest from the trees. Or conversely, that they’re too “high level” in their direction-setting and that they need to get more into the weeds so that their visions & strategies can translate into reality. This can create an environment where PMs are always on their toes, stretched too thin and insecure about missing out on at least some part of their role.
Personally, I have found it helpful to reframe the intent of this feedback from a simple, one-dimensional framing (ex: strategy “versus” execution) to a nuanced, 2-D set of questions:
What is the level of altitude you are operating at? This determines the nature of direction-setting you are trying to do (ex: establishing a product vision vs. iterating on a specific feature), the time horizon you are solving for and the nature of decisions & audiences involved.
What is the level of control you are seeking? This is primarily about the balance of utilizing your own opinions/skills/traits vs. leveraging those of your team-members, partners or support staff to get things done.
These two questions help form a mental model of "archetypes that a PM can aspire to be at any given time:
For many of you reading this, your natural inclination might be to pick a quadrant above that best represents you. But the intent here is not to convey this as a personality test of sorts. Rather, it’s to better understand the diversity and range of the roles we can play as PMs to be most effective for our product teams.
It's likely true that we all have our default modes that may correspond to one of the quadrants above, or that best represents our “zone of genius” The inverse is likely true as well - quadrants we tend to avoid or fear where we are not as strong in our skillset. Building this level of self-awareness can actually be really helpful as a way to understand your default modus operandi & ensure it aligns with what your product & team needs. And if not - to help motivate you to develop a new approach or lean on others who are naturally stronger in quadrants where you are not able to play.
My general principles when it comes to applying this mental model are:
Over a long-enough time horizon, most products & teams need you to manifest all 4 archetypes. But in a short-enough time horizon, you can probably be great at only 1 or 2 of them. Trying to be all of the above all the time can lead to “altitude sickness” or burnout.
There are some inherent, natural tensions between archetypes (for ex: many PMs struggle at being both Evangelists and Surgeons at the same time, though the ability to be both is true of great founders).
Each of these archetypes has a potential downside or blind spot (see my footnote below for more on that).
If you have a tendency towards high-control, you will need to find creative ways to scale yourself. If you have a tendency towards low-control, you will need to find ways to enlist Strategists & Surgeons around you.
Which brings me to my next point - while the archetypes you choose matter, they need to make sense for the unique context of your product and the makeup of your product team.
Product teams & altitudes
Let’s go back to the Blue Angels for a moment. Beyond their daring, death-defying and dramatic performances lies a few important truths and insights about teamwork. Fun fact: the Blue Angels team is comprised of 17 officers (including 6 pilots) and is enabled by 100+ maintenance and support staff behind the scenes.
Team members have unambiguous, interwoven roles. When roles are distinct from each other (ex: flight leader/commanding officer), it is intentional. When roles are overlapping in nature (ex: two wing pilots), it is also very intentional.
Team members develop high-trust through months and years of training and performing together. They have a strong habit of iteration, retrospection and learning.
Team members hold themselves and each other accountable, given the high stakes involved.
Intentionally designed teamwork enables the Blue Angels to navigate various altitudes together, remain tight in formation and perform immaculately together.
To understand how these teamwork principles are applied, I recommend watching this inspiring clip of the Blue Angels sharing their process with the Seattle Seahawks NFL team recently:
For product teams, there are multiple insights from how the Blue Angels operate that might be relevant for us.
Connected to the point on archetypes above, it’s really important for product teams to introspect and understand what archetypes your various team members bring to the table. As a team, are you perhaps overweighted on Evangelists, and would benefit from being more like Surgeons to focus on executing the product? Is your team operating well at “low altitudes” but perhaps in need of more folks to step up as Strategists to ensure your long-term outcomes are mapped out clearly? Are you running into conflicts from too much overlap in your roles, or not enough overlap, across your team members?
Asking and answering questions like these, repeatedly over time, can help shape a product team culture that looks and feels like a “Blue Angels” squadron of the organization. You’ve likely seen such teams emerge in your own organization - or have been fortunate enough to be part of one. Simply said, they stand apart.
A footnote on the “shadows” of these PM archetypes
wrote a great post recently, aimed at product leaders, talking about the shadows or “dark sides” of our superpowers. Nikhyl makes the point that many of our unique superpowers tend to have a natural downside, which can sometimes manifest as a hard limiter in our career development. I highly recommend that you read his post - especially if you are a mid or senior level PM.The archetypes I shared above also have natural and somewhat predictable “shadows” (color-coded red below) that you need to consider, as you lean into those roles. Again, my recommendation is not to personify or identify with the archetypes or their shadows. But rather, to increase your self-awareness as you play different roles for your team - and avoid blind spots.