PSHE Career Growth Framework
Evaluate talent by how far up the Problem-Solution-How-Execution ladder they operate.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 90%
Shishir Mehrotra's model for evaluating and growing talent: Problem, Solution, How, Execution. Junior people are handed all four and just execute; the most senior identify the right problems themselves. The growth curve isn't linear — in the middle, advancement stops being about scope and becomes about moving up the PSHE ladder.
Origin
From Shishir Mehrotra, CEO of Coda; PSHE stands for Problem, Solution, How, Execution.
Core principles
- 01PSHE = Problem, Solution, How, Execution.
- 02Junior people are handed the problem, solution and how, and are judged on execution.
- 03The pinnacle is identifying the right problems yourself, not just solving assigned ones.
- 04Growth is non-linear: early and late stages are about scope; the middle transition is about moving up the ladder.
- 05The same lens applies beyond PM — to engineers, designers, and even salespeople.
How to run it
- 1
Execution (E)
A junior person is handed the problem, the solution, and the how; the only job is to execute the playbook well.
- 2
How (H)
A more senior person is handed a problem and rough solution and figures out the how — milestones, organisation, rituals, go-to-market.
- 3
Solution (S)
A senior person is handed a problem and comes back with solutions, judged on the creativity and effectiveness of those solutions.
Watch out The S-to-P transition (the 'chocolate' middle) is the confusing zone where evaluation shifts from scope to how you work; calibrators and managers struggle here too.
- 4
Problem (P)
The most senior people identify the right problems themselves — telling the org 'you told me to work on activation, but our real issue is brand/quality'.
Pro tip Great P-thinkers correlate strongly with people good at eigenquestions — spotting the right problems mirrors spotting the right questions.
In the wild
Ranking salespeople by quota attainment only signals who negotiated their quota and territory well; the truly great salesperson can enter a new space, identify the right problems and solve them regardless of region or product.
→ PSHE generalises beyond PM into a broad talent-evaluation framework across roles.
Common mistakes
Evaluating mid-level talent purely on scope
Between levels the difference isn't the size of the job but how it's done (moving from How to Solution to Problem); judging on scope alone misreads two people doing the same job at very different levels.
Ranking salespeople by quota attainment alone
Quota attainment mostly reflects quota negotiation and territory selection, not skill; it misses who can actually identify and solve the right problems in any territory.
Is it for you?
Best for
Managers building calibration and career-ladder frameworks for creative, high-leverage roles.
Not ideal for
Highly routinised roles where problem identification is not part of the job and pure execution is the goal.
From the transcript
“it stands for problem solution how execution eshe”
“at some point you're senior enough that you tell us the problems”
“being a great P thinker it's very correlated with being good with item questions like can you spot the right problems”
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