You Are Not the Protagonist (Operationalize, Don't Impose)
Your job isn't to convince everyone of your vision — it's to understand the leader's vision and find the spiky places you can shape it.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 85%
A mindset for operating inside an organization without the constant friction of trying to be the main character. In the story of your work you are probably not the protagonist; a company is an ecosystem where everyone operating from their own protagonist viewpoint makes work inefficient and painful. The job is to understand the leader's vision of the future, operationalize it into the best possible product, and locate the specific 'spiky' places where your unique perspective genuinely moves things — rather than fighting immovable forces.
Origin
Crystallized for Hilary Gridley by the former Chief Product Officer of Coinbase (who went on to found Bridge, acquired by Stripe), who told her a CPO's job is to understand and operationalize the CEO's vision, not to influence everyone into making what's in their own head real. Connects to Jeffrey Pfeffer's teaching on how organizations actually distribute power.
Core principles
- 01In the story of a company, you are probably not the protagonist — and accepting that reduces both friction and personal misery.
- 02If every person operates from their own protagonist viewpoint, the organization becomes inefficient and everyone fights constantly.
- 03The CEO's vision — usually a claim about what the world will look like in 5-10 years — trumps yours; fighting it is a losing battle.
- 04Fulfillment comes from the millions of downstream decisions where your unique perspective makes the product different than it would otherwise be.
- 05You still have an obligation to form and advocate compelling arguments; disagree-and-commit comes only after you've argued well and lost.
How to run it
- 1
Separate the vision from the execution
Identify the leader's core vision — their bet on how the world will look in 5-10 years. Treat that as the fixed point you're operationalizing, not something to relitigate.
Pro tip If you fundamentally disagree with the vision itself, that's a signal you probably shouldn't be working at that company.
Watch out Fighting over how the world will work in five years is a losing battle; pick a different fight.
- 2
Map the immovable forces
Using your model of how the leader thinks (see Magic Questions and Mental-Model Transparency), figure out which pieces cannot move — these are not the battles worth fighting.
Pro tip It's like Jenga: feel around for which pieces can move before you push.
- 3
Find your spiky, high-leverage places
Locate the areas where you are genuinely strong, or where the leader knows less or is even scared — those are where your unique perspective can be tremendously valuable and influential.
- 4
Argue well, then commit
Where you see a bad idea, you have an obligation to advocate against it as compellingly as possible (with data, or qual and quant together). If you've argued well and it didn't land, adopt humility, reorient around the decision as if it's right, and try to will it into existence.
Pro tip In product there are no right answers, only less-wrong ones; the only way to find out is to give the chosen path your best shot rather than squabbling.
Watch out Never lead a team with 'this decision is stupid but it's the job' — that guarantees failure and misery; explain the leader's rationale even when you disagree.
In the wild
When Gridley began reporting to a CEO, a coach — the former Chief Product Officer of Coinbase — told her the big mistake CPOs make is thinking the game is about influencing the CEO and everyone around them to make what's in their own head real. Instead, the job is to understand the CEO's vision and what they care about, and figure out how to operationalize it into the best possible product. This radically changed how Gridley saw her role.
→ A reframe that reduced her frustration, increased her happiness, and made her more effective and influential within the organization.
Common mistakes
Operating as the protagonist
Believing your worldview is the right one and that you must constantly convince everyone makes an organization inefficient and turns work into constant fighting.
Looking for reasons to disagree
People who feel lost in a company often poke holes and look for reasons a decision is wrong, instead of asking what would have to be true for the leader to be right.
Is it for you?
Best for
Senior individual contributors and product leaders newly reporting to a CEO or founder, who feel friction between their own vision and the organization's direction.
Not ideal for
Situations where the leader's vision is genuinely unethical or the company is fundamentally misaligned with your values — there, leaving or changing it is the answer, not committing.
From the transcript
“in the in the story of your work like of a company uh like you are probably not the protagonist”
“your job is to do is to understand what the CEO's vision is and like what they care about”
“you have to be able to advocate for what you think is true in the most compelling way possible and you have an obligation to…”
From the episode
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