In my early engineering days, I learned that when you're overwhelmed, the answer isn't to work faster - it's to build a better system.
Back then, that meant refactoring code so future changes were easier. Now, in product leadership, it means something else: creating the clarity and the space for others to move without you.
I used to treat time away as a test of control. I'd come back scanning for gaps - what hadn't shipped, what had drifted off track, what wasn't done the way I would have done it. My instinct was to pull things back into my orbit. To carry the weight myself.
But that doesn't scale. What I've come to value more is alignment.
Not just "what are we building," but "why now," "who for," and "how will we know it worked."
Making space for real conversations, where context is shared, assumptions are tested, and direction gets sharper together.
And then letting go of the how. Trusting that once the destination is clear, the path there will often be better than anything I could have planned.
It feels counterintuitive - slowing down to explain, to align, to give space. But that space is the point. It's where people find their own answers, make their own decisions, and create outcomes you couldn't have scripted.
The real work of product leadership isn't in controlling the journey. It's in creating the systems and the space for others to find their own way - and for momentum to build without you.
