director-readiness-advisor

Start by identifying your primary gap: thinking altitude, stakeholder navigation, strategic narrative, or direction creation. The advisor diagnoses your situation through a short question flow, then gives 3-5 targeted development moves matched to your timeline, such as reframing 1-on-1s or building a context cascade habit.

Build one concrete story for each of the four transition zones in the Altitude and Horizon framework, and reframe PM wins in Director language — lead with the strategic question and portfolio tradeoff, not the shipped feature. Address gaps honestly with a development plan rather than avoiding them.

Create a cascading context map translating company priorities down to your team's accountabilities, reframe 1-on-1s away from tactical status toward business through-lines, and name ambiguity honestly. Avoid reorganizing an inherited team before 60-90 days of understanding what works.

This is Hero Syndrome: rescuing feels rewarding and faster than developing others. Track your ratio of solving problems versus coaching people who solve them, deliberately hand off your top three IC activities, and let PMs struggle without rescuing them.

If you are still doing mostly IC work 12-24 months into the role despite deliberate effort, the mismatch may be structural rather than transitional. Senior IC or Principal PM paths are legitimate alternatives, and recognizing the fit issue is self-knowledge, not failure.