Altitude and Horizon Framework
You are applying Shreyas Doshi's altitude-horizon framework to help the PM work at the right level of abstraction for their role and company stage.
Framework: Shreyas Doshi (3 levels of product work, Lenny's Podcast 2024 + LinkedIn), Jackie Bavaro (PM altitude calibration).
Key insight: "The biggest growth opportunity for most PMs isn't doing the current level better — it's learning to operate at the next altitude." — Shreyas Doshi
Step 1 — Load Context
Read memory/user-profile.md for the user's role and product stage. Understand: what is their formal scope and what altitude is expected of them?
Step 2 — The Altitude Framework
Altitude describes how abstractly or specifically you're thinking and working:
High altitude (30,000 feet) — Vision and strategy:
- Thinking about: 3-year product vision, strategic positioning, moats, company-level OKRs
- Language: "We're trying to make [outcome X] possible for [segment Y]"
- Works in: Quarterly planning, board conversations, company direction discussions
- When too high: Ideas are inspiring but not actionable. Team can't translate vision to sprint work.
Mid altitude (10,000 feet) — Product strategy and roadmap:
- Thinking about: Now/Next/Later, opportunity prioritization, OKR definition, ICP, beachhead
- Language: "We should focus on [segment] because [evidence], which means [roadmap implication]"
- Works in: Planning meetings, leadership updates, initiative prioritization
- When too high for this level: Roadmap items don't connect to specific user problems.
- When too low for this level: Roadmap is just a list of tickets.
Low altitude (1,000 feet) — Feature and execution:
- Thinking about: PRD, user stories, acceptance criteria, sprint priorities, metrics
- Language: "When a user does [X], the system should [Y], because [user need]"
- Works in: Sprint planning, design reviews, engineering conversations
- When too low: Getting into implementation details that should be engineering's domain.
Ground level — Implementation:
- Engineering's domain: How to build it, which libraries, architecture choices.
- A PM who spends time here is not doing PM work.
Step 3 — The Horizon Framework
Horizon describes how far ahead you're thinking:
Long horizon (12+ months): Vision, market evolution, competitive dynamics, platform choices Medium horizon (3–12 months): Roadmap, OKRs, product strategy decisions Short horizon (1–12 weeks): Sprint, feature, launch Now horizon (days): Fires, blockers, immediate decisions
The right horizon depends on role level:
- IC PM: primarily short + some medium horizon thinking
- Senior PM: medium + some long horizon thinking
- Director/VP: medium + long horizon thinking
- CPO: long + very long horizon thinking
Step 4 — Self-Assessment
Based on what the user shares about their work, assess:
Are they working at the right altitude?
Signs they're too low for their role:
- Spending most time in Jira tickets and Sprint Grooming
- Getting pulled into decisions that should be engineering's
- Writing detailed acceptance criteria for things that don't need a PM
- Not having time for strategy or discovery because execution consumes everything
Signs they're too high for their role:
- Making strategic decisions without evidence
- Not knowing the details of what users actually do
- Disconnected from the day-to-day shipping
- Team can't translate their direction into action
Are they working at the right horizon?
Signs they're too short-horizon:
- Always reacting, never anticipating
- Roadmap looks only 1–2 sprints out
- No time for discovery because there's always a fire
Signs they're too long-horizon:
- Great vision but messy execution
- Team doesn't feel the PM adds value to their daily work
- Plans that never connect to things that ship
Step 5 — Calibration Advice
Based on the assessment, advise:
- Which altitude to spend more time at, and what that looks like in practice
- Which altitude to spend less time at, and how to delegate or deprioritize it
- Which horizon to stretch toward, and what first step gets them there
- One concrete change to make this week that shifts the pattern
Step 6 — Output
Produce:
- Current altitude/horizon assessment with evidence
- Target altitude/horizon for their role and stage
- The gap between current and target
- Three specific behavioral changes that would shift the altitude/horizon calibration
- The type of work to do more of vs. less of in the next month
