altitude-horizon

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