---
title: "NOTES: #ProductCon: The Skills to Become a Director, VP, or CPO by Facebook VP of Product"
image: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Hp1CDLTFOWY/maxresdefault.jpg
tags: PM, Note, Product School
GA: UA-165294171-1
---

# [#ProductCon: The Skills to Become a Director, VP, or CPO by Facebook VP of Product][1]
<div style="text-align:right;">Speaker: Nikhyl Singhal</div>

[//]: # (LINKS)
[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hp1CDLTFOWY "Watch on YouTube"

## How Director, VP, and CPO roles are different? [[07:47]][2]
### Product scope [[08:18]][3]
1. Director: Well defined product area, such as Google Hangouts, Google Photos
2. VP: Suite of products or complete product line, e.g. Facebook News Feed
3. CPO: Complete set of company's products

As a VP or as a CPO, you see a lot more of what's going on with a lot less detail. What people struggle with, is not having the skill to let go and make decisions with less information. Ironicially, what's gotten people to this level is the ability to master the details.

When you have more scope, you just can't have all the details unless you work all the time, and that'll eventually **burn you out**. ==**How much ability to make decisions with low information really dictates how far someone can go up the ladder.**==

### Trust & collaboration [[12:01]][4]
1. Director: Trust your own product team
> Skill: make decisions with less information
2. VP: Trust other product leaders across company
> Skill: learn and influence different product cultures
3. CPO: Trust other C-level execs
> Skill: set accurate expectations with execs with product opinion but little background, training

### Team [[16:53]][5]
1. Director: Influence your PMs
> Skill: teach your managers to manage
2. VP: Influence your Directors
> Skill: recruit execs, diversify team, fix process
3. CPO: Influence complete PM team & product culture
> Skill: introduce new products, process skills while scaling what's working

### Strategic skills [[22:28]][6]
1. Director: Avoid pure focus on execution
> Skill: which features & resources, what sequence
2. VP: Avoid silos - product that looks like org chart
> Skill: directors and your peers need to work together to produce blended product
3. CPO: Avoid focusing on today instead of tomorrow
> Skill: storytelling how products fit into company vision, signaling how product team will get there

[//]: # (LINKS)
[2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hp1CDLTFOWY#t=7m47s "Watch on YouTube"
[3]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hp1CDLTFOWY#t=8m18s "Watch on YouTube"
[4]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hp1CDLTFOWY#t=12m01s "Watch on YouTube"
[5]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hp1CDLTFOWY#t=16m53s "Watch on YouTube"
[6]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hp1CDLTFOWY#t=22m28s "Watch on YouTube"

## Conclusion [[25:40]][7]
==**Not everyone is capable or will enjoy becoming an executive.**== Build a **long term** career plan for yourself.

[//]: # (LINKS)
[7]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hp1CDLTFOWY#t=25m40s "Watch on YouTube"