You’re a great Product Manager.

You know you’ll be an even better Product Leader. But...

Why is it so hard to make the leap from PM → Product Leader?

Hard Truth #1:
Opportunities for advancement in product management are scarce. Product teams are typically smaller, and when leadership roles open, the competition is fierce. You need to be primed and ready for when your chance comes.

Hard Truth #2:
The skills that make you a stellar PM won't necessarily make you a stellar Product Leader. Leading 100 people isn't the same as leading 10; it requires a significant evolution of your skill set.

So, what skills do you need? How do you acquire them?

That's where I come in!

I’ve been building products for over 25 years, and have grown from leading a small team of 5 to leading a 300+ org at a top-tier company. I became a Product Leader by navigating the very same obstacles facing you today.  

My mission is to help great PMs like yourself transform into outstanding Product Leaders.

You can do it! There are immediate steps you can take starting today to set yourself on this path.

Follow me here on LinkedIn to discover how.


- - - - -
🔥 If you *really* want to fast-track your career, visit: amplifypm.com/transform

Roshan Gupta

I have been a PM at Meta and a Group PM at Google, and if you think I had it all figured out. I would disagree.

What experience really gives you is not certainty.
It gives you scar tissue.

You learn some things late.
Often after you’ve shipped the wrong thing, said yes too many times, or lost trust you had to earn back.

Looking back over my career, these are the product-building principles I wish I had internalized earlier.

Not because I didn’t know them. But because I didn’t practice them consistently.

1. Outcomes over output.
I spent years celebrating launches before I learned to celebrate impact.

2. Fall in love with the problem, not the solution.
Most early mistakes came from defending ideas instead of understanding pain.

3. The art of “no” defines your strategy.
Every yes I regretted was a painful, future no I could have avoided.

4. Data informs. Intuition guides.
Data matters, but don’t ignore intuition. Intuition is rooted in data acquired over years.

5. Manage stakeholders, don’t appease them.
You don’t need their approval. You need their respect. Deliver value, not “yes”.

6. Empower with “why,” not “how.”
Micromanagement feels productive. It quietly kills velocity.

7. Perfect is the enemy of shipped.
Speed of learning beats elegance in almost every real system.

8. Your team is your best product.
You can fix a roadmap. You can’t outrun a broken team dynamic.

None of this is taught cleanly.

You absorb it slowly
- Through tension
- Through missed promotions
- Through meetings that don’t land

This is what senior PM growth actually looks like.

Making mistakes. Learning. Honing your judgement.

If you are earlier in your PM journey, save this.
If you are a senior, you probably recognized yourself in at least two of these.

Share this if you found it relatable.

P.S. If you are a PM who’s struggling to be heard and noticed, I have designed the live “Persuading People: The PM's Edge in the Age of AI” cohort to help you learn how to communicate decisions so clearly that leadership trusts your judgment, and your team follows you.

More than 100 PMs have used it to accelerate their growth. 

Register now if you're ready to be seen as the leader you are: https://lnkd.in/d7STtuG8

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PST (Maven)

Master the persuasion system I used to secure 9-digit budgets & Fortune 50 partnerships: amplifypm.com/maven

One-Off - 2026-01-29

amplifypm

Follow me to go from PM → Product Leader 🪜 | Founder of AmplifyPM (ex-Google, Meta, Yahoo, startups) | I grew from leading a team of 5 to leading a 300+ org. I'll show you how to do the same.

A Product Manager (IC4) at Meta can make around $242K.
A Senior PM (IC5) can make $449K+.
A Staff PM (IC6) can make $622K+.

If you want to close that gap, stop thinking the next level is “more scope.”
It’s a different skill.

At IC4, you get rewarded for being dependable. You keep the train moving.
At IC5 and IC6, you get rewarded for making other people confident in your judgment.

That is what changes comp and promotions.

Here is the practical difference.

When a roadmap review gets tense, IC4 PMs try to be thorough. They add context, show charts, and explain the process.

IC5 PMs do something else. They frame the decision first, then the details.

They walk into the room already knowing:
→ What decision needs to be made.
→ What the tradeoffs are.
→ What they recommend.
→ What they are willing to give up to get it.

IC6 PMs go one step further. They don’t just answer the question. They simplify the entire debate so it does not keep coming back.
They turn a one-time decision into a reusable principle.

If you want to excel and move up faster, practice these three habits.
Start meetings with the decision, not the backstory.

Replace “here is the data” with “here is what the data means and what I recommend.”

After every big call, write down the tradeoff you made so leadership can retell your reasoning when you are not in the room.

That’s how you become the PM people trust with bigger bets.

And that’s what you are paid for.

P.S. I have designed the live Persuasive Storytelling for PMs course to help you learn how to communicate decisions so clearly that leadership trusts your judgment.

More than 100 PMs have used it to accelerate their growth. Early-bird enrollment is open for a short window. Register here and save 33%: https://lnkd.in/d7STtuG8

At Google, Meta, and Yahoo, I have worked with enough PMs to notice something interesting.

High-performing PMs don’t stand out because they do radically different work.
Most of them are doing roughly the same things as everyone else.

What separates them shows up in quieter moments.

→ In how they frame a decision when the data is incomplete.
→ In how they say no without creating friction.
→ In how they help a room move forward instead of getting stuck debating details.

You rarely notice it at first. It just feels easier to work with them.

Meetings end with clarity.
Teams leave knowing what matters.
Leadership trusts that if something changes, this PM will adapt without drama.

And the opposite is also true.

When a PM struggles, it’s almost never because they lack effort, intelligence, or frameworks. It’s because their thinking does not travel well.

People hear the work, but not the judgment behind it. 
They see activity, but not direction.

Over time, that gap compounds.

→ The PM who can make tradeoffs legible earns trust faster.
→ The PM who can connect data to meaning gets more room to operate.
→ The PM who owns outcomes without over-explaining becomes the one leaders lean on.

Those are not flashy skills. But they are the ones that quietly shape careers.

P.S. If you are a PM who wants to build those skills deliberately, Persuasive Storytelling for PMs is designed around exactly this shift.

Over 100 PMs have already used it to grow their influence, trust, and trajectory. 

Early-bird enrollment is open for a short window. 
Register here and save 33%: https://lnkd.in/d7STtuG8

Google

Yahoo

When you present to senior stakeholders, the first 20 seconds matter more than the next 20 slides.

The biggest mistake I see PMs make: they assume their audience will pay attention.

That their audience cares as much as they do.
They’re wrong.

That's not how it works. 

You must learn to make people WANT to hear you.

Next time – instead of starting with slides, background, or the solution – I’d start like this:

“Right now, 18% of users who start this flow drop off before step three. If we do nothing, that’s a $12M annual loss.”

Then I’d stop talking.

Because now I have something far more valuable than airtime.
I have attention.

Only after that would I explain:

→ Why this problem exists
→ What we’ve tried so far
→ What decision I’m asking for

Most PMs do the opposite.

They start with: “Let me walk you through some background…”

By the time they reach the actual problem, the room is already gone.
And once attention is gone, you don’t get it back with more slides.

You get interrupted.
You get pulled into edge cases.
You end up defending details that don’t matter.
The meeting turns into a debate instead of a decision.

That’s why the first 20 seconds matter more than the next 20 slides.

Senior stakeholders don’t need the full download.

They need a sharp frame:
What’s at stake?
Why now?
What do you need from them?

Do that well, and the rest of your story becomes easier to land.

Repost this if it resonated.

P.S. I have designed the live “Persuading People: The PM's Edge in the Age of AI” cohort to help you learn how to communicate decisions so clearly that leadership trusts your judgment so you get seen and rewarded.

More than 100 PMs have already used it to accelerate their growth. Register now: https://lnkd.in/d7STtuG8

Bumped into this thread today, and it took me straight back to my time at Google when I turned a $20M budget into $120M.

A Staff PM admits they spend 20% of their time on strategy and 80% on storytelling.
Because strategy without narrative doesn’t move people.

For a long time, I believed the same thing many PMs do: “If the thinking is solid, the data will speak for itself.”

So I showed up with decks, perfect charts, clean assumptions, and a clear logic.

My proposals got approved. But they rarely got momentum.
This is exactly what this thread talks about, and it’s a painful kind of approval.
You get the “sure, sounds fine” approval.
Not the “this is the priority” approval.

The thread nails why. The Staff PM:

→ Walked into exec reviews with 20 slides of immaculate charts.
→ The VP looked at their phone.
→ The initiative technically passed, but it wasn’t championed.

Then they watched a peer pitch a weaker idea with fewer charts.
But the peer told a story.

→ A specific user in distress.
→ A villain, the current broken process.
→ A hero, the proposed change.
→ A cost of doing nothing.

Execs leaned in. They got double the funding.

That’s the difference between being correct and being compelling.

Being correct gets you approval.

Being compelling gets you attention.

Data proves, but story persuades.

And at senior levels, persuasion IS the job.

If you want your work to move faster, get prioritized, and get real backing, the lever is rarely another chart. It’s narrative structure.

P.S. When stakeholders understand your narrative, they trust your judgment even if they disagree. This is the kind of storytelling PMs build inside “Persuading People: The PM’s Edge in the Age of AI”.

If you want a repeatable system to turn feedback into alignment to get seen and rewarded as the leader you are register here: https://lnkd.in/dB7xfrvr

If I wanted to grow my career as a Product Manager in 2026, I would stop blindly following most of the advice that gets recycled on LinkedIn.

Because a lot of the loudest PM advice comes from people who have barely done the job.

→ They have never been the ones trying to get engineering time when every team is understaffed.

→ They have never had to kill a feature users loved because the data quietly said it was the wrong bet.

→ They have never stood in front of skeptical stakeholders defending a roadmap that was already starting to crack.

→ They have never owned a launch that didn’t go the way the deck promised.

Yet they sell frameworks. Playbooks. “Proven systems”.
And the irony is they're teaching a job they just started learning themselves.

I see it constantly.
People who have never been PMs, but aspire to be one.
People who are one year into their first PM role.

They package theory as experience.

And PMs eat it up because we are desperate for guidance in a role that's different at every company.

I'm not calling anyone out, but I cannot watch as PMs fall for everything they see online and then blame themselves when it doesn't work.

You can never learn Product management from templates.

You can learn it from:
→ Shipping features that flop
→ Making trade-offs that upset everyone
→ Building trust with engineers who don't report to you
→ Saying no to your CEO's pet projects

Before you follow PM advice on LinkedIn, ask one question:
Have they done the job?
And have they done it long enough?

If not, keep scrolling.

Today, I’m going to give away a big part of what actually helped me grow as a PM at Meta, and then GPM at Google, so read this carefully.

Like every PM earlier in my career, I thought growth was about getting better at the craft.

→ Better PRDs
→ Cleaner metrics
→ More structured thinking

And to be fair, that’s what gets you promoted the first few times.

But at some point, that stopped being the bottleneck.

When I moved into more senior PM roles, including at Meta and later at Google, I noticed something uncomfortable.

→ My work was solid.
→ The thinking was sound.
→ The analysis held up.

Yet some initiatives moved fast and got real backing, while others stalled despite being “approved”.

No one said anything explicitly. There was no negative feedback.
Just a quiet difference in energy.

Over time, I realized what was missing.

I wasn’t failing at product.
I was failing to carry the thinking through the room.

I was explaining instead of leading.
Answering instead of framing.
Providing context instead of anchoring decisions.

In senior rooms, that distinction matters more than people admit.

People aren’t just listening to what you’re saying.
They’re paying attention to what happens after you speak.

→ Do you drift into the background when challenged, or do you come back to the core trade-off?
→ Do your answers tighten the narrative, or scatter it?
→ Does the room feel clearer after you speak, or more complicated?

That’s when I learned something that sounds obvious but took years to internalize.

👉🏽 There’s a difference between getting your message out and getting your message across.

Getting it out means the words were spoken.
Getting it across means the room moved.

That shift didn’t happen overnight for me.
It came from sitting in enough rooms, missing enough signals, and slowly realizing why some conversations moved the room, and others didn’t.

If you’re a PM who feels like your work is good but your impact isn’t compounding the way it should, this might be the gap you’re feeling, too.

Not a lack of ability. A lack of narrative.
And once you see that, you can’t unsee it.

This is the work I focus on now – helping PMs turn solid thinking into clear, persuasive narratives that actually move people.

If you want to build that skill intentionally, register for my live class “Persuading People: The PM’s Edge in the Age of AI”.

An exclusive system that helps PMs get seen and rewarded. 

Register here: https://lnkd.in/dB7xfrvr

The PM job is really 2 jobs. And I bet you’re only doing 1 of them.


1. Operator - keep things moving.
2. Strategist - choose what matters.

Most PMs only schedule time for the first.
So the second gets squeezed into “when things slow down.”

And that’s why so many PMs feel like they’re shipping a lot, but influencing less.

Because when strategy is constantly interrupted, you don’t just lose time.
You lose the thread.

The narrative that answers:

→ What are we solving?
→ Why now?
→ What are we NOT doing?
→ What does success look like?
→ What tradeoff are we willing to own?

Without that story, the org defaults to:

→ Opinions over priorities
→ Loudest stakeholder over clearest direction
→ “Quick wins” over meaningful bets

This is why I don’t think the next PM superpower is another framework. It’s storytelling.

Not presentation skills or being charismatic.
The real skill is turning messy inputs into a clear, repeatable narrative that:

→ Gets buy-in when you’re not in the room
→ Protects the roadmap from constant re-litigation
→ Gives your team confidence in the why, not just the what

And yes, storytelling is also how you protect mindspace.

Because when the story is clear, you stop re-explaining decisions 20 times a week and focus on what matters the most.

PMs who leverage storytelling get noticed, rewarded, and promoted fast, and I've seen that happening at Google and Meta.

P.S. I have designed the live Persuasive Storytelling for PMs course to help you learn how to communicate decisions so clearly that leadership trusts your judgment.

More than 100 PMs have used it to accelerate their growth. Early-bird discount ends today, register now and save 33%: https://lnkd.in/d7STtuG8

Today I want to admit something I avoided for a long time. For many years, I was a “good PM”...

..But not an influential one.

Like most PMs, I lived in Line 1 and Line 2, because they feel safe.

Line 1: To report
Weekly updates. Status decks. “Quick sync?” calls.
I was responsive, available, and always “on top of things.”

Line 2: To collect frameworks
I could name every prioritization model.
I had templates for discovery, strategy, roadmaps, OKRs, you name it.

And yet, something kept happening.

→ My roadmap would get questioned every time.
→ Decisions would get reopened again.
→ Stakeholders would “align” in meetings, then push back in Slack.

I thought I needed more data, slides, and frameworks.
What I actually needed was something simpler.

A story people could believe.

Because here’s what no one tells you:

In most companies, you don’t win with the best idea.
You win with the idea that can be understood, repeated, and defended when you’re not in the room.

That’s when it clicked for me.

There are four lines PMs stand in:

1. To report - easy to be busy, hard to create movement
2. To collect frameworks - feels like growth, often becomes hiding
3. To prioritize - where tradeoffs begin
4. To persuade - where careers accelerate

The shift for me happened the day I stopped sending “updates", and started sending a narrative.

A narrative that told:

→ Here’s what changed
→ Here’s the tension we can’t ignore
→ Here are the options (and the tradeoffs)
→ Here’s the decision I recommend
→ Here’s what I need from you

Suddenly, I wasn’t fighting for attention.

People were pulling clarity out of my message.

If you feel stuck right now - busy but not advancing - ask yourself:

Are you standing in the lines that keep you safe, or the line that makes you effective?

P.S. I have designed the live Persuasive Storytelling for PMs course to help you learn how to communicate decisions so clearly that leadership trusts your judgment.

More than 100 PMs have used it to accelerate their growth. Register now if you're ready to be seen as the leader you are: https://lnkd.in/d7STtuG8

I can usually tell in 30 seconds whether a PM will lose the room.


By how much they tried to fit on the first slide.

The slide is packed.
↳ Context paragraph at the top
↳ Two charts side by side
↳ A roadmap snapshot squeezed in
↳ Three footnotes “just in case.”
↳ And somewhere in the corner, a tiny line that says “Decision needed.”

The PM thinks they’re being thorough, even I thought the same when I started as a PM.

But senior stakeholders read something very different.
They read hesitation.

Because when a slide is doing everything, it usually means the PM hasn’t yet decided what matters most.

At senior levels, slides are not about conveying information. They are about conveying judgment.

Judgment shows up in:
→ What you choose to leave out.
→ What you choose to highlight.
→ What you repeat.
→ And what you are asking the room to decide right now.

Most PMs overload slides because they are trying to protect themselves.
→ From questions
→ From pushback
→ From being wrong

Ironically, that does the opposite.

→ Crowded slides invite interruptions.
→ They pull the conversation into details.
→ They turn a decision meeting into a debate.

Clear slides signal confidence.
They say, “I’ve thought this through, and this is the part that matters.”

I have a simple mantra that fixes a lot of this.
"When in doubt, leave it out."

Not because details are unimportant. But because timing is.
And clarity is not a design skill. It’s a leadership skill.

P.S. If you want your ideas to land and your decisions to stick, persuasive storytelling is the lever to build. More than 100 PMs have joined my live cohort - Persuading People: The PM's Edge in the Age of AI- to master storytelling to get seen and rewarded. 

Register here if you are ready: https://lnkd.in/dB7xfrvr

The fastest way PMs lose credibility is trying to act on every piece of feedback.

Here’s what it looks like in real life.
- Monday: you present a crisp PRD.
- By Friday: it becomes a “kitchen sink” doc.

Because everyone left feedback.

1. Design: “Can we make it more delightful?”
2. Eng: “We can’t support this edge case this quarter.”
3. Sales: “A customer asked for this last week, can we add it?”
4. And the worst one: “I don’t know… it just doesn’t feel right.”

So you do what many PMs do to be seen as “easy to work with”.

You accept all of it.

→ You add two screens.
→ You expand scope “just a bit”.
→ You rewrite the narrative to please each person.

And then in the next review, something painful happens:
People don’t argue about the product. They question your judgment.

“What are we actually shipping?”
“Why are we solving this now?”
“Didn’t we decide last week?”

That’s the credibility leak.
Not because you listened. Because you stopped being the decision owner.

When I was a PM, what changed for me was treating feedback like a decision input.

Every time I got feedback, I asked myself:

👉🏽 Is it clear and specific?
If someone says “this is confusing”,
I ask: “Which part exactly? What did you expect to happen instead?”
If they can’t answer, I don’t change anything yet.

👉🏽 Is it backed by evidence?
If Sales says “customers want X”,
I ask: “How many accounts? Is it churn risk or nice-to-have?”
If it’s one loud request, it goes to discovery, not the sprint.

👉🏽 Does it further our objectives?
If someone says, “This would be nice to have”,
I ask: “Which OKR does this move, and how will we know?”
If it doesn’t map to a goal we agreed on, I politely disregard.

👉🏽 Is it feasible?
If someone says, “We should do this now”,
I ask: “What would we drop to make that true?”
If the trade-off isn’t worth it, I park it to protect focus.

Then I communicate one of three calls, explicitly:

1. Do it: it aligns with evidence and objectives.
2. Park it: good idea, but the timing is wrong.
3. Kill it: it’s preference, not evidence.

The leadership move is not saying YES louder.
It’s being able to say, calmly: “I heard you. Here’s what we’re doing, and here’s why”.
That’s what senior PM credibility looks like.

Share this if you agree.

P.S. When stakeholders understand your narrative, they trust your judgment even if they disagree. This is the kind of storytelling PMs learn inside Persuading People: The PM's Edge in the Age of AI.

If you want to communicate like a senior PM in high-stakes rooms, register here: https://lnkd.in/dB7xfrvr

Give me 15 seconds, and I will tell you what storytelling for PMs actually is, and why it is quietly deciding who gets promoted, and who stays stuck.

Most PMs I speak to still think storytelling means slides, polish, or sounding confident in a room.

Yes, how you deliver your message matters.
But that’s not what holds people back.

Delivering your message ≠ getting your message across.

What actually breaks PM careers is this moment: you have the data, the work is solid, but different people walk away with different interpretations of what you just said.

→ Engineering hears effort.
→ Leadership hears risk.
→ Design hears ambiguity.
→ And somehow none of them hear a clear decision.

That’s where storytelling shows up, even if you never call it that.

Real storytelling for PMs is the ability to take one messy situation and explain it in a way that resonates differently for each audience, without changing the core truth.

→ To engineering, it makes tradeoffs feel intentional instead of reactive.
→ To leadership, it clarifies what matters now and what does not.
→ To design, it gives direction instead of noise.
→ To the team, it creates momentum instead of churn.

When PMs struggle, it’s rarely because they lack insight.
It’s because their thinking comes out tangled, fragmented, or one-size-fits-all.

You can feel it in meetings.
Long explanations.
Too much context.
People tuning out.

The PMs who grow fastest help people understand why a path makes sense, to THEM.

That is the quiet skill behind executive presence, trust, and promotions.
It is not about telling stories. It is about making your thinking legible to other humans.

And once people can follow your thinking, once you convince them to care, they start backing your decisions.

That’s when your career starts to move.

P.S. If you want to get better at making your thinking land so you get seen as the leader you are, Persuasive Storytelling for PMs is built for exactly that. More than 100 PMs have already used it to grow their career, and comp.

Early-bird enrollment is open for a short window. Register here and save 33%: https://lnkd.in/d7STtuG8

Stop thinking AI is going to 10x your PM career.

If you think using ChatGPT to write better PRDs or analyze data faster is your competitive advantage, you’re missing the point.

AI is making execution cheap.
It’s making “good content” a commodity.

In a world where every PM has the same tools to generate output, the value of output drops to zero.

So what actually matters?
The one thing AI cannot do.

Persuasion.

AI can generate a strategy document in seconds.
But it cannot look a skeptical VP in the eye and make them BELIEVE in it.

It can summarize a meeting.
But it cannot read the room, sense the hesitation, and pivot the narrative to save a deal.

We are entering an era where “doing the work” is the baseline.
”Selling the work” is the differentiator.

If you want to survive the AI shift, you don't need to get better at prompting.
You need to get better at influencing.

It’s not about being charismatic.
It’s not about being louder.
It’s about making your message irresistible to your audience.

This is the exact skill set I teach in my upcoming Maven cohort.

You’ll walk away with the persuasion system I used at Google to secure 9-digit budgets and land Fortune 50 partnerships.

🚨 Early enrollment is open right now (33% off).
🚨 This is the ONLY time the course is discounted.

If you’re tired of doing great work that never quite lands –
this is how you change that.

👉 Enroll here: https://lnkd.in/d7STtuG8

Hurry – early enrollment closes soon.

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When I went from leading small teams to helping lead a 300+ org at Google, one pattern kept showing up in promotion conversations.

The PMs who got promoted weren’t always the smartest in the room.
They weren’t even always the highest-output.

They were the ones who stopped being known as “reliable” and started being known as the person who could move the organization.

Because “You’re a reliable PM” is just a compliment.
It means you ship, you unblock, you keep things stable, you handle stakeholders, and you make chaos look manageable.

The problem is what that label signals upstairs.

Reliable often gets interpreted as: “I trust them to execute what we already decided.”

Promotion tends to go to: “I trust them to shape what we decide next.”

That’s the shift no one explains clearly, and it’s why PMs feel confused when they’re doing great work and still hearing vague feedback about “leadership” and “strategy.”

At higher levels, your work is judged less by how well you run your lane and more by how much you reduce everyone else’s confusion.

That shows up in very specific behaviors:

→ You don’t just share updates; you bring a decision with options, tradeoffs, and a recommendation
→ You don’t just manage stakeholders; you align incentives before they turn into escalations
→ You don’t just deliver roadmaps; you create a narrative people repeat when you’re not in the room

If you become the org’s safety net, you will get more responsibility.
But it’s often responsibility that keeps you anchored in execution.

To go to the next level, you need reliability plus leverage.

P.S. If you’ve been labeled “reliable” and feel stuck, I’m hosting a free Maven Lightning Lesson on how PM promotion expectations change as you move into leadership.

More than 1,000 PMs are already attending. Register here for free: https://lnkd.in/eVckANk9

The skills that made me a great PM held me back as a leader. (And until I fixed it, my career was on hold.)

Here’s what changes when you scale:

→ As a PM, you solve problems.
↳ As a leader, you build problem-solvers.

→ As a PM, you own the roadmap.
↳ As a leader, you own the narrative.

→ As a PM, you manage details.
↳ As a leader, you manage risk.

The transition isn’t about doing more of what made you successful.
It’s about letting go of what got you here.

When I led 10 people, I could be in every meeting, review every spec, and influence every decision. That felt like leadership.
When I started leading a 100+ people org, that same approach nearly broke me.

Because you become the bottleneck, without realizing it.
Decisions slow down. Escalations go up. Your calendar fills, but progress gets weirdly sluggish.

The shift that changed everything for me was simple:

I stopped being the answer. I became the frame.

Instead of “here’s what we should do,”
I moved to:
→ “What are we optimizing for?”
→ “What tradeoff are we accepting?”
→ “Who owns this decision?”

Those three questions did more than any framework.

They built judgment in the org.
They made decisions travel without me.
They kept me out of the weeds without losing control of direction.

The hardest part was trusting others to make decisions I used to make myself.
But that’s exactly what separates Good PMs from Great Leaders.

P.S. If you’re stepping into a bigger scope and feeling this shift, register for my live cohort "Persuading People: The PM’s Edge in the Age of AI". 

I help PMs turn solid thinking into clear, persuasive narratives that actually move people, so they get seen as the leader they already are.

Register here: https://lnkd.in/dB7xfrvr

I’ve been seeing a lot of PMs add “AI PM” to their LinkedIn headline lately. I get it. No one wants to feel left behind.

But the moment someone asks, “So how are you actually an AI PM?” – most answers fall apart.

Not because the PM is incompetent. Because they don’t have a story.

They give tool lists.
They mention ChatGPT.
They say “I’m exploring AI.”

And the listener is still thinking: ok, but what did AI change in your product work?

That’s the gap.

“AI PM” isn’t a label. It’s meant to be a narrative.

If you can’t clearly explain:
→ what AI made possible
→ what tradeoff you accepted
→ what you measured differently
→ what new risks you introduced

Then the headline looks like trend-chasing.

The PMs who stand out do one thing well.

They can tell a tight story like this:

→ Here was the user problem.
→ Here’s why traditional approaches broke.
→ Here’s why AI was the right bet.
→ Here’s what new risks showed up (quality, latency, hallucinations, privacy).
→ Here’s how we shipped safely.
→ Here’s how we measured success using AI.

Same PM. Same work. But now it lands.

Recruiters don’t reward labels. They reward substance.
And a clear narrative is what gets you ahead in your career.

P.S. If you want to be the PM who can explain your work with confidence and win trust fast, persuasive storytelling is the skill that gets you there. That’s exactly what we practice inside Persuading People: The PM’s Edge in the Age of AI.

More than 120 PMs have already learned the art of telling stories to lead in their career. Enrollment for the next cohort closes soon! If you are ready, register here: https://lnkd.in/dB7xfrvr

If you’re a PM who feels stuck, this is for you.

You’re doing good work.
Your projects ship.
Your stakeholders trust you.

And yet...nothing changes.

No bigger scope.
No stronger signal.
No clear path into leadership.

That’s the most frustrating part:
You’re working hard – but you don’t actually know what to change.

Most PMs assume the answer is:
→ More execution
→ More ownership
→ More hours

But that’s why so many talented PMs plateau.

The leap from Senior PM to Product Leader isn’t about doing more.

It’s about operating differently.

I just wrapped a free Maven Lightning Lesson where I broke down:

→ What actually changes as you move up the PM ladder

→ Why the skills that got you here stop working

→ The 5 concrete shifts leaders expect – but rarely explain

Good news – the full recording is now available 🔥

If you’ve ever wondered:
“Why am I not being seen as a leader yet?”
or
“What am I missing that others seem to get?”

You can get clarity in under 30 minutes.

Watch the free recording here:
👉 https://lnkd.in/eVckANk9

Stop guessing and start operating at the next level.

graphical user interface, application, website

One week only → 33% off 🔥
This is the ONLY time I ever discount tuition.

Early enrollment for my next live “Persuading People: The PM's Edge in the Age of AI” Maven cohort (Feb 2) is now open.

Take this course if you want to become known as the PM who:

→ Rallies a room around a clear narrative
→ Persuades senior leaders when the stakes are high
→ Shapes strategy through influence – not just good ideas

This week is the only time I ever discount tuition – to reward those who commit early.

And to make this a no-brainer:

→ If your plans change, you can move to a later cohort at the same locked-in rate.
→ If you don’t see results, I offer a 100% tuition-back guarantee. After running multiple cohorts, I *know* the transformation this class delivers.

In other words: high upside, zero risk.

👉🏽 Enroll now to save 33% off tuition: https://lnkd.in/d7STtuG8

. . .
P.S. Once early enrollment closes, I won’t be offering this discount again.

Over 2300+ PMs have signed up for my free Maven Lightning Lesson. 

If you feel like you’re doing great work but keep getting passed up for leadership positions…

I’m here to tell you that you’re not imagining things, and you’re not alone.

The rules change, and no one ever tells you how. I will.

Don’t miss out – RSVP for free! Even if you can’t attend live, you’ll get the recording afterwards.

I’ve heard EVERY excuse in the book for why a PM isn’t getting promoted.

See if any of these sound familiar:

→ “Promotions feel random.”

→ “I don’t have the right relationships.”

→ “One person’s feedback held me back.”

→ “My results are strong, but my scope is too small.”

→ “I’ve done everything right, but the system is rigged.”

→ “I’m in the wrong company – there’s no growth here.”

→ “I’m not the self-promoting type. I just focus on my work.”

→ “My peer got promoted, and I’m clearly better than them.”

→ “I’m overworked – I don’t even have time to think about this.”

→ “I’ve been in this role for X years. It should’ve happened by now.”

If you’ve used one of these excuses –
you’re not broken.
I’ve said many of them myself.

These excuses aren’t the reason you’re stuck.
They’re the symptom.

The real issue is this:
As you move up, the rules change – and no one explains the new game.

The skills that made you a strong PM will NOT get you promoted into leadership.

The leap from Senior PM to Product Leader requires a completely different operating system.

That’s exactly what I’m teaching in 3 days.

- - - - - -
💬 Move Up the PM Career Ladder, FAST!
📅 Tuesday, January 27
⏱ 30 minutes
💸 Free (recording included)

I’ll break down:
• What actually changes as you move up
• Why great PMs plateau
• 5 concrete techniques you can apply immediately to start operating like a Product Leader
- - - - - -

This is the last call.

Even if you can't attend live, register to get access to the recording.

If you’ve been stuck, frustrated, or quietly wondering “what am I missing?” – this session is for you.

👉 Register free: https://lnkd.in/eVckANk9

There is a specific trap that kills PM careers.

It happens to the best of us.

You are good at your job. You ship features. You manage the backlog. You keep engineering happy. Management loves you. But they don’t promote you.

They keep you exactly where you are.

Why? Because they trust you to execute, but they don’t trust you to lead.

Execution is about managing certainty. Leadership is about managing ambiguity.

To break free from this trap, you have to stop reporting on “here’s what we’re doing” and start selling “here’s where we’re going.”

That requires one specific skill: Persuasion.

It’s the ability to walk into a room of conflicting opinions and walk out with a unified direction. It is the only skill that matters for the jump from Senior PM to Director/VP.

I am teaching this exact skill set starting Monday, Feb 2nd.

This isn't about "presenting better". It’s about learning how to: → Explain your thinking when the answer isn’t obvious → Frame trade-offs so leaders trust your judgment → Turn messy inputs into decisions people align behind

⚠️ Enrollment closes in 72 hours.

Don't let another Monday go by stuck in the execution trap.

👉 Enroll here: https://lnkd.in/gWc7t4sc

P.S. Careers don’t stall because of lack of talent. They stall because of delayed decisions. If you're telling yourself "now isn't the perfect time," remember: next Monday will look exactly like this Monday unless you do something different. The only real risk is staying where you are.

Ex-Hiring manager @ Amazon | Building Pinkcareers to help ambitious women land $200k - $500k leadership roles | Over 50 MILLION in job offers | Clients @ Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Apple

DM "CAREER" to join my FREE Live Job Search Masterclass: Recession-Proof your Career (Sign up link in bio).

I help ambitious women in Tech/Engineering quit underselling themselves and land $200k - $500k+ leadership roles in 90 days or less, without collecting more certifications, doing non-stop networking, or applying to 100s of jobs online.

If you’re tired of being the go-to person without the title, pay, or respect to match, you’re in the right place.

𝐖𝐇𝐎 𝐈 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐊 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇
👉 Mid–senior woman in Tech/Engineering (Product, TPM, Engineering, Data, Strategy Ops, etc.)
👉 Already earning $150K+ but feeling underleveled, underpaid, or overlooked
👉 Aiming for Manager, Sr Manager, or Director roles at top companies (US/Canada)

𝐌𝐘 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘
In 2009, I packed my bags and landed in the US to pursue my big American dream. 

I did all the “right things” — the right schools, the hard work, the extra projects. I thought my path to success was guaranteed.

Instead, I found myself stuck in a role for 4 years, being passed over for promotion by a junior male colleague. 

That's when I realized my big mistake: I was waiting to be noticed instead of learning to fearlessly market myself.

This one skill, LITERALLY, changed my career and my life. I:

→ Earned 5 promotions in 10 years, leading projects with Board level visibility
→ Transitioned from the Energy to Tech, landing a leadership role at Amazon
→ Self-petitioned my EB1A, without a PhD or piles of publications
→ Built the largest women’s leadership program run across the Government of Canada
→ Started Pinkcareers, #1 career coaching company for women
→ Became a global speaker, executive coach, and podcast host

Now I teach ambitious women the exact skills and systems I wish I had 10 years earlier.

𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐑𝐄𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐃 (350+ 𝐖𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐍)
Inside my signature career and leadership coaching program, THE FEARLESS HIRE, my clients have:

👉 Moved from Senior IC to Director roles with 70–100% pay raises
👉 Landed $200K–$500K+ offers at Amazon, Meta, Apple, Amazon, eBay, and more
👉 Gone from feeling “I’m lucky to be here” to believing "any company is lucky to have me"
👉 Bounced back from layoffs into bigger roles with better boundaries
👉 Negotiated comp packages they once thought were “too much to ask for”

My clients have landed $200k - $500k offers and, more importantly, careers that actually feel aligned with who they are.

Ready to take back control of your career and land your next leadership role? 
👉 DM me “CAREER” to join my FREE Job Search Training: Recession Proof your Career

Richa Bansal

If I were applying for a Sr. PM or TPM role at Amazon, Meta, or Apple in 2026, I’d immediately remove these 4 things from my resume. (Most mid-career women still use these, and it makes them look junior.)

A lot of mid-career women I meet are doing incredible work, but their resume reads like they’re still “supporting” leadership, not driving it.

So when they don't get the opportunities for leadership roles, they believe the market is bad.

But it's the positioning of their resume.

Here’s what I’d remove from my resume to make it ready for $300k+ roles.

1. Bullets that say “worked on” or “supported”

If your resume says:
“Worked on product enhancements”
“Supported cross-functional delivery”
“Assisted with launches”

You're underselling yourself.

→ Use direct ownership language.
“Drove cross-functional delivery for $12M product, leading to 38% increase in adoption.”
“Led launch of internal tooling used by 20+ global teams.”

2. Task-heavy sentences with no measurable outcomes

A list of what you did is not the same as a list of why it mattered. 

Instead of writing:

- “Managed weekly standups for 3 scrum teams.”
- “Wrote user stories and maintained Jira board.”

Write this:

- “Led agile delivery for 3 global scrum teams, reducing bug backlog by 45%.”
- “Improved team velocity by 30% through optimized sprint cadence.”

3. Generic leadership phrasing like “Drove alignment” or “Managed projects”

At senior levels, hiring managers need clarity, not fluff.

Instead of writing:

- “Managed multiple projects from inception to delivery.”
- “Drove stakeholder alignment for cross-functional teams.”

Write this:

- “Directed 5 concurrent product workstreams, delivering $5M in platform revenue.”
- “Partnered with VP Product and CTO to shape OKRs for $40M internal tool revamp.”

Use specifics: How many projects? What revenue or result?

4. Experience that’s framed chronologically, not strategically

You are not your job history. You are the value you can deliver next. 
Don’t let older or irrelevant roles dominate your story.

Instead of writing:

- 8 bullets for every role you’ve ever had, going back 15 years.
- Keeping non-leadership roles up top.

Write this:

- Consolidate earlier roles: “Additional experience includes X, Y, Z.”
- Lead with a summary section or “Selected Highlights.”

Position yourself for your next move, not your past.

Your resume is telling a story, but if it’s the wrong one, no one will call to ask more.

And the women who are getting hired at companies like Meta are not more accomplished. They’re just done being modest.

P.S. If you are a mid-career woman targeting PM, TPM, or director-level roles but feeling stuck with no traction, join my upcoming free masterclass - Recession Proof Your Career.

Learn the strategies 300+ women have used to crack $300K+ offers without chasing referrals and applying tirelessly. 

Link to register in comments, or DM me "CAREER" for details.

Date: 24-January-2026
Time: 11 AM CDT (9 AM PST)

When I was a hiring manager at Amazon, I used to receive 100s of DMs every week asking for referrals.


Most messages sounded like this:
“Hi, can you refer me to this role?” 
“I’m interested in Amazon. Can you help?” 
“Anything open on your team?”

No context. Zero clarity. And no reasoning.

But every once in a while, someone made it easy to say YES.
Here’s what the best candidate did differently:

1. They got specific 
They didn’t just drop a link to their resume and ask for a referral. 
They told me why that role aligned with their experience, product domain, and leadership scope.

↳ “I’ve led platform product teams focused on scalability and infrastructure - this Sr. PM role on the EC2 team looks like a natural next step.”

2. They did their homework 
They referenced something real: an article, product launch, or team I’d been involved in.

↳ “I saw your team at Amazon just rolled out XYZ. I’ve worked on similar initiatives and would love to contribute to that kind of roadmap.”

3. They made the referral simple 
They sent a tailored resume. 
A short blurb about themselves I could copy-paste. No long-winded paragraphs.

Example:
↳ "Priya is a results-driven product leader with 8+ years in cloud infrastructure, having led the launch of scalable developer platforms at Atlassian and eBay. She brings deep technical expertise, cross-functional leadership, and a strong track record of delivering impact in fast-paced environments.”

4. They showed leadership 
Even in their messages, they sounded they sounded like decision-makers:

↳ “I’ve identified this Amazon role as a strong next step in my career because of its scope and alignment with the problems I’ve solved. I’m looking to contribute at a strategic level in a high-impact space - and I’d love to connect if the fit looks right.”

If you’re a mid-career woman trying to break into Amazon, Meta, Google, or Netflix, here’s your reminder:

🟡 The goal isn’t just to get referred. 
🟡 The goal is to be seen as the obvious hire, even before the interview.

Save this post if you want to get more referrals. 

P.S. If you are a mid-career woman targeting PM, TPM, or director-level roles but feeling stuck with no traction, join my upcoming free masterclass - Recession Proof Your Career.

Learn the strategies 300+ women have used to crack $300K+ offers without chasing referrals and applying tirelessly.  

Link to register in comments, or DM me "CAREER" for details.

Date: 24-January-2026
Time: 11 AM CDT (9 AM PST)

Amazon laid her off and hired her back the same day. 
But this time, it was in the exact role she’d been told she wasn’t ready for.

Simone (name changed) had built a solid career in tech, with years of experience and results that spoke for themselves.

Still, when she decided to pivot into a product role, nothing landed.

She went through four rounds of interviews - all rejections.
Each one chipped away at her confidence.
Each one made her wonder: “Maybe I’m not cut out for product.”

She was doubting her own potential.
Not because she wasn’t qualified, but because the market wasn’t seeing her clearly.

And eventually, she couldn’t see herself clearly either.
But she showed up anyway.

Inside The Fearless Hire, here’s what we worked on that changed her trajectory:

1. We used the SOARR(c) framework to rebuild her interview strategy
Simone wasn’t getting rejected because she lacked experience. She was underselling it.

Her answers were functional, but they didn’t reflect how she thinks, what she drives, or how she makes decisions at scale.

Using my SOARR framework, she fixed her stories, not just what she did, but why it mattered.

She moved from:
🔸 “I managed cross-functional launches”

To:
🔹 “I led a 6-team launch across EU and US to improve delivery accuracy by 32%, while managing internal dependencies and cutting QA time by 40%.”

2. We focused on role clarity
Simone wasn’t just looking for a job; she wanted the right PM role.
Together, we defined what kind of product work matched her strengths and values.

That clarity shaped everything:
→ How she showed up in interviews
→ What examples she used
→ Which roles she pursued
→ And how she positioned herself as the obvious choice

3. We helped her rebuild confidence through action
She didn’t “wait to feel ready.”
She did the work. Practiced hard. Got coached on the hard questions.
And she started showing up like someone who already belonged in the role.

The day she got laid off, she got a job offer. It was Amazon again. 
But a new team, the exact kind of product role she thought she’d never get.

Because when your story is clear, and your positioning matches your power, you don’t just bounce back. You level up.

P.S. If you are a mid-career woman targeting PM, TPM, or director-level roles but feeling stuck with no traction, join my upcoming free masterclass - Recession Proof Your Career.

Learn the strategies 300+ women have used to crack $300K+ offers without chasing referrals and applying tirelessly. 

Link to register in comments, or DM me "CAREER" for details.

Date: 24-January-2026
Time: 11 AM CDT (9 AM PST)

Would you say NO to a $250k+ offer at Apple that also sponsors your H-1B? Rashmi did, right in the middle of the interview. 

And it was one of the most powerful career decisions she’s ever made.

When Rashmi joined The Fearless Hire, she was like many ambitious women after B-school:

→ 10+ years of experience
→ On a visa, with pressure to act fast
→ Craving meaningful work, but still chasing “big name” offers for safety

Apple reached out for a World Wide Supply Demand role.
She made it to the interview. It was a clear path to a $250K+ role, with H1B sponsorship.

But halfway through the interview, she realized: “I’m sitting in the wrong room. This isn’t the kind of role I want to grow into."

Instead of giving in to her fear, she walked away.
Because when you know your value and ultimate goal, you stop mistaking prestige for purpose.

Inside The Fearless Hire, Rashmi had done the real work:

✅ She had reframed her story - from “ex-analyst” to a strategic technical product manager with a leadership lens.
✅ She had clarified the kind of work that energizes her, not just the title that looks good on paper.
✅ She had practiced telling her story with scale, depth, and nuance using the SOARR™ method.
✅ And most importantly, she had finally learned how to trust herself even when the world said, “This is once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

And that’s what I want more mid-career women to know:
The goal isn’t to land the most recognizable offer. 
It’s to choose the one that aligns with who you’re becoming.

Inside The Fearless Hire, we don’t just help you get interviews at companies like Apple, Meta, and Google.

We help you decide with clarity, confidence, and long-term vision whether those offers actually fit the leader you are.

Because when you’re done choosing safety over alignment, especially in this market, that’s when the real growth begins.

P.S. If you are a high-performing woman ready to lead with clarity, negotiate with power, and get paid what you are worth - register for my upcoming masterclass Recession Proof Your Career.
Learn the exact strategies 300+ women have used to land $300K+ offers that aligned with their growth plans. 

Link to register in comments, or DM me "CAREER" for the details.

Date: 24 January 2026
Time: 11 AM CDT (9 AM PST)

Meta bumped her offer by $40K (making it $315K) because she had a higher offer from Axon and active interviews with Microsoft, Coinbase, and CZI. 

This is what happens when fearless mid-career women negotiate with clarity and real leverage.

Most women would’ve said yes to a name like Meta and a number like $275K.

Because we have been conditioned to be grateful.
It’s already a good number; I shouldn’t push it.

But Suzan didn’t, and she got $40K more, making her offer close to $315k.
Here’s how she negotiated with confidence, and without fearing a bad market. 

1. She structured a counteroffer that gave Meta room to say Yes.

Instead of throwing out a number, she gave two versions of her ask:

- A higher base, lower RSUs
- A lower base, higher RSUs

This wasn't about being agreeable. It was about being strategic.
The decision makers didn't just approve her ask; they worked for her.

2. She used real leverage.
Axon’s offer was already higher.
And she was still in process with Microsoft, Coinbase, and CZI.

So when Meta countered with $285K, which was $10k higher than their initial offer, she said:
“Thanks for the update. Based on my other offers and the scope of this role, I’m looking for something closer to $315K to make this a clear yes.”

Because she had actual momentum, she could hold the line.

The result:
Meta increased the initial offer by $40k, extending the final offer at $315k.

(She had a higher offer from Axon, and final round interviews with Microsoft, Coinbase, and CZI.)

This is what happens when high-achieving women stop shrinking their value and start advocating like the leaders they are.

P.S. If you are a high-performing woman ready to lead with clarity, negotiate with power, and get paid what you are worth - register for my upcoming masterclass Recession Proof Your Career. Learn the exact strategies 300+ women have used to land $300K+ offers.

Link to register in comments. Or DM me "CAREER" to book your seat. 

Date: 24 January 2026 
Time: 11 AM CDT (9 AM PST)

You are qualified for the $300K+ role. But the moment you use these 7 phrases in interviews, you lose the offer. 

I've interacted with 10,000+ mid-career women during my time as a hiring manager and now as a career accelerator specialist.

And most women with $250k - $500K+ scope have one of these 7 phrases sitting on page 1 of their resume.

Or worse, they say it in the first 10 seconds of the interview.

That’s why they’re told: “You’re great, but we’re looking for someone more senior.”
Even when they’ve already led global teams, delivered $20M programs, and reported to the C-suite.

They all had the track record. But their language makes them sound supportive, and not strategic.

Here are 7 phrases that shrink your authority, and what to say instead to come as a leader you already are.

1. Do not say: “Assisted with global rollout.”
→ Say this instead: “Led global rollout across 3 regions, impacting 10M+ users”

2. Do not say: “Helped manage cross-functional teams”
→ Say this instead: “Managed delivery across 4 cross-functional pods in NA & EU”

3. Do not say: “Supported leadership with decision-making”
→ Say this instead: “Advised VP Product on launch roadmap for $30M portfolio”

4. Do not say: “Was part of a transformation project”
→ Say this instead: “Owned strategy and delivery for $15M digital transformation”

5. Do not say: “Worked under a senior leader to execute GTM”
Say this instead: “Drove GTM execution in partnership with product and sales leads”

6. Do not say: “Given the opportunity to lead X”
→ Say this instead: “Spearheaded X across multiple business units”

7. Do not say: “Involved in strategic planning meetings”
→ Say this instead: “Led quarterly planning sessions with 3 executive stakeholders”

You can easily spot the pattern.

The first sentence sounds like support. The second reflects ownership.

The words you choose shape how the management sees your level.

If you're speaking like a high-performer, but not like a decision-maker, you’ll keep getting passed over for the next level.

And most of the time, it’s not because you’re not ready. It’s because your story isn’t.

If you’re done being told “you’re not quite what we’re looking for,” even after leading teams, owning outcomes, and driving strategy at scale, it’s time to change the way you show up.

Save this post if you are preparing for your next interview.

P.S. If you are a mid-career woman targeting PM, TPM, or director-level roles but feeling stuck with no traction, join my upcoming free masterclass - Recession Proof Your Career.

Learn the strategies 300+ women have used to crack $300K+ offers without chasing referrals and applying tirelessly. 

Link to register in comments, or DM me "CAREER" for details.

Date: 24-January-2026
Time: 11 AM CDT (9 AM PST)

If you are setting goals for 2026, please stop and ask yourself this first.


When the promotion room is closed, and they’re deciding who gets the $300k+ role… what do you want the decision makers to say about you?

Not “she’s great.”
Not “she works hard.”
Not “we can always count on her.”

Those compliments feel good, but they don’t move careers.

Because senior roles don’t go to the most exhausted person on the team.
They go to the person with a clear reputation.

The one decision makers trust in specific situations:
“Put her on it; she gets alignment fast.”
“She can walk into ambiguity and still drive a plan.”
“She knows how to influence without authority.”
“She turns messy problems into clear decisions.”

That’s why so many high-achieving women set goals every year, and still feel stuck.
They’re setting goals without owning the one thing that makes goals real:

What you want to be known for?

In this week’s newsletter, I’m sharing a simple 2-line exercise to write your reputation statement, so your 2026 goals stop being random and start turning into a strategy.

If you’ve ever felt like you’re doing “everything right” but still not getting pulled into bigger opportunities… read it.

P.S. If you are a mid-career woman who's stuck in the loop of setting goals, register for my upcoming masterclass Recession Proof Your Career. Learn the exact strategies 300+ women have used to turn their goals into $300K+ offers.

Register using link in comments, or DM me "CAREER" for details.

Date: 24-January-2026
Time: 11 AM CDT (9AM PST)

Around this time of year, I start hearing the same thing from high-achieving women: “I’m setting big goals for 2026.” “This year I’m going to finally 

Open article: Don’t Set 2026 Goals Until You Answer This One Question by Richa Bansal • 4 min read

Don’t Set 2026 Goals Until You Answer This One Question

One of my clients negotiated a $40K increase in a job offer - landing a $325K package as a Lead Product Manager at Yelp.

And no, this didn’t happen by chance. It happened because we walked in with a clear negotiation strategy built for senior-level roles.

When Rumi first joined The Fearless Hire, she already had the skills. 
She was sharp, capable, and had done the work.

But like so many high-performers I work with, Rumi wasn’t playing at the level her experience deserved.

- She wasn’t sure how to position her value.
- She had no plan for navigating offers or negotiations.
- And like many, she was afraid of asking for too much and getting screened out.

What she brought was her experience. What I gave her was strategy.

Here’s exactly how we made it happen:

1. Benchmarked the offer using real market data 
We didn’t rely on “gut feel” or what Glassdoor said. 
We used Levels(dot)fyi to pull comps for similar roles, locations, and industries.

That data helped us anchor the conversation: 
→ To justify the higher ask 
→ To make sure the total comp didn’t drop when the sign-on expired 
→ And to signal: “We’ve done our homework.”

2. Matched the equity she was walking away from 
This part gets overlooked way too often. She was leaving significant unvested equity behind. And we made that clear.

We framed it as a business reality, not an emotional ask: “To make this move sustainable, we need to account for the RSUs I’m forfeiting.” 
That changed the tone of the conversation completely.

3. Offered structured options, not ultimatums 
Instead of making a single counter, we built two compensation scenarios: 
→ One with a higher base 
→ One with higher equity

This gave the hiring team flexibility to say yes, while keeping our floor intact.
We used MBA-level negotiation frameworks to create optionality, not pressure.

Result: A $40K increase and a $325K total offer.
- Rumi didn’t strong-arm anyone.
- She didn’t beg for more.
- She walked in with clarity, confidence, and a strategy that made the ask feel obvious.

This is exactly the kind of high-leverage negotiation strategy I’ll be teaching in my upcoming masterclass: Recession Proof Your Career.

Date: 24-January-2026
Time: 11:00 AM CDT (9 AM PST)

You can learn how to land (and negotiate) your next $200K–$500K offer - even in a tough market.

If you’ve ever hesitated to ask for more - or didn’t know how - this is the training you’ve been waiting for.

Link to register is in the comments or DM me CAREER for the link.

I saw the list of recent layoffs by Amazon, and what stood out wasn’t the volume. (Because this is not the first time Amazon laid off thousands of people.)

It was the level.

I was expecting the list to have a lot of entry-level roles. 
But all I could see were managers, PMs, TPMs,  and senior engineering leaders.

And if you’re in that bracket, this market has a very clear message:
Being “good at your job” isn’t a safety plan anymore.

Senior roles get hit first because they’re expensive, and in uncertainty, companies start asking: Do we need this layer… or can we redistribute the work?

That’s why waiting is the worst strategy right now.

Not because you should panic-apply.
But because you should get ahead of the market.

This week’s newsletter breaks down:
- Why senior roles are being squeezed first.
- What hiring teams are prioritizing in leadership candidates right now.
- And what to do so you don’t get caught reacting late.

P.S. If you are a mid-career woman targeting Sr PM, TPM, and director-level roles, register for my upcoming masterclass: Recession Proof Your Career.

Learn the strategies 10,000+ women are using to stay in demand for $300K+ roles. 

Date: 06 February 2026
Time: 1 PM CDT | 11 AM PST

Link in comments, or DM me “CAREER” and I’ll send it to you.

A few days ago, I saw an Amazon layoff list that made me pause. Not because layoffs are “new.” But because of who was on it. I was expecting it to be 

Open article: Why Senior Roles Are Getting Hit First, And What to Do About It by Richa Bansal • 4 min read

Why Senior Roles Are Getting Hit First, And What to Do About It

I will land a $300K Sr. TPM offer at Meta before June.
I will step into a real leadership role at Google this year.
I will stop settling and own my next chapter.

I hear this every single week from ambitious, high-performing women, especially when we enter a new year.

They clearly don’t have a motivation problem. They’re not lacking drive, intelligence, or even experience.

What they’re missing is a roadmap. And without a roadmap, even the most ambitious goals lose power.

If you’re targeting $300K–$500K roles at Meta, Amazon, Google, or high-growth startups, here’s what your roadmap must include:

1. Executive Positioning
Most resumes and LinkedIn profiles scream "team player."
At this level, you need to scream “decision-maker.”

Replace “collaborated on internal tools.”
With “Led $45M tooling strategy across 3 regions, reducing delivery time by 30%.

2. Strategic Narrative
Most women talk about what they did.
Leaders talk about why they did it and the business outcome.

Inside The Fearless Hire, we use the SOARR(c) method to reframe every story:
→ What was the problem?
→ What did you decide?
→ What was the measurable outcome?

Impact, decisions, and scale. That’s what hiring managers want to hear.

3. Focused Pipeline
Spray-and-pray doesn’t work at the leadership level.

✅ Build a list of 5–8 companies that align with your value, product space, and leadership goals.
✅ Warm up the right people: hiring managers, GMs, directors, not just recruiters.

4. Visibility Before the Job Exists
Waiting for a job posting = too late.

Women inside The Fearless Hire start conversations before a role goes live, by sharing sharp insights, case studies, and thought leadership that signal readiness.

5. Offer Readiness
If a company called you tomorrow, would your resume, narrative, and negotiation strategy be ready?

That’s not pressure. That’s power.

This is the roadmap we build inside The Fearless Hire, so you don’t just set goals. You hit them with clarity and control.

Save this post as a reminder to build a strategy along with setting goals. 

P.S. If you're aiming for your next-level $300k+ PM, TPM, or director-level role in 2026, learn how to do it inside my upcoming free masterclass - Recession Proof Your Career.

I have designed this masterclass for mid-career women who're feeling stuck and want to turn their goals into reality.

Link in comments, or DM me "CAREER" for the link.

Date: 24 January 2026
Time: 11 AM CDT ( 9 AM PST)

Would you say NO to a $250K+ offer from Apple that guarantees industry-wide exposure, and even sponsors your H-1B?

Rashmi (name changed for privacy) just did. 

- She was on a visa.
- The offer included sponsorship.
- The brand was unquestionable.

Everyone around her thought saying yes was the “smart” move.

She still walked away, and with clarity, most high-achieving women don’t give themselves permission to have.

In this week’s newsletter, I break down:

- Why prestige can quietly trap your growth
- How fear masquerades as “being practical”
- And the question she asked herself that made the decision obvious

This isn’t a story about rejecting Apple.

It’s about what happens when a mid-career woman stops optimizing for safety and starts optimizing for alignment - especially in a market that tells you to grab whatever you can get.

📩 Read Rashmi's full story here.

And if you’re ready to make career decisions with clarity (not panic), join me in my upcoming masterclass - Recession-Proof Your Career.

Learn the strategies 10000+ women are using to build thriving careers and land $300K+ roles with clarity and confidence. 

Link to register in comments, or DM me "CAREER" for details.

📌 Date: 24-January-2026
📌 Time: 11 AM CDT (9 AM PST)

Would you say no to a $250K offer from Apple? Especially when you have. Visa pressure Family expectations And the voice in your head keeps saying, “Yo

Open article: Why Saying No to a $250K Apple Offer Was the Smartest Career Move She Made by Richa Bansal • 3 min read

Why Saying No to a $250K Apple Offer Was the Smartest Career Move She Made

I spent 30+ hours reviewing resumes and interview notes from women with 10+ years of experience. These 4 things quietly kill their chances of landing $300K+ roles.

Most of them were brilliant women, quietly doing the work of VPs, but still stuck being seen as “not strategic”, “not high-impact”, and “not leadership-ready.”

And it wasn’t because they lacked experience. 
It was because the way they positioned their experience diluted their authority.

Here are 4 mistakes that quietly killed their chances of landing a $300k+ leadership role, and what to did instead to fix it:

1. Their resumes buried the impact

Even women with 15+ years of experience wrote bullets focused on tasks:

- Managed timelines
- Ran weekly stand-ups
- Worked with stakeholders

The fix:
Write for a VP, not a peer.
Lead with scope, metrics, and strategic outcomes:
→ “Drove $30M GTM across 3 markets, improving retention by 18%.”
→ “Built operations roadmap across legal, product, and tech for $500M business unit.”

2. Their LinkedIn reads like a job description
They copied and pasted the vague bullets and had generic headlines. There was no strategy at all.

The fix:

Your headline is your elevator pitch.
→ “Director of Product | Scaling B2B Platforms | Leading global rollouts at enterprise scale”

3. Their interview answers lacked edge
Too detailed, and too tactical.
They spent 5 minutes explaining the project, and 5 seconds showing their role in it.

The fix:
Use my SOARR™ framework:
→ Situation, Ownership, Action, Results, Reflection
This isn’t storytelling for storytelling’s sake. It’s positioning with purpose.

4. They waited too long to play bigger
Most of these women had outgrown their roles years ago.

But they kept telling themselves:
→ “Now’s not the right time.”
→ “I just need to hold on a bit longer.”

The fix:
There is no perfect time.
There’s just a point where waiting costs more than trying.

And if you’re already doing $300K-level work, you deserve a story that reflects it.

If you are a mid-career woman who has 12-15 years of experience , you should not wait to get more experience.

You need to communicate the impact you already have with clarity, confidence, and strategy.

Because when that story lands right, the entire conversation changes.

P.S. If you are a mid-career woman targeting PM, TPM, or director-level roles but feeling stuck with no traction, join my upcoming free masterclass - Recession Proof Your Career.

Learn the strategies 300+ women have used to crack $300K+ offers without chasing referrals and applying tirelessly. 

Link to register in comments, or DM me "CAREER" for details.

Date: 24-January-2026
Time: 11 AM CDT (9 AM PST)

Within 24 hours of updating her LinkedIn, Ritu got a DM from a recruiter for director-level AI role. If you're still blaming the market, you’re focusing on the wrong problem.

The mid-career women I help inside The Fearless Hire are still getting found, still getting recruiter messages, and still landing $250K–$400K interviews even without applying.

The reason most senior women don't get found online has nothing to do with their qualification, it's because their profile doesn’t signal leadership yet

Inside The Fearless Hire, here’s what we helped Ritu fix that changed everything:

1. We rewrote her LinkedIn headline to reflect strategic value
Not: “Experienced Analyst | Open to Work”
But: “AI Strategy Leader | Delivering $10M+ Cost Optimization Across HealthTech”

Recruiters search for keywords, and that's how you can get found.

2. We built a positioning summary that made her value obvious
No more generic about section.

We framed her work in terms of business problems solved, cross-functional impact, and scope of ownership. So deciusion makers can tell the level she is operating at.

3. We made her keywords work with her, not against her
→ We mapped keywords to the right senior-level roles
→ Added niche skills aligned with the jobs she wanted
→ And used structure that made her profile easy to skim and search

LinkedIn isn’t just your digital resume. It’s your first filter.
And if you’re not showing up with clarity and power, you’re already out of the running.

Ritu made these changes, and 24 hours later:
→ She got a recruiter DM.
→ Recruiter call scheduled for a Director-level AI role.
→ No job board, no referral was ever required.

🔁 Save this post to update your LinkedIn the right way to get more leadership-level opportunities. 

P.S. If you are a mid-career woman who's tired of being overlooked for roles you're qualified for register for my upcoming masterclass: Recession-Proof Your Career.

Learn the 5-step strategy to land $300K+ roles without applying everywhere. More than 10,000+ women are using these strategies to crack big offers.

Link to register in comments, or DM me "CAREER" for details.

Date: 24-January-2026
Time: 11 AM CDT (9 AM PST)

I guess the market is just bad right now. That's why recruiters and hiring managers aren't reaching out. 

I head this sentence almost every day from: 
- Women with 10–15 years of experience.
- Women with strong track records.
- And women with leadership scope that’s very real.

But highly-ambitious women inside The Fearless Hire are:

- Still getting found.
- Still getting recruiter messages.
- Still being pulled into $250K–$400K conversations.

Often without applying or asking for refferals. 

The difference isn’t luck. And it’s not working harder.

It’s whether their LinkedIn profile makes their level obvious.

Most profiles fail because they’re vague.

They list responsibilities instead of decisions.
Skills instead of problems solved.
Effort instead of ownership.

And recruiters don’t have time to interpret potential.
They search. They filter. They move on.

In this week’s newsletter, I break down:
– Why qualified women disappear in LinkedIn searches
– What recruiters are actually filtering for
– And the small but critical shift that makes senior women visible again

If you’ve ever felt like:
Your experience should be opening bigger doors
Your inbox is quieter than it should be
Or you’re being evaluated below the level you operate at

This one will hit close to home.

If you’re ready to stop being overlooked and start being clearly seen as the obvious choice for $300K+ roles, register for my upcoming masterclass: Recession Proof Your Career:

Learn the strategies 300+ women have used to land their dream roles.

Register here: https://lnkd.in/evHguezk

Date: 24-January-2026 (Today)
Time: 11 AM CDT (9 AM PST)

A few weeks ago, a woman I work with said something that stopped me mid-sentence. She said, “I don’t think recruiters are looking for people like me a

Open article: The Real Reason You Aren’t Getting Found on LinkedIn, And How to Fix It by Richa Bansal • 3 min read

The Real Reason You Aren’t Getting Found on LinkedIn, And How to Fix It

If Amazon can lay off 16,000 people, no one is “too valuable” to be cut.

In the last mass layoff, roughly 78% of the affected roles were managers.

We’re talking senior PMs, TPMs, Directors, and people managers, many of whom had just wrapped up high-impact projects.

Some had just returned from parental leave.
Some had given 10+ years to the company.
And most didn’t even get a heads-up.

Because at the leadership level, being excellent at your job isn’t what protects your career. Visibility does.

You can drive $10M initiatives, manage global teams, and still disappear in a market this brutal.

So if you’re in a senior role today, and wondering, “Would the market see me if I had to leave tomorrow?”

Here are 4 things you should do right now to recession-proof your career.

1. Reposition your resume to reflect your level
Most senior women I speak to still use job descriptions to write resumes.
But a resume should sell your scope, not describe your tasks.

Start here:
→ Rewrite your bullets to reflect outcomes, scale, and ownership.
→ “Built” isn’t the same as “led.” “Supported” isn’t the same as “drove.”
→ Speak the language of business results, not effort.

2. Turn LinkedIn into a recruiter-magnet
Your title might say “Program Manager III” but your scope might reflect “Director of Enterprise Platform.”
And recruiters search for the title they need, not the one your company gave you.

Do this:
→ Update your headline and summary with searchable, market-aligned titles.
→ Infuse your profile with the keywords and scope that match $300K+ roles.

3. Show proof, not potential
At the leadership level, the market doesn’t respond to vague narratives.
It responds to proof of impact.

→ What did you scale?
→ What did you build, drive, or save?
→ What changed because you were there?

Put numbers to your work, and turn effort into evidence.

4. Join my upcoming masterclass: Recession-Proof Your Career

Inside, I'll teach you how to:
- Reposition your story so you’re seen as a strategic hire, not a safe one.
- Raise your visibility in a way that attracts $300K+ opportunities without chasing 100+ jobs.
- And shift from “hoping to keep your job” to having multiple options, ALWAYS.

If this Amazon layoff is a signal, and I believe it is, this isn’t the time to be quietly excellent… it is time to reposition.

P.S. If you are a PM, TPM, or director, register for my upcoming masterclass for women "Recession Proof Your Career" and learn how to position yourself for $300K+ roles, even in a tough market. 

Get the strategies 10,000+ mid-career women are using to build thriving careers.

Link to register in comments or DM me "CAREER" for details. (Limited slots, and registrations will close soon)

Date: 06 February 2026
Time: 01:00 PM CDT (11 AM PST)

2025 was not the year I expected it to be. And it was the best thing that could’ve happened.

I thought I would be helping mid-career PMs, Sr TPMs, and directors navigate a recovering job market.

Instead, I watched 156 mid-career women fight through one of the hardest hiring markets I've seen. And together, they crossed $8M in job offers.

Here's what I learned watching them succeed when everything felt stacked against them. And if you want 2026 to be the year you land your next-level $300K+ role, read this carefully:

1. It’s not If. It’s When.
One client got ghosted after 5 interviews.
She cried and doubted herself.
Then 4 weeks later, landed a $350K offer with every single box checked.

The market will test you. What you believe in that moment will define your next chapter.

2. Mental toughness beats any strategy.
Resume templates won’t save you after the third rejection.
Even the perfect resume can’t help if you’re too burned out to apply.

The women who won fastest in 2025:

→ Didn’t spiral when a referral didn’t come through
→ Didn’t over-personalize every “no”
→ Didn’t wait to feel confident, they built momentum first

3. Doing it alone is career sabotage.
Every month, you try to “figure it out” solo, and that costs you

→ $50,000+ in lost income
→ Another cycle of overthinking your resume
→ More second-guessing while your peers move forward

In one of my favorite moments this year, a client got a $380K offer, her first in the U.S.

She said:
“I finally know what I’m worth, Richa.”

That’s why I do this work, and I'll keep doing it for women like you who deserve more.

2026 can be your year if you show up like you’re ready.

If you're a mid-career woman who wants to land a $300K+ leadership role in 2026, without guessing your way through it, register for my upcoming masterclass - Recession Proof Your Career.

Learn the strategies these 156 women used to land offers worth $8Million.

(Link to register in comments.)

Date: 24 January 2026
Time: 11 AM CDT (9 AM PST)

Your resume says you "Led a $20M program". But your LinkedIn headline says “Passionate collaborator.” That mismatch is costing $300K+ you interviews.

When I compare LinkedIn profiles and resumes of women aiming at $250K–$500K roles, I often see this:

Their resume says:
→ Led $20M digital transformation
→ Managed global delivery across 4 product lines
→ Partnered with C-suite on multi-region rollout

Their LinkedIn headline says:
→ “Results-driven leader | Passionate collaborator | Cross-functional PM”

You can easily see the gap. 
One looks like a business case. But other looks like a people-pleaser.

And if you're not positioning yourself as a strategic leader in every touchpoint, you’re leaving opportunity on the table.

Here’s what women inside The Fearless Hire do differently to land more interviews for the right roles. 

1. They translate their title to match market-level scope.
Internal titles like “Program Manager III” don’t mean much outside the org.

They update their titles to reflect real responsibility and impact:
→ Staff TPM | Platform Strategy | Org-wide GTM Enablement

2. They turn the headline into a search-optimized pitch.
Recruiters don’t search for “people-focused collaborator.”

They search for:
→ Director of Product
→ B2B GTM Lead
→ Cloud Infra Director
Your headline should reflect the role you’re targeting, not just your current one.

3. They write the summary like a business case, not a biography.
Instead of “I love solving problems and learning every day,” 

They lead with clarity:
→ “I lead $30M+ AI/ML platform programs, aligning GTM, infra, and product delivery across 100+ engineers in NA and EU.”

Because at the senior level, LinkedIn isn’t a profile. It’s a positioning tool.

And the women inside The Fearless Hire don’t sit around waiting for referrals.
They make recruiters come to them.

→ Anita landed interviews at Meta, IBM, and a double promotion in under 3 weeks.
→ Denise got 8 interviews without a single referral.
→ Rakhi stopped applying altogether because her inbox was full.

Everyone says visibility is luck. But the women inside TFH prove it is a strategy.

Share this with someone waiting for their next-level opportunity. 

P.S. If you are a mid-career woman who is ready to land her $300K+ next-level role, register for my upcoming masterclass "Recession Proof Your Career". I'll teach the exact strategies that have helped 10000+ ambitious women build thriving careers.

Book your seat here: https://lnkd.in/evHguezk (Slots are limited, as it's a live masterclass.)

Date: 24-January-2026
Time: 11:00 AM CDT (9 AM PST)

I’ve failed. A lot.

I’ll never forget the crushing feeling of impostor syndrome after failing interviews at Meta, Shopify, and DoorDash.

It wasn’t just about the interviews... I was battling an internal dialogue telling me I wasn’t "Tech Enough" to pivot into the industry.

It hurt watching my peers move up while I felt stuck.

Each rejection chipping away at my confidence.
Validating I was not good enough for top roles.
Deepening my fear that I will never make it.
Secretly ashamed of failing my loved ones.

Something had to change.

Working with a coach and a lot of deep reflection helped me realize two things:

1. Failure isn’t final until I choose it to be
2. The problem was internal, not external

Once I realized that I had power, that I had agency to change my outcome, I stopped playing the victim.

Instead of letting failures define me, I made a choice to own my story.

I spent hours studying how others were making the pivot to roles and industries without checking off 100% of the boxes.

I stopped playing small.
I stopped underselling my skills and experiences.
I learned to strategically self-promote my skills during the job search process, instead of doubting them.

Finally, things shifted.
I landed my dream offer at Amazon.

This shift in mindset didn't just help me pivot to Tech. It empowered me to build the largest women’s leadership program run across the Canadian government and launch a coaching business that has helped 300+ women land $200k+ offers and reclaim their careers.

Imposter syndrome isn’t going to go away overnight, but here’s what I have learned...

The moment you stop doubting yourself, doors open. 
The only thing holding you back is you.

If I can do it, so can you.
You got what it takes.
You belong.

PS: ♻ Repost if it can help even one friend own their story.

PSS: Ready to stop playing safe and land your dream $250k+ job offer? DM me "CAREER" to apply for THE FEARLESS HIRE, my strategic career accelerator for ambitious women who are ready to play bigger and land their dream role in 2026!

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Richa Bansal

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The Battle

Roshan Gupta

Richa Bansal

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Roshan Gupta's LinkedIn Performance

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