Guide the PM-to-Director transition across preparing, interviewing, landing, and recalibrating. Use when leadership scope is changing and you need practical coaching.
The Director Readiness Advisor is an interactive coaching skill for the PM-to-Director transition. It solves the problem that generic leadership advice rarely fits where someone actually is in the journey: the same guidance is useless to a PM preparing for the leap, someone mid-interview, a newly landed Director, and a Director recalibrating after a rough start. The skill first diagnoses which of these four situations applies, then delivers practical, war-story-backed guidance calibrated to that situation rather than a one-size-fits-all checklist.
Mechanically, it runs as a guided conversation: it offers three entry modes (guided one-question-at-a-time, context dump, or best guess), asks one diagnostic question plus up to three adaptive follow-ups, then produces three to five enumerated, targeted recommendations. It branches by situation and by the specific gap the user names (thinking altitude, stakeholder navigation, strategic narrative, direction creation) and their runway. It draws directly on the Altitude & Horizon Framework for its underlying model, reusing concepts like the Waiter vs. Restaurant Operator distinction and named failure modes (Hero Syndrome, Allergic to Process, People-Pleaser Leadership, Instant Gratification Trap), and uses a shared workshop-facilitation protocol for its interaction style.
It targets senior PMs and new or struggling Directors who want situation-specific coaching. Typical uses include preparing for Director interviews, navigating the first six months, and diagnosing what is not working after a year or more in the role.
Ideally where you are in the journey (preparing, interviewing, newly landed, or recalibrating) plus optional org context and the friction you feel. You can also arrive empty-handed and the advisor will ask which situation fits before branching.
It offers guided, context-dump, or best-guess entry modes, then asks one diagnostic question plus up to three adaptive follow-ups before delivering 3-5 enumerated recommendations. It typically takes 10-15 minutes.
No. It is explicitly a coaching conversation that names what is hard, why, and what to do, rather than a pass/fail checklist.
Yes. It builds on the Altitude & Horizon Framework for its mental model and uses the workshop-facilitation skill as its default interaction protocol.
Senior PMs preparing for the jump, people interviewing for Director roles, newly promoted Directors, and Directors recalibrating after 12+ months when something is not clicking.
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deanpeters/product-manager-skills