From Success to Fulfilment: A VP’s Personal Product Strategy

What do you do when everything on paper looks great but something still feels off?

This is the story of a VP of Product who had built a high-performing team, launched multiple platforms, and hit all the right metrics. From the outside, his career looked ideal. But inside, he was experiencing what he described as "an itch he couldn’t scratch".

In our coaching together, we applied the Vision-to-Action Framework, a personal strategy tool I developed to help people move from drift to design using the same clarity, creativity, and intentionality they bring to their product work.

What unfolded was a quiet but powerful shift, one that didn’t require blowing up his life, just realigning it.

The Signal: “Something Feels Off”

In our first session, he came prepared with a list of accomplishments and upcoming goals, but after a pause, he admitted:

“I don’t know why none of this feels satisfying anymore.”

He described the feeling like a background hum, low-level, persistent, and hard to articulate. He was still performing, still delivering, still respected by his peers and team. But something wasn’t adding up.

I asked him, “If this were a product challenge, what would you do?”

That question reframed everything. We treated the feeling like a valid user signal. Through the Vision-to-Action process, we started where product managers often begin: with discovery.

Guiding Principles

We explored his values; not the ones that looked good on paper or matched his company’s leadership principles, but the ones that actually energised and anchored him.

This surfaced a gap between how he was working and what truly mattered to him.

Define the Vision

Next, we crafted a Personal Vision Statement, his North Star. Not a five-year plan, but a vivid articulation of the kind of person he wanted to be and the kind of life he wanted to lead.

It wasn’t about changing titles or companies. It was about alignment: building a version of success that included joy, freedom, and purpose, not just delivery and outcomes.

For the first time, he could see the gap between what was happening and what he actually wanted.

Translation into Strategy

We then used personal Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) to ground that vision in action. The shift was subtle but critical:

• From What am I doing?→ To Why am I doing it?

• From More activity→ To Measurable, meaningful change

Despite being a product leader for many years, this was the first time he had set OKRs bounded to himself as a human. It led to testing hypotheses that would bring energy, balance, and clarity into his week-to-week life.

Run Experiments

What surprised him most was how small the first steps could be. Rather than a dramatic reinvention, he started running personal experiments: reshaping his calendar, testing new rhythms, being more present at home, saying no more often.

Some “bets” worked. Others didn’t. But he finally had a structure that allowed him to reflect, iterate, and adjust, just like his product teams.

Fulfilment Through Focus

Today, he’s still in the same role, but the energy has shifted. He feels clearer about what matters, bolder in his choices, and more grounded in how he shows up.

That background itch became a direction. A signpost. A prompt to design intentionally, rather than perform reactively.

The Vision-to-Action framework didn’t require him to leave everything behind. It helped him see what to keep, what to shift, and how to move forward with purpose.

Sometimes the biggest shifts begin with the smallest signals.

You don’t need a crisis to change. You just need clarity—and a system to act on it.

If you’re a product leader, tech professional, or high-performing human feeling a bit off-track, the Vision-to-Action™ framework is for you.

You don’t have to figure it out alone. I offer 1:1 coaching sessions focused on clarifying your vision, values, and personal OKRs so you can build a life that works for you.

Book a discovery call to explore how we can work together.

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