Great leaders don't add buttons

Senior leadership is about direction, not details. The role of an executive is to set vision, make strategic decisions, and build alignment around where the company is heading - not to tinker with the "how."

Yet it's surprisingly common for senior leaders to dive into product minutiae. A CEO might say "we should add a button here," or a VP might suggest "what if we built feature X that does Y?" These sound like harmless contributions, but when they come from executives, they can quietly undermine product culture and derail teams.

1. Hierarchy turns suggestions into orders

Even in companies that pride themselves on having "flat hierarchies," power dynamics are real. When someone high up the org chart floats an idea, it doesn't land as a casual comment. It lands as an implicit directive.

What the executive meant as "a thought to consider" is often heard as "we need to build this." Teams drop what they're doing, rework plans, or scramble to respond to an offhand suggestion that wasn't meant to be acted on.

The result is confusion, wasted energy, and sometimes, resentment. All because the idea came wrapped in authority.

2. It signals a lack of trust and context

When leaders step into product detail, they often signal something unintended: "I think I can do your job better."

Product teams spend their days living inside the customer's world - researching behavior, analyzing data, and balancing countless trade-offs. Executives, by contrast, are far removed from that context. They're usually the least qualified people in the company to make tactical product suggestions.

That's not arrogance - it's just the nature of the job. Leadership distance is what gives executives perspective, but it also limits their ability to make sound decisions at the feature level.

So when a senior leader proposes something specific, it can feel like micromanagement rather than inspiration.

3. If you must share an idea, do it carefully

There are moments where an executive genuinely wants to influence product direction. That's natural, and sometimes helpful. But if you choose to do it, you need to be conscious of how your words land.

A small change in phrasing can make a big difference. Instead of saying "We should build X," try framing it as:

"This is just a random idea from someone who isn't deep into the topic…"

or

"Perhaps we could explore whether there's value in doing X."

This "softening" acknowledges your distance from the details and gives the product team permission to challenge, ignore, or refine your thought. It turns your input into a prompt for discussion, not an instruction for action.

4. Lead with outcomes, not outputs

Even better, stay focused on high-level goals and outcomes rather than specific features.

Instead of suggesting what to build, articulate why something matters and what success looks like. For example:

"I'd like us to have a valuable AI feature that delivers real customer impact by October."

This creates space for the product team to apply their expertise - to interpret the goal, explore solutions, and deliver outcomes that actually move the business forward.

That's leadership: defining direction and success, not dictating how to get there.

5. The best executives build environments, not products

The most effective leaders don't compete for ideas. They build the environment where the best ideas emerge naturally.

That means:

• Setting clear strategic intent.

• Hiring capable product leaders.

• Removing friction and politics.

• Trusting the teams who are closest to the customer.

When executives play at being product managers, they erode that environment. When they lead through vision and trust, they strengthen it.

So the next time you're tempted to suggest a button, pause. Ask yourself: Am I leading through vision, or meddling through ideas?

Great executives don't design products. They design organisations that consistently deliver great products.

Practical Advice

If you're an executive, there are two ways to apply this thinking in practice.

First, you can use targeted suggestions as a diagnostic tool - to test the strength and confidence of your product management organisation. Try proposing to "add a button here" in a place where you're fairly sure it wouldn't make sense. A good product leader should push back and explain why it's not a good idea.

If instead, people quietly implement it, you may have a deeper issue. Either your product leaders aren't as capable as you'd like them to be, or there's a lack of psychological safety preventing them from challenging executive ideas. In a healthy product culture, dissent is a feature, not a flaw. The best ideas win because they're backed by evidence and reasoning, not hierarchy.

Second, if you find yourself genuinely tempted to make a concrete suggestion like "let's add a button," take a moment to reflect on what's driving that impulse.

Do you not trust your product leaders? If that mistrust is justified, you may need to address it directly - through coaching, alignment, or personnel changes.

Or are you simply frustrated by slow execution? In that case, don't reach for a quick idea. Instead, dig into what's slowing your teams down. Find and clear the real obstacles. That's how you drive speed and quality without interfering in the work itself.