As a Product Manager, if you want to innovate, stay away from the Eye of Sauron.
In my experience, some of the best work I’ve done in software businesses didn’t start out as the CEO’s top priorities. In fact, the projects that get the most executive attention often get smothered under the weight of their own importance.
When projects fall under the “Eye of Sauron,” (h/t to my kiwi colleagues for this metaphor) the scrutiny is so intense that the team (PMs, engineers, designers) becomes risk-averse. We end up taking safer approaches that can be underwritten easily up front.
The focus shifts to appeasing executives with well-forecasted plans and minimal surprises, which means less room for experimentation or tinkering. Everything becomes about planning and execution rather than discovery and creativity. High-visibility projects often end up feeling more like waterfall projects, with rigid processes designed to reassure executives rather than fuel innovation.
Now, don’t get me wrong—working on high-visibility projects isn’t without its benefits. These initiatives teach you a lot about stakeholder management, scaled communication, and navigating corporate politics. It’s a crash course in how to keep executives informed, manage competing interests, and deal with the layers of organizational complexity. However, these roles won’t exercise your muscle for innovation and creativity as much. They’re optimized for predictability and control, not for the messy, iterative process that drives true breakthroughs.
Some of the most innovative work I’ve been part of actually started as “backwater” projects—those low-priority, underfunded initiatives that barely register on the executive radar. No one expects much from these, which means the team has the freedom to take risks, experiment, and explore creative ideas. The expectations are lower, and as a result, the space for innovation is greater.
What’s interesting is that once these projects start showing promise, they inevitably attract executive attention. But by that point, the team has been quietly working outside the “Eye” for months, building momentum organically. They’re only pulled into the spotlight once they’ve already laid a solid foundation.
This is why, counterintuitively, I tend to avoid signing up for the product teams or initiatives that are already deemed the most important—the cash cow projects or the CEO’s pet focus. While these projects are undeniably high-impact, they are also hostile environments for 0-to-1 innovation. They’re optimized for fast-following competitors and applying management science too early, rather than fostering the messy, iterative process that true innovation requires.
If you’re really interested in 0-to-1 innovation within a company, the advice is similar to starting a company: don’t raise too much capital too early. Build, iterate, and gather customer feedback in a space where you can avoid the constraints of big, public commitments to stakeholders.