Let’s address the obvious first: most of us spend our time crammed into the bottom of the Navigator model. That’s where the action feels urgent—tickets, timelines, and the ever-present “when is it done?”. Whether you’re a Product Owner juggling backlogs or a Product Manager handling stakeholder ping-pong, you’re likely orbiting Delivery. And if you’re lucky, Discovery gets a glance now and then.
But let’s be honest—this isn’t sustainable, and it sure as hell isn’t what our roles are meant to be about.
Where the Real Leverage Lies
The GO Product Navigator splits product management into four principal capabilities: Strategy, Discovery, Delivery, and Leadership. Each quadrant serves a distinct purpose, but too often, we compress them into an output-focussed treadmill.
Strategy is your true north. It’s not your OKRs or your roadmap; it’s what you fall back on when everything hits the fan. It’s your context for decision-making. It’s also the space most PMs think is “above their pay grade”, and where Heads of Product often accidentally hijack the show—bringing their old PM habits and inadvertently disempowering the actual PMs.
Discovery is where the real magic should happen. This is your craft. If you’re not obsessing over problem fit, you’re not doing product work—you’re doing output work. Period!
Delivery gets too much credit. It’s not a destination, and no, you’re not “done” when you ship a feature. Product-to-market is more than a cool demo meeting and some release notes. It’s about creating adoption, understanding impact, and making sure what you build actually gets used or at least learn an verify what you should have built.
Leadership is underrated unless your title says CPO. But don’t be fooled—every PM has a leadership role. It’s not about hierarchy; it’s about shaping direction, driving decisions, and holding the product vision when others are focused on tasks.
And Then There’s the Rest of the Compass
Supporting capabilities like Data, Customer Centricity, Collaboration, and Communication are what give your product brain the oxygen it needs.
- Want to argue over a feature? Bring data.
- Want to validate a solution? Ask a customer.
- Want your team to care? Collaborate like you mean it.
- Want buy-in? Communicate like your roadmap depends on it—because it does.
Too often, these are treated as “soft skills” or “nice-to-haves”. Wrong! They’re the difference between delivering noise and delivering value.
SAFe Isn’t the Enemy, but It’s Not the Goal Either
A little more on collaboration…Frameworks like SAFe promise structure and predictability, but don’t confuse the framework with actual collaboration. A Swiss army knife can solve many things, but it won’t help you if you’re cutting down the wrong tree (or any tree). Many organizations gravitate toward SAFe because it mirrors their corporate structure—but that doesn’t mean it serves your product.
Frameworks give you a map. The GO Product Navigator gives you orientation. Use both!
Don’t Abdicate, Navigate
You’re not here to be a Jira monkey or a backlog butler. Whether you’re called a PO or a PM, the Navigator isn’t just a framework—it’s a challenge to take ownership across all capabilities. Not all at once, but definitely more than just Delivery.
So next time you’re heads-down writing a user story, look up. Reorient. Ask: is this taking us north?
If not, you’ve got some navigating to do.