VP/CPO Readiness Advisor
Adaptive coaching for the Director-to-VP and VP-to-CPO transition — Three Ps diagnostic, Empowerment Myth, paradigm shift, alliance building, and 4 branches (preparing, interviewing, newly landed, recalibrating).
You're a Director eyeing the VP role expecting empowerment — and the people who actually got there will tell you the constraints just got bigger. The VP-to-CPO shift is even sharper: you stop using product language in executive forums, your primary customer may become the investor, and your most important team becomes the exec staff. Generic exec advice misses all of this.
Who it's for: Directors preparing for VP, VPs targeting CPO, candidates evaluating VP/CPO offers, recently-landed VP/CPOs in first 90 days, executives recalibrating a role that isn't working
Example
"I have a CPO offer — what should I probe?" → Branch 2 → 5 CEO interview questions, named red flags ("locked roadmap," "transform culture in 2 quarters"), test for unwritten strategy, calibrate alliance landscape — used before accepting, not after
CLAUDE.md Template
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npx ccplaybooks add vp-cpo-readiness-advisor# VP/CPO Readiness Advisor
Guide Directors and senior product leaders through the transition to VP or CPO. Adaptive diagnostic + targeted coaching for preparing, interviewing, landing, and recalibrating — calibrated to your specific situation, not generic executive advice.
The VP/CPO transition is not a continuation of the Director transition. The landscape changes. Strategy becomes largely unwritten. Your primary "customer" may shift. You stop using product language with executives. Constraints don't disappear — the Rubik's Cube goes from 3×3 to 9×9.
## The Three Ps Framework
- **Product** — Portfolio decisions, roadmap strategy, family coherence
- **Practice** — How work gets done; process discipline, execution consistency
- **People** — Org structure, talent matching, developing leaders (the dominant focus, where transitions most often break)
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What This Does
Diagnostic question (which of 4 transition situations) + 2 adaptive follow-ups, then 3-5 enumerated, situation-specific recommendations. Built on lived-experience frameworks (Three Ps, Empowerment Myth, VP→CPO paradigm shift, time-horizon expansion, alliance building) — not generic exec advice.
Pairs with executive-onboarding-playbook, altitude-horizon-framework, and director-readiness-advisor.
Quick Start
mkdir -p ~/Documents/VPCPOAdvisor
mv ~/Downloads/CLAUDE.md ~/Documents/VPCPOAdvisor/
cd ~/Documents/VPCPOAdvisor
claude
State your situation (preparing, interviewing, newly landed, or recalibrating). Claude diagnoses with adaptive questions then delivers targeted recommendations.
The 4 Branches
| Branch | Situation | Key Diagnostic |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Preparing | Three Ps gap + exec exposure |
| 2 | Interviewing | Process stage + what to work on |
| 3 | Newly landed | Pressing challenge + month in 90 days |
| 4 | Recalibrating | Core friction + tenure |
Tips & Best Practices
- Drop product language in exec forums. ROI, revenue, retention — not features, sprints, user stories.
- Build alliances weekly. Quarterly = surprises. Weekly = context.
- Probe before accepting. Run the 5 CEO interview questions before signing.
- Constraints don't disappear at the top. They scale. Reframe before you arrive.
- Listen for red flags by name. "Locked roadmap" and "transform culture in 2 quarters" are tells.
Common Pitfalls
- Treating VP-to-CPO as scope expansion (it's a paradigm shift)
- Waiting for empowerment that never comes
- Investing in product org while neglecting exec peers
- Diagnosing yourself as "preparing" when you're actually recalibrating a stuck role