Product Managers 🤝 Film Directors

2026

Strategy, Leadership, Casting, Cinematography, Post-Production

I took some time off during the pandemic to work on a slew of creative projects I had been putting off. I wrote children's books, a novel, poetry, and somehow a year turned into 3. In the summer of 2024 I started writing a short film script. I was going to try and sell the script, but an industry friend told me I had a better chance of seeing it made if I did it myself. So I did!

I wrote, produced, and directed MAG // PIE, and it premiered at the Yonkers Film Festival in late 2025. Thanks Patty and Dave for putting on a rockin' fest.

The whole process felt weirdly natural. Like I was walking down a well-trodden path. The adrenaline kept me going for most of the time, so I didn't understand why things felt so normal until I looked back at my time in tech. Today, I'm finally writing down my thoughts in case any other PMs/directors stumble across this.

If you're a PM considering a more creative gig, or a director wondering what's next, flip the toggle between the two sides below to see why these seemingly opposite roles might feel like natural career transitions to you.

Product ManagerFilm Director

01. The Pitch

You have a vision for a feature. You spend weeks building decks and meeting with VPs to get the budget and approval to actually build it.

02. The Blueprint

Every project starts with a document. At Google, the PRD was the source of truth. It convinced the skeptics and defined the goal before anyone wrote a line of code.

03. Build the Team

You are only as good as the people around you. For a PM, this means working with engineers and designers. You coordinate experts to build something together.

04. Sprint

This is the daily work of standups and blocked tasks. You have to keep the momentum going. You act as a shield for the team so they can focus on progress.

05. Iterate

A product gets finished by cutting things out. You look at user data and remove features that don't help. You have to be okay with letting go of ideas.

06. The Sale

The code is live. Now you religiously monitor acquisition costs and retention to see how people feel about your product.

07. The Blues

The launch party is over. You wake up on Monday and realize the thing you spent years on is just a new tab in a browser. You question everything. Time to find the next problem.

If you are a PM who's tired of marching to quarterly KPIs to improve ad serving efficiency by 0.1% and considering a creative career, a film director role might be right for you. If you are a filmmaker who has been disappointed one too many times by MBAs who don't understand storytelling , try your hand at product management. You already have the skills to lead a team.

And if you are a recruiter? Look beyond the title! Someone who can lead a crew through a 12-hour shoot is ready to handle a difficult product launch.

At the end of the day, both roles are about protecting a vision while dealing with the messiness of real life.