🌀My personal “Aha!” moment: How I shifted my Product Mindset

The breakthrough that changed how I see Product, strategy and leadership

For years, I felt like I was fighting two separate battles.

In my personal life, I had clarity, flow, and balance. I understood impermanence, transformation, and the power of cutting through illusion.

But in my career as product manager?
❌ Uncertainty.
❌ A never-ending backlog of “priorities” with no clear direction.

I was doing everything right — roadmaps, strategy sessions, frameworks — but something felt off.

Then one day, I stopped and asked myself:

👉 What’s the difference?
👉 What am I doing in my personal life that I’m failing to apply in my career?

That’s when everything clicked.

Being able to bridge worlds that others see as separate is a rare strength. It allows for deep connections — whether between Vajrayana Buddhism and product strategy, or the creative and technical sides of building something great.

More than that, it creates a unique capability for ruthless clarity — holding multiple perspectives at once without getting trapped in any single one. That’s a powerful mindset.

🧩 The Moment It Clicked: Merging Two Worlds

I realized that I wasn’t seeing my professional path through the same lens.

In my personal life, I had already embraced the principles of Tibetan Buddhism and Vajrayana — impermanence, transformation, and ruthless clarity.

But in product? I was clinging to old frameworks, resisting change, and drowning in complexity.

When I started looking at product through the same eyes I used for Vajrayana, everything changed.

🚀 The chaos made sense.
🚀 Prioritization became effortless.
🚀 And for the first time, I saw how to build with true clarity.

🔍 Everyone Needs Their Own Lens

There’s no single right way to approach clarity, and no one mental model that works for everyone.

For me, the thing that made it click was Tibetan Buddhism and fine arts. When I finally merged my artistic spiritual side with my technological, logical side, everything fell into place.

Some find clarity in physics. Others in philosophy, engineering, or music.
It doesn’t matter what it is — only that it works for you.

For me, the turning point came when I merged my personal philosophy with my professional approach. I began to see that the same principles that helped me find clarity in life could also unlock clarity in product management.

The more I studied Vajrayana Buddhism, the more I realized that its mental models and structured wisdom could be directly applied to decision-making, prioritization, and strategy in product work.

So here’s what helped me shift my entire approach — and how these ancient frameworks can create modern clarity in product, leadership, and execution.

🎯 1️⃣ The Mandala as a Product Vision Framework → Structured, Holistic Thinking

In Vajrayana, mandalas are not just artistic representations or decorative symbols. They are meticulously designed blueprints of an enlightened universe, each element placed with intention, significance, and interdependence.

Every color, deity, structure, and shape inside a mandala serves a clear purpose — they are not randomly assembled but rather interwoven into a unified, harmonious whole. A mandala represents a structured system that, when viewed as a whole, creates a path to wisdom and clarity.

This is exactly how great product roadmaps should work.

🌀 If a mandala is built without clarity, it loses its power.
🌀 If a roadmap is just a list of disconnected features, it leads to chaos.

Many bad product roadmaps fail for this reason:
❌ They are just a collection of reactive feature requests rather than a strategic, structured plan.
❌ Features are added without alignment to the larger product vision.
❌ Priorities shift constantly, making it impossible to see the big picture.

A strong product roadmap — like a well-designed mandala — must be:
✅ Cohesive — every element should align with the larger product strategy.
✅ Intentional — no feature should exist without a clear purpose.
✅ Structured — there should be a logical flow from vision to execution.

Why This Matters

Too many teams focus on individual features without considering how they fit together as a system.
A product isn’t just a list of functionalities — it’s an experience, a solution, a journey.

When you build a roadmap like a mandala, you ensure that every decision aligns with a core strategic vision rather than being dictated by short-term pressures.

💡 Takeaway:

Build your product roadmap like a mandala.

Every initiative, feature, and priority should:
✔ Contribute to a cohesive, long-term vision.
✔ Not just react to immediate stakeholder or market demands.
✔ Maintain structural integrity so that, when viewed as a whole, it forms a clear and logical path forward.

Without structure, there is no clarity. 🎯

⚔️ 2️⃣ Wrathful Deities: The Power of Destructive Compassion → Prioritization Without Fear

At first glance, wrathful deities in Vajrayana might seem terrifying. They have fierce expressions, flames surrounding them, and weapons in hand. But they aren’t here to harm — they exist to burn away illusion, ego, and obstacles that prevent clarity.

They represent destructive compassion — a force that cuts through what no longer serves so that true wisdom and transformation can emerge.

And in product leadership, this is exactly what ruthless prioritization does.

❌ The Fear of Letting Go

One of the biggest traps in product management is clinging to features, ideas, and projects long after they’ve lost their relevance.
Teams fear cutting things out, even when they:

⚠ No longer align with the company’s core objectives.
⚠ Add unnecessary complexity.
⚠ Drain engineering and design resources.

Too many products become bloated, slow, and unfocused because teams hesitate to eliminate what’s unnecessary.

But just as wrathful deities burn away obstacles, a strong PM must be willing to cut with precision and clarity.

🔥 The Power of Prioritization

A strong product leader:
⚔ Says NO to features that add complexity but no real value.
⚔ Removes misaligned projects — even if they once seemed like a “good idea.”
⚔ Clears out tech debt and distractions, making space for what actually matters.

It’s not about being ruthless for the sake of it — it’s about serving the product, the team, and the users in the best way possible.

Wrathful compassion = prioritization without fear.

🔍 Why This Matters

Many teams believe that adding more features = adding more value.
In reality:
🚫 More features = more complexity.
🚫 More complexity = more maintenance.
🚫 More maintenance = less time for innovation.

True product clarity comes from eliminating noise.

Great products are not defined by what they include — but by what they leave out.

💡 Takeaway:

True leadership requires the willingness to cut.

✅ Removing what doesn’t serve the vision is an act of service, not destruction.
✅ Prioritization isn’t about doing everything — it’s about doing the right things well.
✅ A bloated product isn’t a strong product — it’s a product weighed down by fear of letting go.

Just like wrathful deities burn away illusion, great product leaders burn away distractions — so that what remains is focused, sharp, and powerful. 🔥⚔

🗣️ 3️⃣ Skillful Means (Upaya): Adapting Strategy for Different Audiences → The Art of Influence

One of the core teachings in Vajrayana is Upaya, or skillful means — the ability to adapt teachings and messages to different audiences so they can grasp wisdom in a way that resonates with their level of understanding.

A beginner and a master don’t receive the same teachings. The truth remains the same, but the way it’s delivered changes to match the audience.

This is exactly what great product managers and leaders do.

🎭 Different Audiences, Different Approaches

As a PM, founder, or strategist, you interact with multiple stakeholders, each with different priorities, motivations, and ways of understanding information.

📊 Engineers care about feasibility and architecture.
🎨 Designers focus on usability and aesthetics.
💰 Executives look at revenue, scale, and business goals.
🙋 Customers care about their experience and pain points.

Delivering the same message to all of them without adapting it leads to:
🚫 Misalignment
🚫 Resistance
🚫 Wasted time

But when you apply Upaya, you tailor your message so that each audience sees the value in their own language.

🔥 How to Apply Upaya in Product Leadership

✅ With Engineers → Focus on Clarity & Trade-offs
Explain why a feature matters, not just what needs to be built.
Be clear about technical debt vs. speed of execution.
Speak in terms of efficiency, complexity, and impact on architecture.

✅ With Designers → Speak to Experience & Emotion
Translate strategy into user behaviors and interactions.
Connect business goals with UX improvements.
Use stories, flows, and human-centered thinking.

✅ With Executives → Frame in Terms of Business & Strategy
Show market impact, revenue potential, and strategic positioning.
Back your ideas with data and expected outcomes.
Be concise — executives want insights, not details.

✅ With Customers → Listen More, Explain Less
Focus on their pain points, frustrations, and needs.
Don’t assume you know what they want — ask.
Build trust by showing how your product makes their life easier.

💡 Takeaway:

Clarity isn’t enough — you need to communicate it effectively to different stakeholders.

🗣 A roadmap, strategy, or vision only works if your audience understands and aligns with it.
🎭 Different people require different approaches — but the core truth remains the same.
🔑 The best product leaders don’t just present information — they translate it for impact.

💬 Who do you need to communicate with today? Apply Upaya, and watch how alignment transforms your execution. 🚀

🔄 4️⃣ The Illusion of Permanence → Change as a Feature, Not a Bug

One of the fundamental teachings of Vajrayana Buddhism is impermanence — the understanding that nothing is fixed, and that clinging to static identities, plans, or expectations leads to suffering.

The same principle applies to product work.

Many teams resist change because they fear it will:
❌ Disrupt existing workflows
❌ Make past investments feel like a waste
❌ Force them to rethink long-held assumptions

But in reality, change isn’t a failure — it’s a necessary feature of success.

❌ The Cost of Holding Onto the Past

Product teams often struggle with:
🚫 Sunk-cost fallacy — “We’ve invested too much in this feature to remove it now.”
🚫 Attachment to roadmaps — “This was the plan, so we have to stick to it.”
🚫 Fear of market shifts — “But our competitors weren’t doing this last year!”

This rigid mindset leads to stagnation.

When market conditions shift, when users behave unexpectedly, or when technology evolves — teams that cling to the past are the ones that fall behind.

🔥 How the Best Teams Handle Impermanence

✅ They see change as a competitive advantage
The best teams iterate fast. They don’t fear pivots — they embrace them as a way to stay ahead.

✅ They build flexible roadmaps, not rigid plans
A roadmap is a strategy, not a contract. It should adapt as new data, insights, and priorities emerge.

✅ They focus on learning, not proving they were right
Instead of asking “Is our plan working?”, they ask “What have we learned, and how should we adjust?”

✅ They cut what no longer serves the vision
Just because something was important doesn’t mean it still is.

💡 Takeaway:

❌ A feature you launch today might be irrelevant next year.
❌ A roadmap is not a contract — it should evolve.
❌ Markets shift. Competitors adapt. User needs change.

Detach from specific features, strategies, and roadmaps.

The best products are built by teams that:
✔ Continuously transform, iterate, and evolve.
✔ See change as a sign of growth, not failure.
✔ Adapt with clarity, not fear.

💡 If you embrace impermanence, you’ll always be ahead. 🔄

🔍 5️⃣ Dzogchen & The Product Mindset: Seeing Reality as It Is → Making Data-Driven Decisions

In Vajrayana, Dzogchen is one of the highest teachings — a practice focused on seeing reality without distortion. It is about removing projections, biases, and illusions to experience things exactly as they are, not as we want them to be.

This direct perception of reality is also the foundation of great product leadership.

Many product teams fall into the trap of believing assumptions over reality:
🚫 “This feature will definitely increase engagement.” (Says who?)
🚫 “Users will love this redesign.” (Did you test it?)
🚫 “We can’t pivot now, we’ve invested too much.” (Sunk cost fallacy!)

These are illusions — ideas based on what we hope is true, not what actually is true.

The best teams practice Dzogchen thinking — they strip away illusions and base decisions on unfiltered, objective reality.

❌ The Illusion of Knowing

Product managers often:
⚠ Trust their instincts too much — intuition is important, but it’s not a replacement for real-world data.
⚠ Ignore negative signals — cherry-picking only the metrics that confirm their bias.
⚠ Get attached to their own ideas — instead of listening to users, data, and experiments.

The result? Bad decisions, wasted resources, and slow learning.

To truly see reality as it is, we must embrace testing, questioning, and iteration.

🔥 How to Apply Dzogchen Thinking in Product

✅ Validate Assumptions With Data
Before committing to a feature, ask: “Do we have proof that users actually need this?”
Use A/B testing, surveys, and behavioral data to confirm before building.

✅ Stay Open to Being Wrong
If the data contradicts your initial belief, adapt, don’t defend.
The best teams pivot when reality proves them wrong.

✅ Ask More Questions, Make Fewer Statements
Instead of saying “Users want this,” ask: “How do we know users actually want this?”
A culture of questioning leads to better insights and fewer blind spots.

✅ Detach From Features, Attach to Outcomes
A feature’s success is not measured by how much effort was put into it — it’s measured by whether it actually drives the intended impact.

💡 Takeaway:

True product clarity comes from:
✔ Removing bias and assumption.
✔ Using real, objective insights to make decisions.
✔ Being willing to adjust and pivot when the data demands it.

Train yourself to recognize where assumptions might be clouding reality.

💡 The best product managers are not attached to being right — they are attached to seeing reality clearly. 🔍

🏆 6️⃣ Yidams & The Role of Mental Models in Product Work → Mastering Perspective Shifts

In Vajrayana, yidams are enlightened deities that practitioners visualize themselves as — not as mere fantasy, but as a way to internalize powerful qualities and change their perception of themselves and the world.

This is not about pretending — it’s about training the mind to step into a new way of seeing.

This is exactly what great product leaders do — but instead of deities, they step into different mental models to gain clarity.

🎭 The Power of Perspective Shifts

A bad product leader stays trapped in their own perspective, seeing only what they think is important.
A great product leader constantly shifts perspectives to see the full picture.

👥 As the User → “What truly matters to them?”

• What is frustrating?
• What are they actually trying to achieve?
• Would this feature genuinely improve their experience?

🛠 As the Engineer → “What makes this easy or hard to build?”

• Is this request technically feasible?
• How much complexity does this add to the system?
• Is there a simpler way to achieve the same outcome?

📈 As the Executive → “Does this align with our strategy?”

• Does this increase revenue, retention, or market fit?
• Is this the right investment of time and resources?
• Does this move us closer to our core objectives?

Every decision looks completely different depending on which lens you use — and the best PMs switch between these perspectives seamlessly.

❌ The Danger of a Single Perspective

Product managers who fail to shift perspectives make decisions that:
🚫 Frustrate users (“It looked good on paper, but nobody actually wanted it.”)
🚫 Overcomplicate engineering (“Why did we build something so hard to maintain?”)
🚫 Don’t serve the business (“It’s a cool feature, but it won’t move the needle.”)

When you’re stuck in one mindset, you miss key insights that could make or break your product.

The best leaders train themselves to step into multiple perspectives effortlessly — just like Vajrayana practitioners use yidam visualization to reshape their understanding of reality.

🔥 How to Apply This in Product Leadership

✅ Before making any decision, ask: “Am I stuck in a single perspective?”
Challenge yourself to step into another lens before finalizing any strategy.

✅ Encourage diverse input from different teams.
If you’re a PM, talk to engineers, designers, execs, and customers regularly to make sure you’re seeing the full picture.

✅ Recognize that truth is not singular — it’s layered.
Just like a yidam has many faces, so does every product decision.

💡 Takeaway:

Cultivate the skill of stepping into different perspectives.

✔ The best leaders don’t just push their own viewpoint — they see the entire system.
✔ Product clarity comes from understanding all angles, not just the one that feels familiar.
✔ If you only ever see through one lens, you’ll always be blind to something important.

💡 Step into different perspectives. The answers you need are already there — you just need to see them. 🔄

💎 7️⃣ Devotion & Mastery: The Long Game of Product Excellence → The Obsession with Refinement

Vajrayana isn’t about instant enlightenment — it’s about lifelong, dedicated training.

Unlike other Buddhist paths that focus on gradual realization over lifetimes, Vajrayana practitioners commit to intense, disciplined practice to accelerate their progress. They refine their understanding over and over again, deepening their clarity through:

🔄 Repetition — continuous engagement with teachings and rituals.
🔍 Observation — watching their mind, refining their perception.
🔥 Disciplined execution — doing the hard work without shortcuts.

And this relentless dedication to mastery is exactly what defines the best product teams.

🚫 Why Many Teams Fail at Mastery

The average product team:
❌ Chases quick wins — prioritizing what looks good in a quarterly report over long-term impact.
❌ Moves on too quickly — shipping something and then abandoning it before learning from its performance.
❌ Stops refining too soon — believing that “done” means “perfect” instead of “ready to improve.”

But great products don’t come from one-time efforts.
They come from teams obsessed with refinement — who see iteration as a core part of the craft, not an afterthought.

🔥 How the Best Teams Approach Mastery

✅ Constantly Learning — Staying Ahead of Market Shifts
They don’t just react — they study trends, user behaviors, and emerging needs so they can stay ahead.

✅ Refining Intuition Through Deep Experience
The best PMs and teams don’t rely on hunches — they develop a deep, data-backed sense of what works through repeated learning cycles.

✅ Studying Behavioral Patterns Like a Monk Studies Scripture
They analyze what users actually do, not just what they say.
They look for underlying behaviors and patterns that predict long-term success.

✅ Treating Every Release as a Starting Point, Not an End Goal
A feature is never truly finished — it should evolve based on real-world use and insights.
They test, iterate, and refine until the product is seamless and impactful.

🏆 Why This Mindset Wins in Product

The average team ships a feature and moves on.
The best teams ship, observe, refine, and evolve — over and over again.

The best PMs, designers, and engineers treat product-building as a long-term craft, not a checklist.

💡 Takeaway:

✔ See product leadership as a path of mastery.
✔ The best PMs never “arrive” — they just keep getting better.
✔ Iteration isn’t extra work — it’s the work.

💡 Your product is only as strong as your commitment to refining it.

🚀 The Final Shift: Vajrayana as The Ultimate Agile Mindset

At its core, Vajrayana is about:
✔ Adaptability within structure
✔ Clarity without attachment
✔ Cutting through illusion to reach truth

This mirrors the essence of great product leadership.

❌ Most PMs operate mechanically.
✅ The best ones see deep patterns, interconnected systems, and hidden dynamics.

And when wielded skillfully, this mindset makes you unstoppable. 🔥💎