How One Employee Turned a Failed Project Into a Promotion

The Promotion Memo with Fexingo: Getting Visibility, Sponsors, and Executive Presence · May 27, 2026 · 8m · transcript

In this episode of The Promotion Memo, Lucas and Luna explore a counterintuitive career strategy: leveraging failure as a visibility tool. They examine the real story of a product manager at a mid-sized SaaS company who, after a costly project collapse, used a structured post-mortem to reframe the lessons learned and caught the attention of the C-suite. The hosts break down the specific steps—from owning the mistake publicly to quantifying the insights gained—that turned a career setback into a promotion to director within 18 months. They also discuss the psychological bias leaders have…