Latest / The Promotion Memo with Fexingo: Getting Visibility, Sponsors, and Executive Presence / How One Employee Turned a Failed Project Into a Promotion
Transcript
- Lucas: We talk a lot on this show about getting noticed for the good stuff — the wins, the big projects, the ideas that land. But one of our listeners asked a question I think a lot of people are afraid to say out loud: what if your biggest moment of visibility came from a failure? Luna: I love that question, because so many of us have been taught that failure is something to hide. And the instinct to bury it is strong. But I've seen cases where the opposite was actually the career-accelerating move. Lucas: Exactly. So let's get specific. I want to talk about a product manager at a mid-sized SaaS company — I'll call her Priya, not her real name, but the story is real. She was leading a feature rollout that was supposed to be the company's big Q3 play. Think new integration, lots of cross-team dependencies, aggressive timeline. Luna: I can already feel the pressure. What happened? Lucas: It cratered. The integration had a fundamental design flaw that didn't surface until the beta test with five enterprise clients. Three of them had data corruption issues. Two threatened to leave. The executive team had to get involved. It was messy. Luna: And Priya was the PM. That's the kind of thing that gets you a one-on-one with HR, not a promotion. Lucas: That's the instinct, right? But here's what she did differently. Instead of waiting for the post-mortem to be called by her boss, she requested it herself. She sent an email to the VP of Product and the CTO, subject line: 'What We Learned From the X Integration — and How We Fix It.' She owned the failure upfront, in writing, and she framed it as a learning investment. Luna: That takes guts. But also — she must have had some data ready. You can't just say 'I messed up, let's talk about it.' Lucas: Right. She came prepared. She had a one-page document with three sections: what happened, why it happened, and what the company should do differently. No defensiveness. No blaming the engineering team or the timeline pressure. Just: here are the root causes — a lack of a proper design review gate, unclear ownership of the data migration spec, and a testing environment that didn't mirror production. Luna: That's the kind of analysis that signals executive potential. You're not just pointing fingers — you're diagnosing the system. Leaders love that. Lucas: Exactly. The VP and CTO both showed up to the meeting. And here's the thing — they were expecting a defensive PM, or maybe someone trying to deflect. Instead, they got a candid, structured analysis that made their jobs easier. She even had a recommended fix: a new pre-launch checklist for any cross-team integration, with mandatory sign-offs from engineering, QA, and the product lead. Luna: So she turned a fire drill into a process improvement initiative. That's smart. But did it actually lead to a promotion? Lucas: It did. About six months later, the company created a new Director of Product Operations role — basically the person responsible for exactly those kinds of cross-functional launch processes. Priya got the job. And when I talked to the CTO later, he said the moment he knew she was ready for that role was the post-mortem meeting. He said, 'Anyone can manage a project when it's going well. The people who can lead when it falls apart — those are the ones we want in senior roles.' Luna: That's a powerful reframe. But I think a lot of listeners are thinking, 'That's great for Priya, but my company culture is not that forgiving. If I own a failure, I'll be branded as the person who screwed up.' Lucas: That's a real concern. And I'd say you have to read your culture. But there's a psychological principle at play here called the Pratfall Effect — the idea that people who admit a flaw are actually seen as more competent, not less, as long as they demonstrate overall ability. The key is that Priya didn't just admit failure; she paired it with a solution-oriented analysis. That's the combination that works. Luna: So the admission alone isn't enough. You have to show you've extracted value from the failure. That's the part that gets executives' attention. Lucas: Exactly. And there's another layer. After the post-mortem, Priya did something else that I think was crucial. She wrote a short internal blog post — just three paragraphs — titled 'Three Things the X Integration Taught Us About Scale.' She published it on the company intranet, and it got shared around. That turned a private meeting into a public narrative. Now people across the org associated her with the lessons, not the failure. Luna: That's a great tactic. It's a form of thought leadership inside your own company. And it costs nothing but fifteen minutes to write. Lucas: Right. And the CTO actually commented on the post, saying something like 'Great summary — this is exactly the kind of transparency we need.' So now she's got visible executive endorsement on a failure post. That's gold. Luna: I want to push back a little, though. This works in a culture that values learning. But what if your boss is the type who wants to assign blame? Do you still go public? Lucas: That's a fair point. If you're in a toxic blame culture, the strategy shifts. I'd still recommend the private post-mortem with your boss — but frame it as 'Here's what I learned and here's how I'll prevent it next time.' You're not asking for forgiveness; you're demonstrating growth. That's harder to punish. And if it's really bad, you might need to look for a healthier org — but that's a different episode. Luna: Fair. Let's talk about timing. Priya's promotion came six months after the failure. That's not immediate. Was there anything she did in that gap? Lucas: Great question. She didn't just rest on the post-mortem. She volunteered to lead the implementation of that new launch checklist — the one she'd proposed. So she took ownership of the solution. That gave her a concrete win to point to when the director role opened up. She could say, 'I identified a systemic problem, I designed a fix, and I executed it successfully.' That's a narrative arc that any executive understands. Luna: So the failure became the setup, and the implementation became the payoff. That's a compelling story. And it's a story you can tell in an interview, in a performance review, or just in a conversation with your boss. Lucas: Exactly. And I think the broader lesson here is: failure is inevitable in any ambitious career. The question isn't whether you'll have a setback — it's whether you'll have the presence of mind to mine it for data and then broadcast the insights. That's what separates people who get stuck from people who get promoted. Luna: Speaking of broadcasting insights, I love that this episode is helping people rethink their own setbacks. And it reminds me — if you've found value in these conversations, and you want to help keep the show ad-free and independent, listener support is what makes that possible. We're on buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure, just a way to keep the episodes coming without sponsors. Lucas: Absolutely. And back to Priya — one more detail I think is worth noting. She didn't just write the blog post and wait. She also scheduled one-on-ones with three senior leaders in the company, including the CTO, to ask for feedback on her post-mortem. She said, 'I want to make sure I'm not missing anything. What would you have done differently?' That's a power move — it shows humility and confidence at the same time. Luna: And it builds relationships. Now those leaders have a mental file on her as someone who handles adversity well. When a promotion comes up, they think of her. Lucas: Right. So if you're sitting on a failure right now — maybe a project that didn't hit its numbers, or a presentation that flopped — try this: write a one-page post-mortem. Own it. Find the lesson. Propose a fix. Then share it with a trusted senior person. You might be surprised at the response. Luna: I'm going to try that myself, actually. I have a project from last quarter I've been avoiding talking about. This is giving me a new frame. Lucas: Good. And when you do, let us know how it goes. That's it for this episode of The Promotion Memo. We'll be back next week with another story of how someone got the visibility they needed to move up.