Eyes On, Hands Off: The Leadership Balance Every Product Team Needs
In every organisation I’ve worked with, I’ve seen leaders wrestle with the same question: how do you stay close enough to guide your teams, without micromanaging them?
The answer lies in a principle I’ve come back to again and again: “eyes on, hands off.”*
This means maintaining visibility and context (“eyes on”), while giving teams the autonomy and trust they need to deliver (“hands off”). It’s a deceptively simple phrase — but when practiced well, it can transform how product organizations scale.
Why “Hands Off” Alone Fails
Complete autonomy sounds empowering, but in practice it can lead to:
Misalignment — teams drift away from strategic priorities
Silos — groups optimize for their own goals, not the mission
Hidden issues — problems remain invisible until they’re urgent
Autonomy is important. But without visibility and oversight, it quickly veers into chaos.
Why “Eyes On” Matters
Having “eyes on” doesn’t mean micromanaging. It’s about creating visibility, context, and support:
Context: understanding how work connects to the broader strategy
Visibility: spotting dependencies, gaps, or risks before they derail progress
Support: stepping in to unblock resources, decisions, or priorities
The trap, of course, is when “eyes on” turns into constant interference. That’s when trust erodes.
Finding the Balance
The sweet spot is combining oversight with autonomy. Here are five principles I’ve found useful:
Transparent dashboards – Share OKRs, progress, and blockers in one place, so leaders can monitor without endless meetings.
Lean cadences – Weekly check-ins and monthly reviews keep alignment, without strangling day-to-day flow.
Trigger-based intervention – Step in when certain thresholds are crossed (missed OKRs, slippage, resource gaps, overspend). Otherwise, observe.
Unblock, don’t dictate – Ask questions, align dependencies, and clear obstacles. Let the team own the “how.”
Open communication – Create a culture where raising risks early feels safe, not shameful.
A Real Example
I once oversaw a cross-regional product rollout. One team insisted they were “on track” — but from my vantage point, I could see their timelines were out of sync with another team’s deliverables.
Instead of diving in and reassigning tasks, I facilitated a short sync between the two groups. Within 30 minutes, they surfaced a dependency mismatch and a missing design spec. Once clarified, both teams were unblocked — and I could step back again.
That’s “eyes on, hands off” in action: maintaining oversight, spotting issues early, but letting teams solve in their own way.
Why It Matters in Product Leadership
In high-growth product organizations, especially scale-ups, this balance is essential. Leaders need to:
Drive follow-through on key decisions without bottlenecking teams
Maintain visibility across complex, cross-functional work
Step in strategically, not constantly
Done well, it multiplies impact. Done poorly, it either breeds chaos or stifles creativity.
Final Thought
Great product leadership isn’t about how many decisions you make yourself. It’s about how effectively you enable others to execute.
“Eyes on, hands off” isn’t passive — it’s an active discipline of visibility, trust, and timely intervention. When leaders strike that balance, they create the conditions for teams to do their best work, while staying aligned to the bigger picture.
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* The phrase “eyes on, hands off” was popularised by General Stanley McChrystal but the first reference I could find of it was in the book ‘Outings at Odd Times’ by Charles Conrad Abbott.