Marc Baselga captured part of discussion I had last week with a Supra leadership group, so copying his transcript/my words here…
The CEO just announced 2026’s ‘strategy’ in your ELT meeting: Grow 26%.
Everyone turns to look at product. “So what’s YOUR plan to deliver that?”
Classic Q4 planning season. The growth target is always 3-4% higher than this year. And somehow product is expected to deliver all of it through features and innovation.
We recently had a 2026 planning session with Rich Mironov where he shared how to completely flip this dynamic, and it’s brilliant.
Instead of sitting there panicking or accepting full responsibility, he walks into that meeting prepared. Not with excuses. With a number.
“I understand we need to grow 26%. Product can sign up for 6-7% of that.”
Then he lists 2-3 specific things: some churn reduction work, a new market segment, maybe a pricing tier optimization. Real stuff with rough dollar estimates attached.
And then comes the beautiful part.
He turns to sales: “Assuming the product we already have and no improvements, how is sales going to deliver growth? More reps? New territories? Better training?”
Marketing gets the same question. Customer Success too.
Suddenly it’s not product defending why we can’t deliver 26%. It’s the entire executive team figuring out how to divide up the target based on what each function can actually control.
I’ve seen some of these meetings go sideways myself.
When you don’t have a number ready, you become the dumping ground for everyone else’s inability to grow. But when you DO have a number - especially one backed by actual initiatives - you change the entire conversation.
The trick here isn’t in the specific percentage. It’s in being prepared to say “here’s what product can realistically deliver, now let’s talk about what everyone else is bringing to the table.” At the end of the day, growing 26% isn’t a product problem. It’s a company problem.