PB 18/6:⚡ Catalysts
A first dive into one of the groups of the Vital 9 - looking at the things that give you energy and spark great work
If you’d like to get a free Vital 9 Assessment, this week, just sign up to be a beta tester here
Last week I introduced the Vital 9 framework for product career success. This week, I'm diving deep into the first pillar: Catalysts.
Catalysts are the environmental factors that spark you into doing great work.
When they're strong, you feel motivated and energised to give your best every day.
When they're missing, everything becomes harder and less fulfilling. Success is possible, it's just more of a slog.
The challenge with Catalysts is that they have a big impact on your day-to-day experience and long-term career growth, yet they're incredibly difficult to assess before joining an organisation and equally difficult to change once you're there.
A quick recap: I talk below about different ingredients (or a group like ‘Catalysts’) being Red/ Amber or Green. My definitions for these are
🟢 Green: A real strength and a reason to stay in your current role
🟠 Amber: Not great - but nor is it a problem
🔴 Red: A problem. A potential reason to move job/ change role.
Why these four Catalysts?
They're grounded in Self-Determination Theory, which identifies the core psychological needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness.
I've adapted these for the reality of product work and modern organisations, based partly on my own experience, and partly on decades of management and coaching.
👥 Talent Boosters came from reflecting on my own career and realising how much certain people had accelerated my growth. These aren't just colleagues you enjoy working with (though that's lovely) - they're people who actively develop your capabilities, put opportunities your way, and create environments where you can thrive. It might be your manager, but it might also be peers or other leaders you
🧭 Lived Values Every organisation - including tobacco companies and arms manufacturers - now has a mission statement that sounds noble. But that’s not enough. What matters is how they actually operate, the role you play in that (often down to some relatively fine grain product decisions) and most importantly - how you feel about that. There’s no absolute right or wrong. But there is a point where we can suddenly find that the way our organisation operates just isn’t ok with us, and as a result we become detached and demotivated.
⚖️ Work-Life Balance This is about more than just the hours we work, or the days we’re expected in the office. When this is ‘Red’, it feels that any achievement at work is has to be at the expense of happiness at home, and vice versa. When it’s ‘Green’ - work might be challenging, but we’re also able to be present outside work, both physically and mentally. Our need here will shift over time. Early in our career, this might not matter; later on, with young children or elderly relatives, it might be the single most important thing to us. At any stage though - we should be as aware of this as we are of any other ingredient in our career.
🎛️ Professional Agency was my answer to the limitations of terms like "autonomy" (too open-ended) and "empowered" (too loaded with specific product management approaches). Agency is something that is both given and taken. It captures whether you have meaningful control over your work - and whether you then take advantage of that. In a future week, I’ll go pretty deep on this, as it’s
The relationship between Catalysts and Achievements
Catalysts aren't just about feeling good at work. They're there to make Achievements more likely. And it’s Achievements that propel you forward. They’re the engine room of your career.
The relationship isn't a strict cause-and-effect. Just because you have a someone there helping you, and you have strong agency, doesn’t necessarily mean you get to knock it out the park (we’ll see that the ingredients of the Vital 9 are all loosely coupled rather than a set of automated triggers)
If you step back a bit and think overall about Catalyst and Achievements as either Red or Green - we have four possible combinations. (8 if you add in variations of Rewards, but we’ll get that to another week)
😊 Green Catalysts/ Green Achievements: The Good place
Not much to say - as this is obviously when things are going well.
😬 Red Catalysts/ Green Achievements: The Grind
You may not be waking up every day psyched about work, but you will have something to show for it. This is often a short term trade off for long term gains (this was how I felt for a lot of my time at Amazon!).
😴 Green Catalysts/ Red Achievements: The Velvet Coffin
A potentially dangerous comfort zone. Even if you’re being well rewarded for it. Periods of work like this can be great, in fact there are times when they may be necessary, but they can look like dead zones on your CV. We’ll revisit this next week.
😢 Red Catalysts/ Red Achievements: Move. Now.
Yes, really - you should move. Sorry, it’s that simple.
Spotting Catalysts During Interviews
Since Catalysts are so hard to change once you're in role, assessment during the interview process is crucial. Here's what to look for:
Pay attention to who you meet. Companies with something to hide often start by making sure you only have limited visibility during the hiring process. More exposure to people at different levels and functions is generally a good sign.
Do your research: Look Glassdoor, but also look into your network and see if anyone knows anyone who can give you some guidance. A 20 minute conversation with someone who has previously worked there is more powerful than multiple hours of online research.
Ask specific questions rather than broad cultural ones. Instead of "Are teams empowered?", ask a potential peer to walk you through how they develop their roadmap and how success is evaluated. Probe actual working practices rather than aspirational statements. If you’re meeting a few people through the interview process - make sure you have specific questions relevant to each of them.
Be explicit and up front about any Work/Life Balance needs you might have. If you need to be free by 5.30 on a Tuesday night to coach a school football team - say that up front. If the reaction is shock and horror, better you find out in advance.
Some Catalyst FAQs
Q: Should I always have all four Catalysts in the green?
A: Ideally, yes. But realistically, probably not. If you can have at least one green, and no reds then you’re in a pretty good place. If it’s all red or at least if there’s no greens - then it really depends what’s going on with your Achievement and Reward levels.
Q: Isn't prioritising Work-Life Balance the opposite of career advancement?
A: This is one of the biggest myths in product careers. At certain life stages, optimising for better Work-Life Balance can be as strategically powerful as focusing on a particular skill set. It depends on what you're trying to achieve overall. Just accept that it might come as a trade-off against something else.
Q: My company talks about having a great culture. Isn't that enough?
A: "Culture" is such a broad term that it's almost meaningless. What feels like a great culture to one person might be completely wrong for another. The four Catalysts help you break down what specific environmental factors actually matter to you, rather than relying on generic cultural statements.
Q: What if I'm in a Catalyst-poor environment right now?
A: Some of this depends on exactly which Catalysts we’re talking about. If there’s no-one boosting your Talent for example you should definitely lean into and/or develop your network or look to getting a coach. If it’s work life balance that’s the issue - that might require specific tactics just to make things tolerable. We’ll cover these in future weeks. But as I’ve said already, changing environmental factors is often outside your control. The bigger Question is - are you achieving? and are you getting rewarded well?
Q: Is ‘Professional Agency’ the same or different as an ‘Empowered Product Team’
A. I’ve deliberately kept this one vague. The reason is I think you can both experience and display Agency in a variety of different ways of working. One to revisit in future weeks..
Next Week: Achievements
Catalysts create the conditions for great work, but Achievements are what actually propel your career forward. Next week, I'll dive into the three types of Achievements every product person needs: Meaningful Impact, Skills Growth, and Domain Expertise—and why getting this right is absolutely crucial for everything else that follows.
Want to assess your own Catalysts and build a plan to improve them? As part of my beta testing, you can do a full Vital 9 assessment and get your results (as well as a nice fat discount when I launch a paid product later in the Summer). Find out more here.