I Didn't Know What I Knew Until Someone Asked

What's the difference between an individual contributor (IC) and a director?

Someone earlier in their career asked me last week how to go from IC to director. But I think the real question underneath it was simpler than that. What actually changes between these two roles?

I didn't have a clear answer. I'm a director. I'm also an IC. No direct reports. So what does my title actually mean?

Since I took this job I've told people it's the best job in the world. Director-level individual contributor. I get to think strategically without managing anyone. But when this person asked me how to become a director, I couldn't just say "be like me," because I didn't follow a defined path to get here. I followed curiosity and things worked out.

So I did what I usually do when someone asks me a question I haven't thought through. I started talking and tried to figure it out in real time.

What Came Out

Somewhere in the conversation I I said something I’d never articulated before. 

It came out like I'd been saying it for years. I hadn't. It emerged because the question forced me to connect dots  I hadn’t connected before. 

That happens to me a lot. I've told people I mentor that I learn as much from the process as they do. Probably more. Part of that is feedback. When someone tells me whether the advice worked, I get a signal on whether my instincts are calibrated. . 

But there’s another part. Most of the advice I give isn’t pre-packaged. It’s constructed on the spot. Someone describes their situation — their role, their organization, their constraints — and I build an answer from experience I haven’t previously assembled in that exact way.

In this case, I ended up describing something I’ve been doing for twenty years without examining it.

The Lens

I work in analyst relations. In my current role, it's a one-person function, though other organizations may have full teams. Either way, the work requires coordination across nearly every function in the company. Product, product marketing, sales, SEs, field marketing, finance, customer success. Nothing I deliver happens without collaboration with people who don't report to me.

So I built relationships. What I call “Cup-of-coffee” meetings on my calendar every week with people across the company. No agenda. Just learning how other people see the business and helping them understand what I do. I've always thought of this as curiosity. In practice, it’s how the job gets done.

When I was asked how to move from IC to director, that's exactly what I told them:. Build relationships across functions. Find people who'll champion your ideas. Stop working in isolation and hoping the output speaks for itself. Name your team, even if nobody on it reports to you. Treat it like an enterprise sale: map the account, identify the buying group, build consensus before the pitch.

Afterward I had a different reaction:  is that what makes someone a director—or is that just how I work? 

The answer is probably somewhere in between.

What I was describing, without realizing it, is a shift in lens. An IC looks at their function and  executes within their lane. A director looks across functions and sees how the lanes connect.  The job shifts from doing your work well to understanding how your work fits into something larger and acting on that understanding.

That shift is not about title or headcount. It's about span. How much of the organization you can see and how effectively can you influence it from where you sit.

I've been operating with a wide lens for a long time. My role required it. I'm also genuinely curious about how other parts of the business work. It never occurred to me that this might be what makes the role “director-level”. It just felt the right way to operate. 

What I'm Still Figuring Out

Here's what I can't fully resolve yet.

The advice I gave feels directionally right: widen the lens, build coalitions, think beyond your function. 

But I’m also aware that I'm reverse-engineering my own habits and calling them principles. 

I stumbled into a career that fits how I'm wired. Whether this path translates to different roles, industries, or company stages — I don't know.

The paradox of advice is that it’s a suggestion in search of context. It’s up to the recipient to determine if/how it fits, and how to extract value out of it. 

Berkson’s Bits

If you don't define your success metrics, someone else will. 

That’s true in business and in your career. Set expectations for how you expect to be judged and/or measured in terms of success. If you don't, someone else will. And you may not like their scorecard.

What I'm Listening…

I cringe a bit when I see aging rock stars still touring. While I love their work, it's hard to see them struggle to hit the notes to recreate the magic of their youth.

I came across this re-imagining of the Led Zeppelin classic Ramble On performed live by Robert Plant, a notoriously bad live performer. He doesn't try to recreate the old magic. He created something new and beautiful.

In The Career Rubric Disappeared, I wrote about how the old scoring system is gone. In Build Your Own Rubric, I laid out questions to help figure out whether your career hypothesis is working.

This issue is me testing my own hypothesis in public, without a clean answer. I gave advice that felt true. Now I'm wondering whether it's true beyond my own experience.

More to come.

Looking forward to continuing the conversation...

Alan