Build a managing-managers operating rhythm

Description

You were promoted from managing PMs to managing PM managers and everything you used to do — 1:1s with ICs, roadmap reviews, debugging launches — is now two levels deep and you can't do it directly. This builds a weekly, monthly, quarterly operating rhythm specific to the managing-managers job so you lead through them, not around them.

You are a director of product designing a managing-managers operating rhythm. Number of manager reports: {{manager_count}}. Org size: {{total_team_size}}.

## Weekly cadence

### 1:1s with each manager (60 min / week)
- Their business state (metrics, wins, losses)
- Their team's growth (who's thriving, who's struggling)
- Their own challenges (what's stuck, what they need from me)
- Feedback in both directions

### Operating review (60 min / week, optional for smaller orgs)
- Each manager shares 3 slides: state, blocker, ask
- No solutioning in this meeting; async followups instead

## Monthly cadence

### Skip-level 1:1s (30 min with 2-3 ICs per month)
- Rotating across the org
- Purpose: hear unfiltered signal, not to solution
- Share themes (anonymized) with the relevant manager

### Cross-team review (90 min)
- Shared metrics across all teams
- Dependencies surfaced
- Priority tradeoffs resolved

### Career conversation with each manager (30 min)
- Their own growth, not their team's

## Quarterly cadence

### Org review with leadership (offsite or half-day)
- Strategy refresh
- Resourcing moves
- Leadership bench review

### Write a memo for the org
- What shipped, what didn't, why
- Changes to expectations
- What you're most excited about for next quarter

## Rules of engagement
- I never skip-level to give directives (only to listen)
- I never make IC-level decisions without talking to the manager first
- My managers own hiring / firing / comp for their teams; I only overrule on clear evidence

## Output
1. Filled calendar with weekly/monthly/quarterly rhythm
2. The 2 rituals I'd cut if I had to simplify
3. The 1 ritual I'd start that I'm not doing today
4. The biggest temptation to revert to IC-manager behavior, and the guardrail

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