At the Crossroads: Your Year-End PM Review

Ancient Greek travellers knew to pause when they reached a crossroads. At every intersection, they would leave offerings for Hecate, the goddess who stood where paths diverged. She held two torches, one illuminating the road behind them, the other lighting the paths ahead. Hecate didn't make their choice for them. She simply made both directions visible so travellers could see clearly before deciding which way to go.

Unlike other gods who resided on Olympus or ruled specific domains, Hecate belonged to the in-between spaces. She was the guide at moments of transition, the presence at decision points. When you stood at a crossroads, uncertain which path to take, Hecate's torches showed you where you'd been and where each choice would lead.

As Product Managers (PMs) closing out 2025, we stand at our own crossroads. Behind us: the launches that succeeded, the roadmaps that derailed, the stakeholder conflicts we navigated, the technical debt we accumulated. Ahead: multiple paths into 2026, each requiring different commitments, different sacrifices, different outcomes.

The Cost of Poor Transitions

I've watched talented PMs sprint past the crossroads with no reflection, carrying forward every commitment, every meeting, every half-formed initiative from the previous year. By March, they're drowning. They're solving 2025's problems with 2025's approaches whilst the market has already moved on.

The opposite is equally damaging. I've seen PMs who treat year-end as a clean slate, abandoning momentum and hard-won relationships in pursuit of the shiny new strategy. They waste the first quarter rebuilding trust and context they already had.

The cost of both approaches is the same: wasted energy, burned relationships, and a Q1 that feels like you're running in place. What's missing isn't effort. It's intentionality about what crosses the threshold with you into the new year.

The Four-Part Crossroads Framework

Here's what's worked for me in conducting a year-end review with both backward and forward vision. This isn't a boardroom exercise requiring VP approval. It's a reflection tool you control, whether you do it solo over coffee or with a trusted peer. The framework works because it focuses on what you directly influence: your attention, your commitments, your strategic choices about where to invest your limited energy.

Celebrate: Document Your Wins

Start by writing down what actually shipped in 2025. Not what you hoped would ship. What crossed the finish line. For me, this meant launching my first podcast (A Splice of Life Science Marketing), leading an ELRIG survey that captured industry sentiment on conference best practices from an exhibitor's perspective, developing a creative campaign that exceeded "hot lead" expectations by 3X, and facilitating 3 panel discussions at conferences focused on life science marketers. Add to that: adapting marketing and product management processes to leverage AI efficiencies, and publishing 24 blog posts that resonated with mid-career PMs.

Your list might include a product launch that hit revenue targets, a pricing model that actually worked, or a cross-functional process that reduced cycle time. Write the specifics. Numbers. Dates. Names of people who made it possible.

And also celebrate the relationships. The talented interns who brought fresh perspectives to old problems. The mentees who asked questions that sharpened your own thinking. The business partners who took risks alongside you. The old friends who resurfaced with exactly the right advice at exactly the right moment. The new connections who expanded your understanding of adjacent markets or emerging technologies. These relationships are wins too, and they're worth documenting whilst you remember the conversations that mattered.

Recent neuroscience research shows why these connections matter so much. When we interact authentically with other humans, our brains actually synchronise, a phenomenon called neural synchrony that builds trust, generates insights, and creates shared understanding in ways AI simply cannot replicate. As David Rock recently explored in HBR, this brain-to-brain alignment is what gets lost when we replace human interaction with algorithms. In a year where AI has reshaped how we work, celebrating the human connections that create neural synchrony isn't nostalgia. It's wired into us.

Why document this? Because you'll forget. By Q2 2026, these wins will feel inevitable or insufficient. Capture them now whilst you still remember how hard they were. This isn't vanity. It's evidence of what you're capable of when you need that reminder six months from now.

Release: Name What to Stop

This is the harder "torch to hold". What are you doing that no longer serves your goals? I'm releasing the belief that every blog post needs to be a perfect masterpiece. Some ideas work better at 800 words whilst others at 1,200 words. I'm releasing committee-based content approval that adds multiple weeks to publication timelines.

For you, this might be releasing status meetings that could instead be Slack updates, releasing the "innovation project" that's been 70% done for eight months, or releasing the customer segment you've been chasing that never converts.

Be specific. "I need to say no more" is useless. "I'm declining all conference speaking requests in Q1 to focus on product discovery" is actionable. Release requires naming the thing and committing to the alternative.

Launch: Identify What to Start

What new capability or approach does 2026 require? I'm launching video content for LinkedIn to complement written posts. I'm launching an AI Retreat to help science professors integrate AI into their teaching workflows. And I'm launching intentional relationship-building, creating more opportunities for the neural synchrony that happens when humans collaborate authentically, something I'll explore more deeply in my January blog posts.

Your launches might be tactical: implementing a new prioritisation framework, starting weekly design reviews, launching beta programmes with specific customer segments. Or strategic: entering a new market, building a product-led growth motion, establishing thought leadership in a domain. Or relational: starting a PM peer group, reaching out to one new industry contact per month, or creating regular touchpoints with customers beyond formal research sessions.

The key: launch no more than two new things in Q1. Momentum comes from depth and consistency. Pick the launches that unlock the most value and give them space to actually take hold.

Sustain: Protect What's Working and Continue Doing It

This is where you hold "both torches steady". What's already working that you need to explicitly protect? For me, it's the mythology openers in blog posts (they're distinctive, memorable and readers respond to them), the focus on practical frameworks over theory, and the peer-to-peer voice that treats readers as colleagues, not students.

And I'm also protecting the relationships that generate energy rather than drain it. The mentorship conversations that sharpen my thinking. The business partnerships built on mutual respect and shared goals. The professional friendships that survived pivots and job changes. These connections don't maintain themselves. They require intentional protection against the constant pull of urgent work.

Your sustain list might include a weekly customer interview cadence that's generating insights, a partnership with engineering leadership that's reducing friction, or a roadmap communication rhythm that keeps stakeholders aligned. And it should include the relationships that make you better at your job: the peer who reviews your strategy decks, the mentor who asks hard questions, the cross-functional partner who trusts your judgment.

Sustain means saying it out loud. "This is working, and I'm protecting time and attention for it in 2026." Otherwise, it gets crowded out by urgent non-important work.

The Crossroads Decision

Hecate didn't make decisions for ancient travellers. She held her torches steady so they could see clearly in both directions. Like those travellers at the intersection, your power isn't in choosing between the past and future. It's in seeing both clearly before you choose which path forward.

Your job now is to look backward at 2025 with honesty (what actually happened) and forward at 2026 with intention (what you're choosing to make happen, different from a New Year's resolution).

The crossroads moment is brief. By mid-January, you'll be swept up in Q1 execution. Use the next two weeks to stand at the intersection. Document your wins. Name what you're releasing. Commit to your launches. Protect what's working.

Hecate was the goddess of guidance at transitions, but guidance only matters if you're deliberate about which path you take and what you carry with you down it.

I'm always learning from PMs navigating these same crossroads. If this framework resonates with you, or if you're wrestling with your own year-end decisions, connect with me on LinkedIn. These transition moments are better when we don't stand at them alone.

Happy Holidays!!