Level Up Your Leadership: Dodge These Epic Villain Fails (PM Edition!)

1. The ‘My Roadmap is
Perfect’ Syndrome (aka Rampant Hubris)

Great plan, terrible follow-through.

• Our Poster Child for Scope Lock: Thanos (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

• His “Successful Launch”: Dude shipped his universe-altering
  “product” (The Snap) after a multi-phase delivery plan,      collecting critical dependencies (Infinity Stones). Epic user impact, you
  gotta admit.
• The Retrospective Fail: Thanos treated his plan like a rigid
  waterfall project with zero room for iteration. He dismissed stakeholder
  feedback (Gamora, Avengers V1.0) and ignored glaring risks flagged in his
  universal “risk register.” Believing his V1.0 was flawless (“I
  am inevitable”), he had no rollback strategy or contingency for
  unexpected market responses (like time-travelling Avengers).
• The Agile Hero Move: Stay humble & iterate! Treat your
  strategy like an agile roadmap, open to feedback and pivots. Regularly
  review risks and listen to your team’s retrospectives. Even the best plans
  need refinement based on real-world data.
• Villain Wisdom? “I am inevitable.” (Famous
  last words before an unexpected bug.)

2. The ‘No Pivots
Allowed!’ Trap (aka Resisting Change)

Zero chill. Zero adaptability.

• The Ultimate Anti-Agilist: General Zod (Man of Steel)
• His “Legacy Project”: Zod was hardwired with one user story:
  “As a General, I want to protect Krypton so that our civilization
  survives.” He escaped his backlog (Phantom Zone) and had the tech
  (World Engine) ready for deployment.
• The Faceplant: Market conditions changed… drastically
  (Krypton went poof). Zod refused to pivot his product roadmap.
  Rebuilding Krypton V1.0 by overwriting Earth’s “operating
  system” was his only defined epic. Zero adaptability = fatal
  conflict. He suffered from a terminal “sunk cost fallacy”
  regarding Kryptonian culture.
• The Agile Hero Move: Embrace the pivot! When the market landscape
  shifts (or your home planet explodes), clinging to the original scope is
  death. Be ready to adapt requirements, redefine the MVP, and maybe even
  find a new target audience or platform. Stay flexible!
• Villain Wisdom? “I exist only to protect
  Krypton.” (Maybe time for a new OKR, Zod?)

3. The ‘Metrics Look
Great (Ignore the Fire)’ Fallacy (aka Ethical Debt)

Turns out, karma has a pretty good return on investment.

• When Bad Requirements Go Rogue: Gordon Gekko (Wall Street)
• His “Impressive KPIs”: Wall Street dominance, massive ROI,
  aggressive M&A activity. Gekko’s portfolio performance looked amazing
  on paper.
• The Faceplant: His “growth hacks” involved insider
  trading and market manipulation – essentially, building massive ethical
  and technical debt into his operations. He prioritized short-term vanity
  metrics (quick cash) over sustainable value and stakeholder management
  (sorry, Bud Fox). The inevitable “audit” led to a system crash
  (prison).
• The Agile Hero Move: Prioritize sustainable value & ethical
  delivery. Don’t fudge the metrics or cut corners on compliance
  “tasks.” Build trust with your stakeholders; it’s your most
  valuable non-functional requirement. Address ethical debt before it
  bankrupts your project (and maybe you).
• Villain Wisdom? “Greed, for lack of a better word, is
  good.” (Usually leads to bad JIRA tickets from Legal.)

4. The ‘Stakeholder Who?’
Echo Chamber (aka Losing Touch)

Where every day was Casual Friday… in the arena.

• Ignoring the User Persona: Rome Edition: Commodus (Gladiator)
• His “Feature Launch”: Became Emperor, rolled out a popular
  “feature” (non-stop gladiatorial games) that boosted short-term
  “user engagement” (crowd cheers).
• The Faceplant: Commodus focused only on these vanity
  metrics while ignoring core product health KPIs (stability of the Empire,
  Senate satisfaction scores). His stakeholder communication plan was
  nonexistent (fear > feedback). He operated in a leadership silo,
  completely out of sync with his “dev team” (Senate &
  military). Ignored user personas = fatal bugs introduced by disgruntled
  stakeholders.
• The Agile Hero Move: Practice radical stakeholder engagement!
  Regularly sync with your team, leadership, and your end-users.
  Understand their needs and pain points. Use feedback loops (surveys,
  interviews, watching them use the product/live in the empire) to inform
  your backlog. Don’t mistake applause for alignment.
• Villain Wisdom? “Am I not merciful?” (If you
  have to ask your stakeholders this, check your comms plan.)

5. The ‘My Precious
Feature’ Blinders Effect (aka Strategic Myopia)

His long-term vision was great, but his short-sightedness? Volcanic.

• Suffering from Roadmap Myopia: Sauron (Lord of the Rings Trilogy)
• His “Core Product”: Forged the One Ring, a powerful artefact
  designed for total market domination. Built vast infrastructure (armies,
  fortresses) to support its rollout.
• The Faceplant: Sauron had extreme tunnel vision, focusing
  his entire strategy around one “killer feature” (the Ring). His
  competitive analysis failed to consider an enemy “user journey”
  focused on destroying the core product, not acquiring it. He
  ignored the disruptive potential of a niche user segment (Hobbits) and
  misjudged the critical risk vector (a volcano), leaving his
  “deployment environment” (Mount Doom) vulnerable.
• The Agile Hero Move: Maintain a holistic view! Understand the
  entire market, not just your pet feature. Conduct thorough competitive and
  risk analysis, considering unconventional threats and user behaviours.
  Don’t let roadmap fixation blind you to critical vulnerabilities or
  alternative strategies. Diversify your strategic bets!
• Villain Wisdom? “Ash nazg durbatulûk…”
  (Roughly translates to: “My user story is the ONLY user story!”
  – Bad PM!)

The TL;DR for Leaders
& PMs:

Unchecked ego, resisting
pivots, shady requirements, poor stakeholder comms, and strategic tunnel vision
– these aren’t just villain tropes; they’re project killers! Let’s learn from
fiction’s epic fails and lead our teams (and products) like the heroes they
deserve.

Which villain’s PM
failure hits closest to home for you? Drop your war stories (or cautionary
tales) in the comments! 👇

#ProductManagement
#ProjectManagement #Leadership #Agile #Scrum #CareerAdvice #BusinessLessons
#PopCulture #LeadLikeAHero

Copyright Disclaimer: All visual elements used in this article are for illustrative and humorous purposes only and are intended as creative interpretations based on existing fictional characters and scenarios. No copyright infringement is intended. All rights to the depicted characters and their respective intellectual property belong to their original creators and owners.