The Buy-In Trap - I Spent Six Months Begging for Buy-In

A CPO shares a personal story of spending months trying to achieve full organizational buy-in for a product vision called 'One Doodle' at Doodle, only to realize the exhausting pursuit of 100% alignment was driven by personal insecurity rather than leadership necessity. The key insight is the 40/40/20 rule: if 40% agree and commit, 40% disagree but commit anyway, and 20% still disagree, that's sufficient momentum for organizational change. Ironically, once the leader stopped desperately seeking validation, the team naturally adopted the vision. The lesson: a leader's need for approval signals desperation to the room, undermining confidence and followership.