A structural bias in how product leaders get hired: the people doing the hiring (CEO, exec team) only ever observe a candidate communicating at their own altitude — the 10,000-ft strategic conversation — and never see how that candidate communicates with lower-level ICs (see Communication Altitude Levels (10,000 ft / 3,000 ft / In the Grids)).
Because the sample is incomplete, hiring selects for people who are polished and low-risk at the executive altitude, regardless of how well they operate on the ground. This is offered as a mechanism behind Hiring Product Leaders Who Survive vs. Lead — orgs end up with leaders optimized to survive the interview loop and the exec room, not to actually run product at the execution altitude. Distinct from Own-Archetype Hiring Bias (Self-Validation Trap) (hiring people who resemble the hirer); this bias exists even among hirers with good taste, purely from an incomplete sample of the candidate's range.