How to be the best coach to product people | Petra Wille (Strong Product People)

1. Define ‘Good PM’

Create a clear, reflected definition of what a good product person looks like in your specific context, detailing both personality traits and necessary skills, to serve as a compass for development.

2. Pinpoint PM’s Current State

Gain a clear understanding of where each Product Manager currently stands in their career, skills, and overall situation, effectively ‘putting a pin on the map’ for their present state.

3. Envision Next Challenge

Develop a vision for each PM’s future growth and identify their ’next bigger challenge’ – a specific opportunity that would help them learn a new skill or gain know-how. Review and list these challenges quarterly.

4. Align on Vision

Share your vision for a PM’s growth and next challenges with them, conducting an alignment session to ensure mutual understanding and open their thinking to new possibilities for their career.

5. Develop a Plan

Help Product Managers create their own development plan by suggesting small, actionable steps they can take to improve specific skills, such as reading a book, giving a presentation, or reflecting on their prioritization methods.

6. Consistent Follow-Up

Regularly follow up on personal development plans with small nudges, asking PMs how they prefer to be reminded and assisted, ensuring continuous progress without overwhelming their daily job.

7. Start with Development Plan

If you’re new to coaching, begin by helping PMs create a development plan based on what they want to learn or improve, even if you haven’t fully defined a ‘good PM’ compass yet.

8. Use Existing Assessments

Leverage established PM assessment frameworks (like PM Daisy, Marty Cagan’s, or the PM Wheel) as templates, then customize them to fit the specific needs and context of your organization.

9. Prioritize Personality Traits

When hiring Product Managers, prioritize personality traits like curiosity and empathy, as these are often difficult to develop within a corporate environment and are crucial for long-term success.

10. Create a Question List

Compile a go-to list of effective coaching questions to use in one-on-one meetings, especially when unprepared, to facilitate meaningful conversations and gain insights into your team’s well-being and needs.

11. Invest in Story Crafting

Dedicate significant time to creating compelling stories, as great storytellers invest heavily in preparation and practice. For a 3-4 month plan, this could mean 1-2 hours a day for two weeks.

12. Use Evocative Language

Craft stories using language that appeals to both the heart and mind, avoiding excessive business jargon. Focus on natural words that describe feelings, senses, and how a product improves lives to engage your audience deeply.

13. Practice Public Speaking

Improve public speaking skills by starting with small, friendly audiences like your team or local community meetups, gradually increasing audience size over time to build confidence.

14. Seek Diverse Feedback

After speaking, actively seek feedback from both peers and strangers. Peers can offer harsher, more specific critique, while strangers can identify gaps in your storytelling or presentation clarity due to their unfamiliarity.

15. Manage Nerves

To combat public speaking nerves, try physical techniques like the ‘Superman pose’ or gently tapping your chest. Additionally, identify friendly faces in the front row to focus on for comfort and encouragement.

16. Start Drafting Immediately

Avoid staring at a blank page; begin drafting your story or talking about it to see how it lands. Changing a story is easier than changing a prototype, so iterate early and often.

17. Test and Tweak

Actively test your story by talking about it to various audiences, observing their reactions, and then refining it based on how well it resonates and lands with them.

18. Use Proven Structures

Utilize established story structures, such as the ‘hero’s journey,’ to frame your narrative. Decide whether to center the story around the team (as heroes) or the user (whose life improves) to best achieve your goal.

19. Prepare Multiple Formats

Have your story ready in various formats: spoken, written (for asynchronous communication), and visual (e.g., whiteboard drawings, emotional slides) to effectively convey core points to different audiences.

20. Prepare Multiple Lengths

Develop your story in three distinct lengths: a 75-second elevator pitch, a 6-minute version for quick updates, and an 80-minute version for comprehensive presentations like company all-hands meetings.

21. Join or Start a Community

Actively seek out or initiate a product community of practice, either internally or externally, to foster continuous learning and personal development, especially when direct management support is limited.

22. Look for Networking

Prioritize communities that offer strong networking opportunities, allowing you to meet interesting people and build valuable professional connections.

23. Seek Learning

Engage with communities that consistently provide new insights and ’nuggets’ of information that make your work easier or introduce you to concepts you wouldn’t discover otherwise.

24. Contribute and Share

Actively contribute to the community by sharing your learnings, moderating discussions, or organizing rituals, as giving back enhances your own clarity of thought and benefits others.

25. Prioritize Enjoyment & Trust

Choose communities where you genuinely enjoy the people, find them kind and lovely, and where there’s a high level of activity and mutual trust, making it a pleasant and productive environment.

26. Distribute Leadership

Ensure community leadership and responsibilities are distributed among multiple individuals, as relying on one or two people is unsustainable and can lead to burnout.

27. Focus on Signal, Not Engagement

When evaluating a community’s success, prioritize ‘signal versus noise’ rather than just engagement metrics, ensuring the content is high-quality and valuable to members.

28. Use One Methodology Deeply

Instead of consuming vast amounts of content, dedicate a significant period (e.g., a whole year) to deeply studying and applying one specific methodology or book to truly master its concepts.