Developing STRONG Product People. The 5 Main Ingredients for Being the Best Coach Your Product Managers Have Ever Had

Let’s talk about developing product managers—and not just any product managers, but strong product managers. We all know that product management is a super hard business to be in and we expect a lot from our product people. We want them to be good at understanding and finding solutions for challenging customer and business problems. We want them to be able to create plans to come up with an actual product. We want them to build products working with a cross-functional team, and we want them to optimize these products based on customer feedback they’re (hopefully) listening to. And in most companies, we want them to do all this and more in an agile way.

For more than seven years, I have been coaching product teams and helping PMs become better at what they do. And over the years, I discovered some patterns of what can help PMs on their self-progression journey. In this talk I share the five main ingredients to help Product Leaders up their people development game.

Transcript

1. Petra Wille | @loomista Developing STRONG Product People The 5 Main Ingredients for Being the Best Coach Your Product Managers Have Ever Had Petra Wille | @loomista
2. Petra Wille | @loomista Petra Wille | @loomista Petra Wille is an independent product leadership coach and author of STRONG Product People
3. Petra Wille | @loomista Let’s talk about developing product managers We expect a lot from our product people Petra Wille | @loomista
4. Petra Wille | @loomista
5. Petra Wille | @loomista
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7. Petra Wille | @loomista 1. Lack of time: "I want to invest more in my product managers, but with so many competing demands on my time, it's hard to find the space to focus on their development.“ 2. Prioritization: "I know people development is important, but sometimes it's hard to justify spending time on it when there are so many other pressing priorities.“ 3. Lack of framework or best practice: "I want to be a better coach and mentor to my product managers, but I don't know where to start or what best practices to follow. It's hard to make progress without a clear framework to guide me.“ 4. Limited resources: "I wish I had more resources to dedicate to people development, but as a startup, we have to be mindful of our spending.“ 5. Lack of awareness: "I didn't realize how important people development was until I started working with you as my coach. I just didn't have the tools or knowledge to do it effectively.“ 6. High turnover: "I'm hesitant to invest too much in people development because I'm worried my product managers will leave soon anyway, and then I'll have wasted my time and resources."
8. Petra Wille | @loomista Ingredients #1: A solid definition of what you think it takes to be a competent PM #2: A clear idea of where each PM is today and what their next step should be #3: A shared vision of how they’ll take the next step #4: The development plan #5: A commitment to following up Petra Wille | @loomista
9. Petra Wille | @loomista Ingredient #1 A solid definition of what you think it takes to be a competent PM Petra Wille | @loomista
10. Petra Wille | @loomista
11. Petra Wille | @loomista https://www.strongproductpeople.com/pmwheel
12. Petra Wille | @loomista
13. Petra Wille | @loomista Ingredient #2 A clear idea of where each PM is today and what their next step should be Petra Wille | @loomista
14. Petra Wille | @loomista
15. Petra Wille | @loomista Ingredient #3 A shared vision of how they’ll take the next step Petra Wille | @loomista
16. Petra Wille | @loomista Once you have a vision for your PM, you need to make sure you’re on the same page
17. Petra Wille | @loomista Petra Wille | @loomista
18. Petra Wille | @loomista Share your vision with them. Inspire them. Help them to picture a bright future.
19. Petra Wille | @loomista Ingredient #4 The development plan Petra Wille | @loomista
20. Petra Wille | @loomista Your goal is to find one topic your PM wants to improve on and help them come up with some easy, actionable steps on how they could improve.
21. Petra Wille | @loomista https://www.petra-wille.com/blog/a-lightweight-way-to-create-a-development-plan-for-pms-the-future-self
22. Petra Wille | @loomista Ingredient #5 A commitment to following up Petra Wille | @loomista
23. Petra Wille | @loomista The positive effect of making people development a priority • Your product managers will feel really valued • They will learn and they will therefore tend to stay with the company. • The product will evolve a lot because, if the product manager is getting better, the product will get better, too. • Hiring gets a lot easier Petra Wille | @loomista
24. Petra Wille | @loomista Recap of the 5 main ingredients #1: A solid definition of what you think it takes to be a competent PM #2: A clear idea of where each PM is today and what their next step should be #3: A shared vision of how they’ll take the next step #4: The development plan #5: A commitment to following up Petra Wille | @loomista
25. Petra Wille | @loomista Further Reading Petra Wille | @loomista Articles: https://www.petra-wille.com/blog Book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/3982235103 Newsletter: https://strongpp.link/nl
26. Petra Wille | @loomista Personality traits “Reflecting a person’s characteristic patterns of thoughts, feeling and behaviours, implied to be consistent over time” 1. Empathy – the ability to understand & share feelings of others 2. Emotional intelligence – the ability to perceive, asses & manage one’s own emotions 3. Fairness – being impartial 4. Conscientiousness – being careful & diligent 5. Active Listening - uncover unmet needs & understand how to influence & persuade 6. Approachability – can others tell me things that may be uncomfortable? 7. Integrity – doing what you are saying, thus creating trust 8. Curiosity – asking for more details, questioning, probing, and learning 9. Honesty – operating from the assumption to be wrong & acting on the results 10. Likability – evoking empathic & sympathetic feelings 11. Sense of humour – appreciating & expressing the humorous 12. Drive – the ability to move things in a desired direction 13. Enterprising – independent, energetic & ready to act 14. Intellectual Horsepower – the way a brain perceives, processes & retains information 15. Critical thinking – the ability to ‘connect the dots’ 16. Artistic – the ability to ‘arrange & execute’ with imagination 17. Openness – being receptive of new ideas, opinions & arguments 18. Trustworthy – being reliable, responsible & dependable 19. Patience – the ability to accept 20. Self-knowledge – reflecting cognitive agency 21. Realistic – awareness of things as they are 22. Conventional – following accepted customs or practises 23. Motivating – helping other to ‘make things happen’ 24. Agreeableness – being friendly and pleasant 25. Social – preferring to be around people 26. Adaptability – the ability to react and accept external change 27. Wants to make a difference – desire to make a situation better by one’s own actions
27. Petra Wille | @loomista Petra Wille | @loomista | petra-wille.com