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Many mistakes in my career could have been avoided with the support of a Product Coach or Mentor. Especially today, in the midst of economic uncertainty, the role of the Product Manager is more crucial than ever. Companies, including startups, need to make wise decisions with fewer resources.
A Product Coach can make a significant difference by supporting product teams in unblocking themselves, providing insights, and challenging the status quo and challenge the status quo of the product development process.
You might ask: “What about CPOs, VPs, and Product Leads?“ In many companies, these people are often very busy with too much operational or too much strategic work. According to this PMF Study (slide 34), more than 50% of Product People experience a lack of time, and 35% feel they suffer from role unclarity. I’ve experienced these challenges in my career many times.
That’s why these days, I help companies and people to get over these hurdles.
Let’s take a deeper look into the role of a Product Coach.
The job of a Product Coach isn’t set in stone and isn’t always the same. It differs a lot on whether this person is an employee or an external contributor, as well as the role descriptions within a company.
A product coach is a specialized mentor who guides product teams in navigating the complexities of product development. This role emphasizes the importance of product leadership and effective product strategies tailored to the needs of the organization.
With a focus on product vision and product discovery, a good product coach equips product managers and teams with the tools necessary to create impactful products that resonate in the market.
Spoiler Alert: A Product Coach isn’t an individual contributor who works on products/projects.
A product coach serves as a catalyst for enhancing the capabilities of product teams, specifically within the Agile framework. Unlike a traditional Agile coach, a product coach zeroes in on product management, helping teams refine their product culture and strategy. They ensure that the product vision aligns with business objectives while fostering an environment where product people can thrive and innovate.
The responsibilities of a product coach encompass various aspects of product leadership and development. They facilitate product discovery sessions, guide the creation of a robust product roadmap, and support product managers in developing strong product strategies. Additionally, they play a crucial role in mentoring teams, ensuring that all members understand their roles within the Agile process and can effectively contribute to the success of the product company. A coach collaborates with the leadership team, such as the head of product, VP Product or CPO.
While both product coaches and Agile coaches aim to enhance team performance, their focuses differ significantly. An Agile coach concentrates on improving processes and facilitating Agile methodologies, whereas a product coach emphasizes product management and the execution of product strategies. However, a good product coach covers agile topics as well in his work. ;-)
Understanding these three roles is essential for any successful product development team:
From my experience, companies and teams achieve the best results when all three key roles collaborate closely together.
Strong product leadership is essential in today’s competitive environment where product teams must adapt swiftly to market changes. A product leader, often a seasoned product manager or CPO, drives the product vision and fosters a culture that empowers teams to innovate. This leadership ensures that product discovery aligns with strategic objectives, resulting in effective product outcomes.
In Agile settings, product leadership plays a pivotal role in guiding product teams through iterative development cycles. A product leader collaborates closely with Agile coaches to streamline processes and enhance team dynamics. By promoting a strong product culture, they ensure that every team member understands their contribution to the product strategy, ultimately leading to successful product launches.
A good product coach embodies a deep understanding of both product management and Agile methodologies. They possess strong communication skills, enabling them to articulate the product vision clearly. Furthermore, effective product coaches foster collaboration among product teams and encourage a mindset of continuous improvement, essential for navigating the complexities of product development within a startup environment.
To cultivate a robust product culture, product leaders must encourage open communication and experimentation among team members. This involves creating safe spaces for product people to voice ideas and feedback. A strong product culture not only enhances team morale but also leads to innovative solutions that resonate with users, driving the success of the product company.
Product discovery is the foundational process that informs product strategy, helping teams identify user needs and market opportunities. A product discovery coach can guide teams through this critical phase, ensuring that the insights gained translate into actionable product strategies. By prioritizing user feedback and data-driven decision-making, teams can develop products that truly meet market demands.
Product discovery is the process of understanding user needs and the market landscape to shape effective product strategies. This phase involves techniques such as user interviews, prototyping, and testing to validate ideas before full-scale development. A product discovery coach plays a vital role in facilitating these activities, ensuring teams remain focused on delivering value through their products.
Developing an effective product strategy requires a clear understanding of the product vision and business objectives. Product leaders must engage with various stakeholders to align on goals and expectations. By utilizing frameworks and methodologies, such as those proposed by industry experts like Cagan and Wille, teams can create strong product strategies that guide successful development and market entry.
Product roadmaps serve as strategic tools that outline the vision, direction, and priorities of product development. In Agile teams, these roadmaps must be dynamic, allowing for adjustments based on user feedback and market changes. A good product coach helps teams create and maintain effective roadmaps, ensuring that all members are aligned and focused on delivering impactful products that meet user needs.
Leadership coaching for product people is essential in developing empowered product teams capable of navigating complex challenges. A product leadership coach focuses on enhancing the skills of product managers and senior product team members, helping them articulate a compelling product vision. By fostering self-awareness and emotional intelligence, these coaches enable product leaders to inspire their teams and drive effective product strategies.
Implementing best practices in product management coaching is vital for fostering a culture of continuous improvement. This includes establishing clear objectives, utilizing feedback mechanisms, and encouraging collaboration among product teams. A good product coach should leverage tools like product roadmaps and agile methodologies, ensuring that all product people are aligned and engaged in the product discovery process, leading to effective product outcomes.
Identifying and overcoming bad product practices is crucial for maintaining a strong product culture. A product coach must analyze existing workflows and team dynamics to pinpoint inefficiencies or outdated methods. By providing constructive feedback and implementing new strategies, they help product managers and teams pivot towards more effective practices. This proactive approach ensures that the product company remains competitive in a rapidly changing market.
A Product Coach supports teams in three key ways:
There are two particularly important aspects of coaching to look at. The first part is the methodology of coaching. Business coaching has become very relevant over the last two decades. The idea is based on e.g. a systematic coaching approach to help people to find the answers themselves. People often know the answers and solutions to their problems but can’t find them due to missing clarity. The reasons for this are often stress, pressure, missing structure, and more.
A Product Coach focuses while working with teams and people on the “known unknowns.” The goal is to ask as few non-leading questions as possible and to help them to find the answers by themselves. Based on the experience, the coach can nudge people in the right direction if they move off-track. The benefit is that people have a way bigger learning curve than if someone just tells them the answer without making them use their own brains. I’m a big fan of this method because it has a great mid and long-term growth impact.
That brings us to the second part:
What’s the difference between therapy and coaching?
Therapy focuses on mental and psychological health and has no time constraints. It could “potentially” take “forever” in the case of psychotherapy. It’s hard and almost impossible to measure the progress.
Coaching instead is always connected to setting and achieving goals, milestones, and success. Therefore a Product Coach always defines clear goals with their coachees and regularly catches up with them. In practice, this is connected to business goals and aligned with the Management/Leadership team of the company.
With certain topics, Product Coaches act as a consultant rather than a coach. Based on their knowledge they make analysis, recommendations, and provide solutions for certain challenges and projects. Companies and coaches need to define together what areas need consulting vs. coaching. That depends on the urgency on the company side and an assessment from the coach’s side.
High-level example:
Let’s say an eCommerce company wants to restructure its product and engineering organization around feature teams. The Product Coach has many years of eCommerce experience. They can give great advice on defining the feature teams and domains and can share best practices and mistakes to avoid. The coach will focus on defining good domains and good processes for all employees to grow and work as efficiently and as much as possible.
This concept will obviously be worked out with the Product and Engineering Leadership Team and not just by the coach.
While focusing on coaching the known unknowns, a coach focuses on the unknown unknowns. With education and training the Product Coach helps teams and individual Product Managers to learn Product Management best practices. Depending on the maturity level of a team, it can be more or less than 10% of the time a coach needs to spend on it. I’ve defined the Product Management practices based on 11 focus areas that I analyze and cover when I educate people and teams:
I’ll soon write and link an article explaining every area in-depth and how they harmonize together. If you want to get notified, feel free to sign up for the newsletter below.
I like describing the difference from William Campbell’s point of view (The Trillion Dollar Coach).
Mentoring is when two practitioners come together and one teaches the other certain “practices.” Let’s say an experienced tennis player teaches another to improve the surcharge.
Coaching is when someone identifies and knows your strengths and areas to improve. They define goals and create a path for your personal/professional development and will help you achieve them. A coach guides you in the right direction that you’ve defined together with them.
Knowing how a Product Coach works, let’s look at when and how they can help companies.
Obviously, not every company needs a Product Coach. It’s, however, good to have one especially when you get stuck on
Companies are faced with different challenges based on product maturity, employee numbers, market shares, etc. Below you can find an overview of when and how a Product Coach can support.
You can easily start a company/business without a Product Manager in your team. That being said, if you want to go big and scale it’s indispensable. A Product Coach can be a great support for the founders to do a proper problem definition, validation, market research, and then MVP definition. Doing the “right things”, and “things right” from day one will later be the best foundation you need to scale. With a clear product vision, mission, and purpose, the Engineering Team and the rest of the company will be more able to support the founder to achieve the goals and live the values.
The better Product Teams, work with best practices by focusing on solving customer and business problems the better the organization will scale. A structured product management and development process will lead to better results. The Product Coach can help teams and Product Managers to streamline their work and processes. It’s important to note that Product and Engineering Teams, in particular, are very affected by the organizational structure. Depending on the organizational structure (e.g. organic vs. mechanic) decision-making and team autonomy can be limited or highly scalable. This is tightly connected to career development opportunities. Product Coaches can help in designing organizational structures and career development plans.
I’ve experienced the best cultures in companies that were fully driven by delivering value to their customers and solving problems. Employees are happier when they are committed to the company vision and work every day hard to make it come true. Establishing a product and coaching culture is exactly what motivates people to constantly thrive in that creation process. The positive side effects are
There are many more great benefits. The best way to learn and experience those is to start working towards a coaching and mentoring culture.
Product Coaching requires certain key “skills”:
There is no one way how to become or to learn all of these things and many other skills. The openness to continuously learn and accept that you’ll never know everything is the best motivation to get started.
Participating in product communities offers invaluable support and resources for product coaches. These communities, ranging from online forums to local meetups, provide opportunities for knowledge sharing and networking with other product leaders. Engaging with peers allows coaches to exchange insights on best practices, tools, and trends, ultimately enhancing their ability to guide empowered product teams effectively.
Networking with other product coaches is an essential aspect of professional growth. Building relationships within the product community fosters collaboration and allows coaches to learn from diverse experiences. By sharing challenges and successes, product coaches can refine their approaches, leading to stronger product strategies and more effective coaching techniques that benefit their respective product teams.
Continuous learning and development are paramount for product coaches who aim to stay relevant in the fast-evolving landscape of product management. Engaging in workshops, training sessions, and industry conferences enables coaches to update their skills and knowledge. By embracing new methodologies and insights from thought leaders like Cagan and Wille, coaches can enhance their effectiveness, ultimately fostering a culture of innovation within their product teams.
Are you curious about product coaching? I’m happy to help you and provide you with more information. Learn more on our product coaching & consulting page.
