Case Study: Coaching Through Transformation at Novo Nordisk
I know it’s been a minute (okay, slightly longer than that) since I’ve offered a glimpse into what I’ve been up to. Of course I’ve shared news about the Product at Heart conference and my Communities of Practice research, but I haven’t shared any updates on my actual product leadership coaching for a while. But that all changes today!
I’m excited to offer a glimpse into a conversation with Jakob Riis Bentsen, the Head of Digital Enablement, Development Digital Transformation Office at Novo Nordisk. It’s worth noting that this coaching program was much more robust and comprehensive than what I typically offer, thanks to my partnership with Shaun Russell who offered IC-level product coaching and Kate Leto, who offered executive coaching. We also brought in external thought leaders Josh Seiden and Martin Eriksson to create an appetite for change fueled by external inspiration. Describing the impact of these initiatives, Jakob says, “We have been able to use the ‘waves’ we’ve created to establish new networks of fellow-minded people that collaborate and align to build momentum in our digital transformation.”
Now let’s dive a bit more into my work with Jakob and the product leads at Novo Nordisk.
A brief intro to Novo Nordisk
Novo Nordisk is a leading global healthcare company based in Denmark, driving change to defeat diabetes. According to Jakob, “Our particular EVP-area Development (the D in R&D) is where Clinical Trials are conducted in which new drug candidates are tested on real people in an international organization of approximately 4,500 people.” In other words, when Jakob is speaking about development, he’s referring to drugs and treatments rather than software—an important distinction! Jakob says their greatest business challenges are scaling operations, supporting the company in moving into new therapeutic areas, and enabling free-flowing data across their value chain.
The company started its agile journey in 2018 and Development joined the movement in late 2020. In late 2021, Novo Nordisk started a “coaching experiment” with Petra to see if coaching could be effective there. Petra started to coach three different leads from different areas of the company. Once this experiment was considered successful, they scaled it up to a program in 2022 that is expected to continue into 2024. As of June 2023, around 35 product people have participated in the coaching program.
The role of digital transformation at Novo Nordisk
Jakob’s team sits in the Digital Transformation Office together with the Digital Discovery, Portfolio Management, and Low Code/Prototyping departments. “My job is to guide digital capability building and change management in this context,” says Jakob. “In layman's terms, to make sure that our capacity and competencies enable us to pursue the opportunities embedded in our digital aspirations which address our business challenges.”
Why focus on maturing product management specifically? Jakob outlines three main reasons:
to be better equipped to deal with the unknowns entailed by our business challenges
to increase user-centricity in order to develop better digital solutions, and
as a catalyst to bring LoB and Digital together
Why work with a coach? And why Petra specifically?
“I needed more hands on deck to get the professional snowball rolling for people new in product roles and their leaders,” says Jakob. “Both groups are transitioning from a heavy project legacy and can benefit greatly from Petra’s experience.”
In the pharmaceutical industry specifically, Jakob says it’s been a paradigm shift to share mandate with—and empower—colleagues from other areas to make decisions regarding the prioritization and design of digital solutions. “Making that happen required way more capacity and expertise than I am able to muster by myself.”
Jakob had already worked with Petra in his previous role at Maersk, so when he joined Novo Nordisk in 2021, he explains, “I know she is capable of delivering great things, so she was one of the first friends from the past I called when I landed in Novo Nordisk!”
Reflecting back on his experience at Maersk, Jakob says that Petra was recommended by SVPG and the Maersk team found her to be a great fit for the company and its people. “She helped leaders figure out what good looked like and enabled them to lead employees in the direction of desired behavior and spot people who were not thriving or performing in their product role. Leaders were able to drive difficult conversations with employees based on her PMwheel and help those that struggled.”
The results: Changing the narrative at Novo Nordisk
Now at Novo Nordisk, Petra continues to help product leads accelerate their professional development journeys. Jakob says that Petra’s ability to recommend additional coaches and external thought leaders has contributed to changing the vocabulary and the way Novo Nordisk’s digital teams connect their vision to strategies and work. “The narrative has changed from focusing on outputs to being all about outcomes and value. It’s been a slow process, but this is really taking off now.”
“We have benefited greatly from her network in attracting inspirational speakers and additional coaches,” adds Jakob. “Some of the talks we have delivered internally with external speakers—based on her recommendations—have attracted a bigger crowd than many of the events do to showcase our own work. I think that’s been an eye-opener to many people here.”
And it’s not just the product leads who have benefitted from working with Petra. Jakob says, “It’s rare to build the kind of trust I feel I have with Petra. On a personal level, that’s been very rewarding and contributed to my own professional growth.”