STRONG Conversations: Spring 2022 Edition

It’s been a little while since my last update—as I shared at the end of last year, I’m spending a little more time in 2022 researching and developing my knowledge of product Communities of Practice. But I’m happy to say that I’m still out there discussing my favorite topics for product leaders, so I’m back with some new STRONG conversations for you to check out! Please give these a watch or listen and be sure to share them with any coworkers or fellow product people who you think would enjoy them.

On stage and on air, All blog postsPetra Wille28 April 2022Strong Conversations

Learning from Other Product People: Jennifer Michelmann on the Product Community of Practice at XING

One of the goals I outlined in my initial post on “Communities of Practice” was to conduct interviews with product people who are currently involved with Communities of Practice to gather their firsthand accounts.

Today, I’m thrilled to share the first interview with Jennifer Michelmann, Senior Product Manager at XING.

Communities of Practice, All blog postsPetra Wille14 March 2022Interview, Best Practice, CoP

Communities of Practice: What They Are, What They Do, And What I’m Hoping to Learn

One of the most common questions I got asked in conversations with product people in 2021 was: How do I make sure to learn the right things to do the PM job well? And Product leaders in particular often asked me: How do we scale people development and make sure our overall product culture evolves? And how do we achieve this if our people development budgets are tight?

The Product Leader’s Guide to Giving Feedback

Good employee performance is critical to the success of an organization and the products it builds, and feedback is one of the most important factors in employee performance for good reason. As management professor Christine Porath points out in Harvard Business Review: “High-performing teams share nearly six times more positive feedback than average teams.”

But most of us are guilty of not giving enough feedback to our peers, colleagues, and direct reports. Why is that?

What’s Your Learning Goal? Get Inspired by Your Product Leadership Peers

One of the recurring themes on my blog and in my work is about professional development. I can’t help it—I’m a coach! I’ve written before about why it’s so important to focus on your own development as a leader. But what exactly should you be focusing on? I realize that it can be hard to know where to focus your efforts, which is why I wanted to share what I’ve been hearing from others who are in your position. Near the end of last year, I asked my LinkedIn community (which is largely made up of Heads of Product, VPs of Product, and other product leaders) to share what they’d like to learn in 2022. Here’s what they had to say.

Personal Development, All blog postsPetra Wille8 February 2022Learning Together, Product Leadership

Opportunity Assessment: Do We Want to Invest in Discovering This Idea?

When you’re working in product, there’s generally no shortage of ideas. And that is a good thing. But it can sometimes be overwhelming to collect and qualify all these ideas to see which ones have the potential to add value to your product. So how do you filter all these ideas and prioritize what to pursue? I will try to provide a pragmatic, hands-on answer to that question with this article, through a process I refer to as “opportunity assessment.” But before we start, let's talk about some prerequisites and the basic process.

Leadership Communication 1o1: How to Make Sure Your Messages Stick

How much time do you spend communicating with the other people in your organization? Chances are, it’s not enough. Megan Murphy, VP of Product at Hotjar, told the MTP Engage Leadership Forum that she spends 50% of her time on internal communication. This was such an important tidbit that I called it out as a key learning in my blog recap of the event.

Communication is one of those tricky skills. Since we all do it all the time, we tend to think we’re much better at it than we actually are. But there’s often a gap between the way we view ourselves as communicators and the way our teams view us. Here are a few of the most common communication problems I see in product organizations.

Product Leadership, All blog postsPetra Wille25 January 2022Communication, Strategy, Storytelling, wwmlead

How 360° Leadership Feedback Can Help You Level Up Your Skills

Leaders often find it difficult to get feedback, especially in a structured and actionable way. That’s why I started to offer 360° Leadership Feedback, where I schedule and conduct interviews with your employees and colleagues and package what I learn into an easily digestible format. I believe this will provide you with a solid basis for your self-progression journey. But what is it really like to participate in 360° Leadership Feedback? I figured you’d like to hear directly from a past participant.

KPI Trees: How to Bridge the Gap Between Customer Behavior, Product Metrics, and Company Goals

As a product leader, it’s likely that you’re always searching for tools that will help you foster alignment, transparency, and focus in your product organization. Maybe you want to help your team work in a more customer-centric manner. Or perhaps you believe metrics could be valuable, but you don’t yet know how to use them properly. If any of this sounds like you, KPI trees might be the answer.

STRONG Product People Book Club: What Is It and Why Should You Join?

Since publishing my book, STRONG Product People, I’ve been on a mission to get it into the hands of as many product leaders as possible. But beyond just getting product leaders to read my book, I want to help them actually apply the concepts they’ve been introduced to in the book.

This is why I’m excited about one of my newer offerings, the corporate book club for STRONG Product People. Everyone on your team receives a copy of the book and then we hold two 90-minute sessions to discuss any questions your team has about the concepts from the book and how to apply them.

A Product Leader’s Guide to Writing Compelling Job Ads

One of your core responsibilities as a product leader is growing your team. And this is not a passive activity where you let the recruiter do all the work and you just watch the candidates roll in. As a thoughtful and engaged product leader, you should be an active participant in this process. After all, this is the future direction of your team we’re talking about.

For this blog post, we’ll be focusing on one aspect of hiring: writing job ads (also known as job posts or job listings) for your open roles.

Product Leadership, All blog postsPetra Wille16 December 2021Hiring, Passive Sourcing

What I’m Dedicating 2022 to: A Look at the Year Ahead

The end of the year is almost here, which means it’s a good time to take a moment to reflect and look to the future. If you’re curious about what 2022 holds in store for me and my business, here are a few of the key themes I’ve identified for the year.

Personal, All blog postsPetra Wille14 December 2021Retrospective

A Brief List of Product Management Assessment Tools

Occasionally, people ask me if there are any alternatives to the PMwheel. While I have a strong bias toward the PMwheel (I created it, after all!), I’ve begun to compile a list of other product manager assessment resources that are out there.

STRONG Conversations - Check Out My Latest Video and Podcast Appearances: October/November 2021

It’s been a little while since I shared a roundup of my latest podcast appearances and speaking engagements, so I’m excited to share the latest installment of STRONG conversations with you. I hope you’ll check them out and share them with any of your coworkers or fellow product people who you think would enjoy them.

On stage and on air, All blog postsPetra Wille10 November 2021

MTP Engage Leadership Forum—My 5 Takeaways

What usually happens in June happened at the end of September this year. Due to the COVID situation, our MTP Engage Leadership Forum made its first autumn premiere. Arne Kittler and I are the organizers of MTP Engage Hamburg and we had the pleasure of hosting the first Mind the Product in-person event since the pandemic hit.

Here are my key learnings from this half-day event.

Product Leadership, All blog postsPetra Wille25 October 2021MTP Engage, Product Leadership

Storytelling for Product People: The Essentials

Storytelling is an essential skill for product managers and the key to evangelizing our products. But it's not one that comes naturally. In my Mind the Product London talk, I offer some tips for becoming a better storyteller.

How the “Learning Menu” Concept Can Help Develop Your Product Team

When it comes to offering development opportunities, some companies struggle with doing this in a strategic way. They essentially throw money at the problem, opting to pay a premium for coaching and training. So what’s wrong with this approach? As a coach, shouldn’t I be happy to take money from any potential client who would like to pay me?

The Ultimate coaching question: What are you going to do differently?

If you have been following my work for a while, you already know that I think the right question at the right time can do magic. Powerful questions can come up at any time: in a team meeting, during a quick chat at the water cooler, or in a proper 1:1 employee feedback situation.

Coaching, All blog posts, Product LeadershipPetra Wille11 October 2021Product Leaership

The Future Self Canvas in Action: A Conversation with Tim Lukas Leinert, Product Lead at North Kingdom Design & Communication

What are your product managers hoping to achieve in the future? Sometimes it helps to look at what they’ve done and where they’ve come from before helping them chart a course toward the future. Learn how Tim Lukas Leinert approaches this with his team and how the Future Self canvas guides those conversations.

Future-Self, Product Leadership, Product Management Tips, All blog postsPetra Wille4 October 2021

How to make the most of your coaching sessions

Committing to working with a coach is a big step. It means you’re investing money (maybe your own, maybe your company’s) and time (definitely your own) in your professional development. This is great, but it’s critically important to be thoughtful about how you approach the experience. Like many things in life, coaching depends so much on the effort you put into it.

All blog posts, CoachingPetra Wille26 August 2021Product Leadership, Product Management, Coaching