If you’re already familiar with me and my work, you know that I’m a product leadership coach. And if not, hi, I’m Petra. It’s nice to meet you! Now that we’ve gotten the introductions out of the way, I’d like to dive into a topic that I find super interesting to address as a coach: When is coaching NOT a good idea for you or your team? By the way, thank you to John Cutler for sparking the idea for this post when interviewing me for The Beautiful Mess podcast. You can listen to that episode here.

CoachingPetra Wille15 July 2024Coaching, Product Leaership, Product management

Are Your Expectations Toward Your PMs High Enough?

As product leaders, we shape the standards for our teams. And I think in too many cases, product leaders are not setting high enough standards. Let me explain. I’ve been seeing a trend on social media (LinkedIn, in most cases) where product managers and even product leaders argue that the concepts and frameworks thought leaders (including myself) share and promote are overly ambitious.

Managing Up, Part 5: Your Cheat Sheet and Guide to Boss Personas

In this post, the final in the series, we’ll be reviewing the most important points for you to remember (I’m calling this your “Managing up cheat sheet”) as well as some ways to make sure you tailor your message to your manager’s communication style.

Managing Up, Part 4: How to Get the Professional Development Support You Need

in the third post in the series, we explored what you can do when you’re experiencing conflict with other people or teams. In this post, we’ll be looking at another specific situation when you might need more support from your boss—when you’d like to develop your PM skills.

Managing Up, Part 3: Navigating Conflict with Other People and Teams

In this post, we’ll be looking at a specific situation when you might need more support from your boss—when you’re experiencing conflicts with other people or teams and when the boss competency of role clarity might be the missing piece of the puzzle. Need a refresher on all ten boss competencies?

Managing Up, Part 2: Navigating Directional Clarity

In the first post in this series, I covered why managing up is an important topic, introduced the ten boss responsibilities and the ships vs. shipyard metaphor, and explained why your boss might be struggling in these areas. Want to read that post? You can find it here. In this post, we’ll be looking at one specific situation when you might need more support from your boss and I’ll share some tips and tricks for you to try out.

Managing Up, Part 1: Understanding What You Can Expect from Your Boss

Hello there, lovely product people! I wanted to share a quick note to let you know that this article is a little different from what I usually share here. While my blog typically highlights work I’ve already done (e.g. frameworks I’ve developed, podcasts or talks I’ve given, clients I’ve worked with), this post actually represents a work in progress.

Personal Development, Product Management TipsPetra Wille5 June 2024Managing Up

Are You a New Product Leader? Tips and Tricks from Seasoned Pros

I recently posed a simple question on LinkedIn: What are your top tips for new product leaders? I was simply blown away by the response this post received. Clearly, there are plenty of people in my network who want to share their experience and learnings with other new leaders. Rather than keep it contained within my LinkedIn feed, I decided I’d gather their advice here so it’s perhaps a bit easier for people to find and share with others. Here’s what they had to say.

Read These Books: Fully Embracing Business Methodologies

Is your organization dabbling in new frameworks or methodologies, but you’re unsure about their potential success? You're not alone. Many "trendy" frameworks often turn out to be underwhelming due to one major pitfall: superficial implementation.

Why Your Transformation Might Not Be Going as Well as You Expected… And What to Do About it

“Things need to change.” “The way we’re serving our customers is ineffective.” “Our approach to product management could use some help to achieve state-of-the-art status.” Any of these statements sound familiar?These are sentiments I often encounter from (product) leaders who have attended a workshop, training, or offsite. Whether it was an SVPG workshop, a Swiss Business School Executive Education course, or a networking conversation, some little spark ignited what’s now become a burning desire for transformation.

The Art of Saying No, Product Leadership Edition

If we had infinite resources, we would be able to say yes all the time. But sadly, that’s not the world we live in. Things are scarce: time, competent humans able to get a job done (often called “developers”), money for software licenses, cloud storage... you name it. Product management is so much about working within these limitations that it’s only natural that saying no is such a vital part of our job.

Product LeadershipPetra Wille25 March 2024Product Leadership, Saying no

How to Keep Your Community Sponsors Happy in Your Product Community of Practice

What’s the secret sauce for a thriving product Community of Practice (CoP)? While there are many ingredients in the recipe—which can include things like clear guidelines and regular rituals—one of the most critical ones is the sponsor. Like the customer who orders a dish (and pays for it) in the restaurant, the sponsor provides the reason for a community to exist and supplies the resources for it to be successful.

Congratulations to Marty Cagan and SVPG on the New Book, TRANSFORMED

Exciting news in the world of product: Marty Cagan and the SVPG team have just released a new book, TRANSFORMED: Moving to the Product Operating Model. This book is slated to “bridge the gap between where most companies are now and where they need to be” by introducing the concept of the product operating model and sharing detailed case studies of successful transformations and product innovation made possible as the result of product operating model transformation.

Are You a Product Manager Selecting a New Boss? Here’s How to Assess Product Leaders

In any role, your manager has the ability to make or break your experience. But perhaps this is especially the case for product managers because your job involves so much cross-functional collaboration and influencing without authority, so even more than other roles, you need a leader who will support and empower you.
Whether you’re interviewing for a new product job or your company is hiring a product leader and you’ve been asked to participate in the interview process, you will occasionally find yourself in the position of choosing your new boss.

What Makes a Great Product Culture? A Guide for Product Leaders

I recently began working with a new client eager to start a product Community of Practice (CoP). Our initial workshop, a leadership team outcome session, delved into the core question: "Why a CoP? What do we hope to gain and what would be the ideal impact on our company?"

Product LeadershipPetra Wille10 January 2024Product Culture, Communities of Product Practice

Your Lifetime: The Non-Renewable Resource in Career Negotiations

As the year winds down, many of us find ourselves immersed in personal retrospectives (I just published one myself!), reflecting on our current roles, jobs, and the paths we tread. It's a time when questions about career trajectories and the value of our work come to the fore. This moment of introspection often leads to pondering one of the most critical yet overlooked aspects of professional life: the true nature of the trade-off we're making in our jobs.

What I’m Dedicating 2024 to: A Look at the Year Ahead

As we see 2024 on the horizon, I've decided to use some time to reflect and plan ahead. The annual ritual of penning this blog post helps me align my goals, and I hope it inspires you in your professional journey, too. Here's a look back at 2023 and a glimpse into what 2024 has in store for me.

PersonalPetra Wille7 December 2023Personal Retro

Is your company ready for Product Operating Model Coaching?

Is your company ready for a Product Operating Model transformation? This article introduces three essential pillars to assess your readiness: pain, urgency, and help. If you're a product leader grappling with misalignment and inefficiencies, this guide offers a practical framework to evaluate whether your organization is prepared for meaningful change.

Introducing My New Book, STRONG Product Communities!

I’m thrilled to announce that my new book, Strong Product Communities is now out! If you’d like to just go ahead and grab your copy, you can do so here. But if you’d like to learn a bit more about the story behind the book and what to expect from it, you’ll find that information below.

I Asked What Exactly Do We Mean by “Product Leaders”—Here’s How People Answered

Not too long ago, I posed a question here on my blog and on social media: What exactly do we mean by “product leaders”? I shared how I’ve recently noticed a trend where people seem to use the title “product lead” or “product leader” when describing an individual contributor product manager. The argument seems to be that the title “product manager” doesn’t do a good job of encompassing all of the responsibilities the product person holds.

Product LeadershipPetra Wille11 October 2023Product Leaership, Terminology