Step 4: Focus on one action and ask if you can help. Now that your PM has her coaching topics to explore, it’s time to pick one and then focus on action and commitment.

KPI trees are a powerful tool that brings about transparency, alignment, and focus.

I use Marty Cagan’s definition: It’s the product manager’s job to come up with a product solution that is valuable to the user, usable by the user, buildable by our engineering team, and still viable from a business perspective. It’s all about finding a balance between these four dimensions. If you overly obsess on one or the other, chances are hig

1. Create it. Creating your narrative—including parts for product vision, strategy, goals, and principles—requires looking to see what is going on around you: the current situation, the diagnosis, and the reality (what is). This includes: Customers, noncustomers (a.k.a. humans), behavior changes; Market, industry, competition; Trends, macrotrends; and

Step 2: Create a strategy for success. Once you’ve agreed on the goal for your coaching, then the next step is for you to help your PM come up with tactics to put it into action—a strategy for success. As

Avoid using buzzwords, tool names, and abbreviations.

In his book, Drive, Daniel Pink examines three elements of true motivation: mastery (the desire to continually improve at something that matters to us), autonomy (the desire to direct our lives), and purpose (the desire to do things in service of something larger than ourselves).186 According to Pink, it’s these three things that motivate people—no

in every 1:1. I like to ask, “What could I do or stop doing that would make it easier to work with me?”

Step 4: Evaluate progress. A good coach will hold you accountable, often through follow-up meetings and checking results. You