So you went ahead and took an offer to be an employee Product Coach? Several times I’ve made the same move with no regrets. However, being an executive, a consultant, and an independent Product Coach have offered vastly different experiences. Employee Product (and Agile) Coaches have asked me this question many times:
“I’ve been saying the same thing for years and no one listened to Me- why are they listening to you?”
My response has been: “As a consultant you were smarter and less bought-in but as an employee, you are seen as dumber but now you are more bought-in.”
I have also felt this keenly in the past. At least once a week I have a conversation with an employed Product Coach who has had their self-confidence knocked and bemoans the fact that they used to be good at what they do. They think they have lost their touch or that they are failing. This isn’t the case - it’s simply that being an employee is a fundamentally different gig from being an outside consultant or coach.
For those who continue to work for start-ups or for true Product companies, maybe you can scroll on. For the rest of you, here are four key reasons that might have you feeling dumber as a full time employed Product Coach:
Being a good employee, manager, and team member isn’t about being a Product Model expert. Do you show up at company events? Put in your volunteer hours? Are you making your manager look good? Are you progressing toward your annual goals? Do your colleagues like you and say nice things about you? If you have been passionate and successful as an independant Product Coach or Product Leader, consider how much of that success translates into what will be viewed as success in this context. My advice: Treat yourself like the Product, your colleagues like Personas, and do Discovery work to learn the ways you are expected to deliver value in your current context.
There are Organizational Constraints. Of course you know how to use OKRs, KPIs, and conduct research sessions. Of course you understand the value of collaborating closely with Customers, Users, and Engineers to deliver quickly and have helped others do the same. You can facilitate, you can coach? That valuable experience is why you were hired, right? Maybe, but organizational constraints eg: how the company funds work, implements planning cycles, and assigns work can run counter to good Product Development. You are in a transformational context and need to be empowered as Transformation Coach*, see 1 and point 3.
You are now working within a hierarchy. Many companies have readily available digital org charts. Where you sit in the organization and who you report to are visible to anyone. Others may decide whether you are worth engaging with from that information alone. You are no longer an expert. but instead an <insert title here> who reports to <insert title here>. Looking at your company profile, who are you and why would someone engage with you? Adding information to your internal profile may help, but the point is that as an outside voice you are an expert that cannot be easily defined by a rung on an organizational chart.
Alignment, Incentives, and Motivation – Experienced Product Coaches are hard to find, and many companies are now hiring for positions with that title. Agile Coaches and Project Management offices are rebranding to Product, even though their backgrounds does not include delivery Products to market. Regardless of your own experience, (unless you are the CEO or direct) you will need sponsorship to get traction. Product orientation takes structural changes and new incentives to promote collaboration and alignment across organizational boundaries. Outside voices can help make this case and generate momentum for a turn toward a Product Mode. This is no reflection on your or your abilities, but on the state of the industry at large.
So little of this has anything to do with your abilities and expertise. You are the same professional person who finds themselves in a new context that calls for pivot in approach to delivery value. Outside voices may come in and say “exactly the same thing,” sure. The bottom line is that, If you took the job, you did it for reasons. Enjoy the benefits of being an employee and don’t let the different context get you down.
Thanks to Christine DelPrete for asking me to write about this topic.