Coaching Tools – The Assessment

Marty Cagan argues that managers of product managers must actively develop their people, since talented PMs will leave for other companies if they lack growth. He presents a gap-analysis skills assessment as the foundation for coaching: managers rate each skill on how important it is for the role and how capable the PM currently is. The taxonomy spans product knowledge, process techniques, and people skills, and can be tailored to a company's culture or industry. The focus is then on the top three gaps in a coaching plan, with weekly check-ins. Cagan also contends that annual performance reviews are mostly HR compliance and do little to develop people.

01Key takeaways

• Treat developing your product managers as a core responsibility, since people often leave their managers rather than their companies.
• Assess each PM against a skills taxonomy, rating both the importance for their level and their current capability.
• Compare self-assessments with your own ratings, and address discrepancies directly rather than avoiding them.
• Limit the initial coaching plan to the three largest gaps in high-importance skills.
• Meet with each PM at least weekly to review progress on the coaching plan.
• Use ongoing skills coaching as the substance of development, treating annual reviews as a formality.

02Key sections

Why coaching PMs is urgent

Managers must treat developing product managers as a priority, because cross-functional teams depend on competent PMs and people tend to leave bad managers. Cagan frames this as a core managerial responsibility.

The three-pillar skills taxonomy

The assessment covers product knowledge first as the foundation, then process skills like discovery, optimization, and delivery, and finally people skills such as collaboration, stakeholder management, evangelism, and leadership.

Gap analysis method

Each skill gets two 1-10 ratings: the importance required for the level and the PM's current capability. Large gaps in high-importance skills signal where coaching is most needed, and self-assessments can be compared against the manager's view.

Building the coaching plan

Focus first on the top three gaps, provide coaching, training, reading, or exercises, and once gaps close, show the PM the expectations for the next level to prepare for promotion.

Assessments versus performance reviews

Annual reviews are of limited value for development, but ongoing coaching and a managed skills assessment make the yearly review far easier.

03From the post

“A partnership dedicated to teaching best practices to product teams and product leaders”

04Frameworks mentioned

Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.