Coaching Tools – The Plan

Marty Cagan continues his coaching series by describing how managers can help product managers close specific skill gaps identified in an earlier assessment. He covers product knowledge (users, data, industry, business, go-to-market, finance, legal, partnerships, and hands-on product operation) and process skills (discovery, optimization, delivery, and development practices). He then turns to people skills such as team collaboration, stakeholder trust, persuasion, and leadership. The core argument is that a PM's foundation must be solid, but that people skills often separate competent PMs from truly successful ones. Coaching in these areas should be concrete, observation-based, and tied to real meetings.

01Key takeaways

• Expect new PMs to need two to three months of focused product onboarding, and make that managerial responsibility explicit.
• Visit at least 15 customers early, aiming for diverse perspectives including unhappy and happy users.
• Build relationships with data analysts, finance, legal, and product marketing as ongoing learning partners.
• Have new PMs fill out a business model canvas to surface gaps in their understanding of the business.
• Coach collaboration by observing real meetings and pointing out how behavior builds or erodes trust.
• Preview potential concerns with stakeholders before the team builds anything to earn their trust.

02Key sections

Product Knowledge

New PMs should spend their first two to three months learning users, data, the domain, and the business, with managers accountable for ensuring this competence. Learning draws on colleagues like user research, customer success, product marketing, and finance, plus direct customer visits.

Process Skills and Techniques

PMs need working knowledge of discovery, optimization, delivery, and development processes, with the PM's role focused on risk, experimentation, and backlog responsibilities. Cagan warns that CSPO training alone does not make someone a true product manager.

Team Collaboration

Modern product work depends on trust among PM, design, and engineering. Coaching is most effective when based on observing how the PM behaves in real problem-solving meetings.

Stakeholder Management and Evangelism

Trust with executives is built by understanding their constraints, previewing risks early, and persuading through clear, well-practiced presentations. Each interaction carries more weight than with teammates, so it must be deliberate.

Leadership

Because PMs lead people who do not report to them, leadership must be earned through demonstrated knowledge and trust. Studying admirable and poor leaders is recommended as a coaching exercise.

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.