How to coach product managers, improve storytelling, and build community

Executive overview

Most product leads lack a structured approach to developing their PMs — no clear definition of "good", no development plans, no follow-up. Petra Wille's coaching framework fixes this with five ingredients that mirror the logic of a product roadmap: know what great looks like, know where each PM is today, align on a shared vision, build a development plan, and follow through.

Storytelling and community are the other two levers that separate stagnating PMs from those who accelerate.

The biggest unlock for PM growth is often a structured coach — and most managers skip the structure entirely.

The five ingredients to coach PMs effectively

1. Define what "good" looks like — document the personality traits you hire for versus the skills you can develop; use an existing assessment (PM Wheel, PM Daisy, Marty Cagan's framework) and customise it for your context
2. Assess where each PM is today — put the pin on the map for current skills, situation, and career stage
3. Set a vision and identify the next bigger challenge — think beyond the current role; once a quarter, write down the one stretch assignment you'd give each PM if it became available
4. Create a development plan — curate small, concrete steps (a book, a talk, a reflection exercise); the PM owns it, you inform it
5. Follow up consistently — small nudges at the water cooler or a brief monthly check-in beat annual reviews; ask each person how they want to be reminded

The PM Wheel: eight skill buckets

1. Understand problems (user and business)
2. Find solutions
3. Plan (roadmap, goals, alignment)
4. Get it done (delivery, backlog)
5. Listen and learn (qualitative and quantitative data)
6. Iterate on shipped solutions
7. Team (motivation, dynamics, collaboration)
8. Agile (manifesto, values, principles)

Each bucket has at least 15 framing questions. Use self-assessment, manager assessment, and peer assessment together for a full picture.

Where to start if you have no framework

• Don't wait for HR or cross-company alignment — start with your own team
• Pick the development plan first: most PMs already know one thing they want to improve
• Follow-up is cheap and high-leverage; small consistent nudges outperform big reviews
• Curiosity and empathy are traits to hire for — hard to develop through coaching alone

Becoming a better storyteller

• Great storytellers invest heavily in preparation — a three-month team narrative might take two weeks of one-to-two-hour sessions to shape properly
• Remove business jargon and three-letter abbreviations; natural language releases the hormones that make stories stick
• Use proven structures (hero's journey works well) — place the team or user as the hero, name the obstacles, paint the brighter future
• Start drafting immediately; stories are easier to iterate than prototypes — test the spoken version before writing anything
• Keep three versions ready: a 75-second elevator pitch, a six-minute team briefing, and an 80-minute all-hands presentation
• Be visual: whiteboard sketch, emotional slides, or a short illustration reinforces core points
• Resources: Nobody Wants to Read Your Shit (Steven Pressfield); Nancy Duarte / Duarte Inc.; Hans Rosling TED Talks; spoken word poetry (Sarah Kay, "If I Should Have a Daughter")

Building confidence as a public speaker

• Start with the smallest, friendliest audience available — your own team, a company all-hands, a local product meetup
• Grow the audience size incrementally over time
• Get feedback from both strangers (spot narrative gaps) and peers (harsher, more specific critique)
• Pre-talk: Superman pose or sternum tapping (stimulates the vagus nerve) to raise energy
• Plant a friendly face in the front row

Why product communities accelerate growth

• Line managers without a product background often can't curate a PM's development — community fills that gap
• Benefits: faster skill growth, higher retention (people stay where they're mastering their craft), reduced burden on product leads, cheaper than training or conferences
• Signs of a valuable community: you meet interesting people, you learn something new regularly, you can contribute and be heard, the community is active and kind

What makes a community worth staying in

• Learning something new regularly — not every day, but often enough to feel it
• Ability to contribute (share, moderate, organise), not just consume
• Mutual trust and active participation
• Enjoyment — do you like the people?

How to build a stronger internal community of practice

• Revisit the community's purpose periodically — it shifts as membership changes
• Define values and success metrics (signal-to-noise, not raw engagement)
• Build rituals and a consistent rhythm
• Distribute ownership; a community centred on one or two people is not sustainable
• Think in circles of interest connected by bridges, not a pyramid
• Consider incentives: extra training budget, protected time, recognition for active contributors