Petra Wille
Product Leadership Coach & Author at Strong Product People
Petra Wille is an independent product leadership coach and author of Strong Product People, who has spent over 10 years helping product teams boost their skill sets through one-on-one coaching, events, and writing.
Dimension Profile
Key Themes
Episode Summary
Petra Wille shares her approach to coaching product managers, emphasizing that storytelling is a critical career skill that can stall your advancement if not developed. She covers how to become a better PM manager, why finding a PM community is invaluable, and how teams can collaborate on storytelling even when individual skills vary.
Leadership Principles
- → Storytelling is a career staller if you don't reach a decent level — promotions require rallying teams behind shared goals
- → The whole team can help create stories if the PM isn't great at it, but the PM should still develop the skill
- → Finding a PM community is one of the most valuable things you can do for your career
Notable Quotes
"Getting promoted is way harder if you're not good at telling stories and rallying the team behind a shared goal. I would consider it a bit of a career staller if you don't get to a decent level of storytelling."
— On why storytelling is a non-negotiable skill for PM career advancement
"In some teams, I've seen the product person not being really good at it, but then the whole team helped creating these stories. So you can compensate to some extent."
— On how teams can collaborate on storytelling even when the PM isn't a natural storyteller
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