Coaching
Being a leader means transforming how you work
Landing a product leadership role is a cause for celebration, but it also means it's time to go into learning mode—you'll need a whole new set of skills to succeed in this new role.
One of the biggest adjustments? You’ll need to spend much less time doing product work, and more time developing your team, building influential relationships with executives (who are now your peers), communicating decisions with clarity—and building an empowered culture while you’re at it.
As you make this transition, you might find yourself experiencing one (or more) of the following:
It feels like there’s no time to think. With the deluge of meetings, deadlines, and requests, you might wonder how you’ll ever find time to do the deep thinking and strategy work your new role requires.
You’re uncertain about managing and being responsible for other people’s career and self-development. What does it mean to be a good product leader? If you don’t have an immediate answer to this question, you’re not alone. As a leader, you’re held accountable for results, but your role also involves developing your team members and helping them achieve their own results and goals.
Your decisions now carry much more weight—and that pressure can be overwhelming. As a leader, your decisions now affect your team members and your company’s performance. It can be hard to adjust to this pressure to make the “right” decisions.
You’re feeling lonely or isolated. Whether you’ve stepped up to lead your former peers or taken on a leadership role with a new team or company, you may find yourself feeling alone and missing the sense of connection and camaraderie you once shared with your peers.
Becoming a leader requires transforming how you work, and it’s not fast or easy. You may feel like you've been given the title and responsibility of a leader, but don't yet have the experience or support you need to be successful.
That’s where I can help.
“I have seen direct and immediate positive impact on my work output and relationships as a result of what I learned during our conversations.”
— Senior Principal Product Manager, Cloud-Based SAAS
“It was so easy to open up and talk about what is on my mind. You made a safe, welcoming and non judgemental environment conducive to creativity and calm even in the most challenging of problem statements.”
— Group Product Manager, Med Tech
“I highly recommend Kate as a coach and a mentor. Kate guided and supported me for a year during my first digital product leadership role. I benefited from the depth of her product know-how; she challenged me and helped me grow my confidence.”
— Head of Product and Delivery, National Non-For-Profit
What is executive coaching?
Working with a coach is a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires you to maximise your personal and professional potential.
Contrary to what you might expect, as a coach, I’m not there to develop you and give you all the answers. My role is to help you develop yourself. One of my fundamental beliefs is that you have the capacity to solve your problems; my goal is to help you spark new thinking.
Here are some topics we might cover in our work together:
Defining who you are as a leader and the impact you want to have on your team - and the world.
Developing your team so they can do their best work
Building influential relationships with execs
Making decisions with confidence
Communicating with clarity
Building empowered cultures
Are we a good fit to work together?
I tend to work with two groups to develop their product leadership skills. You’re a good fit if you:
Have taken on your first leadership role in the past 1–2 years and you’re looking to better understand your new role, and connect with what it truly means to you.
Are an existing leader who has recently moved further up the ladder, or who is guiding your company through a transformation that challenges and questions your view of what leadership is and your impact on the world.
A quick note—what I don’t offer:
There are all kinds of product coaches out there, so I want to make sure that the services I offer are aligned with your needs. My focus is on product leadership skills and not product management skills. This means I won’t help teach or train you on product management skills and frameworks like OKRs, roadmaps, or product maturity assessments.
I understand these skills. I have used many of the tools and frameworks as a product person and I appreciate them as the foundations of what we do, but I don’t focus on them in coaching. There are so many great people out there that do this work, and I’m happy to help you connect with someone who does.
Still, I know that what I do and what other coaches offer can be ambiguous, so here’s a more specific example.
If you’re interested in working on your product strategy, I won’t work with you to write it or walk you through frameworks that other product thought leaders have created. But we could talk through the challenges you’re encountering while developing your strategy. We might dig into:
What’s holding you back—whether it’s personal or organisational blockers—or what might be pushing you forward and how to tap into sources that give you energy and clarity for this work.
The challenges you’re facing in influencing your peers, execs, and team members to support your strategy.
How to take challenging feedback on your thinking and have difficult conversations with stakeholders.
How your values and purpose either align or don’t align with the strategic work you’re doing and how that is impacting your efforts.
How to create space to think/work on the strategy vs. staying in “I’m too busy fire-fighting” mode.
“I really got so much out of it. I am so grateful for your time, your thoughtful questions and your energy Kate!”
— Director, Product Line Lead Pharma
“I went into coaching with one goal only to discover that I was actually pretty close to that goal to begin with. Immediately afterward, multiple organizational changes happened. Product stakeholders changed. New skip-bosses appeared. Kate helped me navigate a lot of fuzzy areas.”
— Senior Manager, Product Management Cloud-based SaaS
“Intense, fast, challenging. (Our conversations) lead to very valuable self-reflection helping me to find out what's important.”
— Director, Product Management Med Tech
How does coaching work?
My coaching can be delivered in several ways.
I can work one-to-one with individual product leaders.
I can work on a corporate basis, where I go into a company and work with a number of leaders across the organisation.
I can also work with leadership and executive teams to foster new energy, to create new ways of working, and to work towards becoming higher performing.
In short, I can work however works best for you.
My coaching methodology is high-touch, with generous ongoing support between sessions.
My sessions are always led by you. You bring the questions and topics that matter most to you, and we will explore them together.
As a coach I serve as a sounding board and thought partner. I play back what I hear without judgement. I don’t tell you what to do, but help you ask better questions and find your own answers.
With a fresh, impartial and curious approach, I will help you to identify and create an action plan to overcome obstacles.
In return, you are responsible for attending our sessions with energy, an open mind and accountability for using the insight you gain from coaching.
My 1:1 coaching offering includes:
6 months of work together. I require at least a six-month minimum commitment to allow us enough time to develop the trust and openness that will allow you to meet your goals. And yes, it’s possible to extend our engagement beyond six months if you’d like!
2 sessions per month. All sessions are held virtually so I can work with clients all over the world.
A 90-minute kickoff session. In our first meeting, we will clarify our agreements for working together and identify the focus of your coaching engagement.
A 360 Leadership Review. I’ll speak with a few of your peers, team members, and managers to give both of us a comprehensive view of your strengths and areas for improvement. The cost of this review is included in our engagement.
Continued access in between sessions. Our work doesn’t stop when the session ends, so I’m available to you outside of our regular sessions via email, WhatsApp, etc. We can also discuss organising targeted sessions to support real-time challenges if something urgent comes up.
Tools and practices. I’ll share plenty of frameworks and resources to help you discover your own opportunities, roadblocks, and next steps.
How do we get started?
Drop me an email and tell me about yourself and what brings you to coaching. We’ll find a time to schedule and introductory call and go from there.
I’m looking forward to hearing from you!
Why choose me?
I have more than 25 years of expertise in product management, organisational design, transformation, and personal development—and I have done it with start-ups, enterprises, and everything in between. My resulting methodology offers a unique approach to coaching leaders and executives across product organisations.
As an accredited Executive Coach through the Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute, my approach is influenced by the program’s focus on the importance of bringing humanity to work.
Clients and accreditations
I am an accredited Executive Coach through the Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute and a member of the International Coaching Federation.
I have coached executives through leadership transformation and personal development goals. Some of my clients include senior staff at JP Morgan Chase & Co., The Financial Times, Comic Relief, TUI, The Boeing Company, MOO.COM, UK Ministry of Justice, UK Fire & Rescue Service, Merck, Yoco and many more.
I’m the author of Hiring Product Managers: Using Product EQ to go beyond culture and skills and an experienced speaker at product management events, conferences, discussion panels and round-table events.
I’ve worked with:
Ready to talk?
Contact me
