Product Management Coaching with Ken Norton
Bring the Donuts
I have coached and mentored product managers and product leaders of all experience levels for more than fifteen years, from recent grad APMs to newly promoted product directors to experienced VPs of Product and Chief Product Officers. I’m passionate about the craft of product management and dedicated to helping other product leaders achieve success through the power of coaching.
Below are just a few areas I focus on:
- Developing as a product leader
- Finding your purpose as a product manager
- Building a healthy and robust product culture
- Career planning and development
- Team and organizational structure
- Hiring product managers
- Working and communicating with other groups and different personalities
- Building outstanding relationships with engineering and design
- Improving product strategy and process
- Setting goals and objectives
- Long term product planning and vision
- Working effectively with CEOs, other execs, and board members
- Developing self-awareness and processing feedback
- Work/life integration
- Values
I have worked with PMs from many industries, including consumer software, e-commerce, enterprise, hardware, life sciences/healthcare, frontier tech, and Fortune 500 companies of all shapes and sizes.
Coaching Formats
Individual
Individual one-on-one coaching is for experienced PMs up to VPs of Product, CPOs and CEOs
Includes two 55-minute sessions every month plus unlimited email communication. My personal coaching engagement requires an initial commitment of six months. That will give us the time and space to work together on the challenges you face, get to know one another, and develop a healthy relationship based on openness and trust. If you choose to continue after this initial period, we can move to a monthly subscription model for as long as you would like to work with me.
Group
Group coaching is ideal for up to 12 individuals of any experience level sponsored by their company
I coach entire product management teams where we meet as a group twice a month for 55-minutes. These groups are sponsored by a company, and hand-picked by a leader. I work closely with that leader to customize the sessions to the needs of the individuals. The leader has flexibility around topics and attendees. My rate includes unlimited email coordination with the leader between sessions. I provide this service on a quarterly basis, for as long as the organization finds it helpful.
In-House
One-on-one coaching for product managers and product leaders at a single company
I can accommodate a limited number of corporate relationships where I am available to provide one-on-one individual coaching to several product managers as an in-house coach. This is the same offering as my individual coaching service, but at a volume discount rate and with more discretion for how the time is allocated amongst the team. I provide this service on a quarter-by-quarter retainer basis.
Get Started:
[email protected]
If you’re interested in learning more about my product coaching services, please email [email protected]
Check to see if your company’s learning and development stipend covers coaching or ask your manager about receiving sponsorship. People are often pleasantly surprised to discover their employer (even early stage startups!) will cover all or a portion of my coaching.
I especially welcome the opportunity to coach PMs from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds.
I’ve worked with product managers, product leaders, executives, and teams from the following companies:
”Coaching is what turns ordinary people into extraordinary product teams.”
What is Coaching?
Unlike advisors or consultants, coaches help you get to the root of the challenges you’re facing. They don’t tell you what they would do, they collaborate to figure out what you should do. Coaches believe that their clients are naturally resourceful, creative and whole. Executive coaching is about asking the right questions and using creative techniques to evoke in their clients the realization of their full potential. A coach is someone in your corner you can test out ideas with, speak with candidly about your fears, and who will push you and hold you accountable.
I’ve benefited throughout my career from the coaching of others. Sometimes it was helpful to just bounce a problem off someone who’d been there, or even just someone who didn’t work at the same company. They helped me resolve conflict, create great cultures, make tough decisions, chart the direction of my career, and deliver world-class products. I’m passionate about the craft of product management and am dedicated to providing that same help to others. I hope we get the opportunity to work together.
”Coaching might be even more essential than mentoring to our careers and our teams. Whereas mentors dole out words of wisdom, coaches roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty.”
Typical Engagements
- A fast-growing startup’s lead product manager, told that the Chief Product Officer role is “theirs to lose”
- A big tech company group product manager, recently promoted and growing from individual contributor to product leader
- A VP of Product at a big tech company, looking to reach their goal of becoming a CEO in 3-5 years
- An experienced PM who feels like their career has plateaued, looking to shake up their potential, achieve work/life balance, and fall in love with the job again
- A product manager who just took on a large project, struggling to become more confident and decisive in the face of executive attention
- A Chief Product Officer at a high-growth startup who wants to become a better manager of managers, and challenged with how to structure an organization
- An experienced product leader who was hired to change the product culture at a Fortune 500 company
- A startup product CEO looking for someone to coach their entire team of product managers in a group setting
- An L6/L7 product manager at a FAANG, looking to become more strategic and accomplish their goal of being promoted to director
- A newly promoted product leader, challenged in a recent performance review to be less tactical and deliver a compelling vision for their product area
About Ken Norton
Hi, my name is Ken Norton. I’m a product management coach, speaker, and writer.
Before becoming a full-time executive coach to product leaders, I spent more than fourteen years at Google, where I led product initiatives for Google Docs, Google Calendar, Google Mobile Maps, and GV (formerly Google Ventures). I joined Google with the acquisition of JotSpot, where I was vice president of products. Before JotSpot, I led product management at Yahoo. Back in the day when I was a software engineer, I was one of the earliest employees of CNET and the founding CTO of Snap (which became NBC Internet).
I started writing about product management in 2005 because I couldn’t find a lot of information on the web about what it meant to be a product manager in an empowered, customer-first tech company. My classic essay How To Hire a Product Manager has since become the playbook for a generation of product managers. Hundreds of people have contacted me over the years to say that my writing inspired them to become a PM, convinced them they were capable, or motivated them to keep pushing when times got tough. I am also the reason donuts and product management have become synonymous.
I earned a bachelor’s from Boston University and a master’s from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and I am an emeritus member of BU’s College of Arts & Sciences Dean’s Advisory Board. My favorite donut is the old-fashioned.
In the course of a decade, Ken Norton fundamentally changed the way you communicate, schedule and get around.
One of those rare product managers who combines both product vision and a strong technical background.
Simply one of the most thoughtful product people out there.
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Photo Credit: Mind The Product