Product Management Coaching with Ken Norton
Bring the Donuts
Before becoming a full-time product leadership coach, I spent more than fourteen years in product management at Google, building products that are now used by more than three billion people worldwide. I have coached and mentored product managers and product leaders of all experience levels, 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
- Designing your vision for a fulfilling product career
- Team and organizational structure
- Hiring, coaching, and mentoring other 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
- Gaining confidence and overcoming impostor phenomenon
- Work/life integration
- Getting unstuck
- Values
I have worked with PMs from many industries and companies of all shapes and sizes, including consumer software, e-commerce, enterprise, hardware, life sciences/healthcare, frontier tech, and Fortune 500.
Coaching Options
My coaching is fully remote, using Zoom video or audio-only
Individual
Individual one-on-one coaching is for experienced PMs up to VPs of Product, CPOs, and CEOs
Includes two 55-minute sessions over Zoom every month plus unlimited email communication. My individual coaching plan 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 for 55-minutes twice a month. These groups are sponsored by a company and hand-picked by a product leader. I work closely with that leader to customize the sessions to the needs of the individuals. As a result, the leader has flexibility around topics and attendees. My rate includes unlimited email coordination with the leader between sessions. I provide this service quarterly 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. Identical to 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.
Contact Me
Are you interested in learning more? Send me a note at the email address below, and tell me a little about yourself, your company, and what you hope to get out of coaching. I’ll respond with current pricing and how to schedule a free exploratory session to make sure that there’s a fit. I’ll do my best to help you find the right coach, whether it’s me or someone else.
[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 individual coaching. (Here’s some helpful advice on making a pitch.)
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?
The International Coaching Federation defines coaching as “partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.” 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 help you discover 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 innovative 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. My twenty-plus-year career in product management and product leadership has sharpened my skills as a coach. 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” and wanting to 10x their development
- 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 integration, 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, grow in confidence, 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). These products today are used by more than three billion people worldwide.
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 anything 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 (RPI). 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