EMPOWERED. Marty Cagan

of this chapter for me to list all the reasons why this results in disappointment, but in any case, it won't develop the people we need, and it's not a scalable solution.

      Manager Spends Time Talking and Not Listening

      While there's nothing wrong with preparing for the session by jotting down some notes of items to discuss, it's critical to keep in mind that this session is primarily for the product person and not for you. It's all too easy for you to talk for 30 minutes straight, and then you're out of time. Moreover, it's important to recognize that people learn in different ways, and you'll learn that by listening not talking.

      Manager Doesn't Provide Difficult Feedback

It's true that learning to give frank, honest, constructive feedback is hard for many people. But if it's not done, the person doesn't grow and improve at the pace we need. This usually becomes very clear at the next performance review, where the employee is surprised by the negative feedback.

      Just to be perfectly clear here, at the performance review, nothing should be a surprise—everything should have already been discussed in depth, likely for months. The performance review is discussed in an upcoming chapter, as it's the source of lots of grief and angst for all parties. But, for now, the important thing to keep in mind is that it is never the key tool for developing people—the weekly 1:1 is.

      Manager Is Insecure and/or Incompetent

      This technique is predicated on you as manager being competent yourself (otherwise, how would you be able to coach others to competence?), you are secure enough in your own contributions and value that you are happy to shine a light on others when they do well, and you don't feel threatened by their success. But sadly, we all know of managers where, for whatever reason, this is not the case. The person responsible for ensuring strong people managers is the head of product in a larger company and the CEO in a startup.

      As we discussed earlier, if you don't personally have the necessary experience to coach and develop others, it will be essential for you to immediately find some product leader coaching for yourself. Please don't take this responsibility lightly.

      Manager Doesn't Cut Losses

      I hesitate to include this one because to me this is the last resort. But sometimes we have a manager that has been working sincerely, tirelessly, and capably for several months to coach the person, yet she can't seem to get the product person to competence.

      It's important to realize that not everyone is cut out to be a product person. When I find this to be the case, it's usually because the person was simply reassigned from a different role at the company—maybe because this person used to be a customer and knew the product or the domain, or knew the CEO, or whatever—but she simply doesn't have the core foundation to succeed in the role.

      Moreover, hopefully it's clear that the product roles of product manager, product designer, and tech lead are not “junior” roles.

Someone who needs to be told what to do every day is not cut out for the product person role. And this is also not scalable. You need people that can be developed into capable and competent product people—that can be given an objective and then counted on to find a way to get it done.

      My view in this case is that you are responsible for getting the new product person to competence. If you're not able to accomplish this in a reasonable period of time (usually three to six months), then you need to take responsibility to help that person find a more suitable job where they can be successful.

Summary

      If you're a product leader and you have not been focused on coaching, I hope you come to realize that this is what your job is really all about, and you'll use this as a framework for giving coaching an honest effort.

      For product leaders, the product team is our product, and this is how we develop a great product.

      If you're a product person, and you have not been receiving this type of ongoing, intense coaching, then I hope you'll bring this up with your manager and see if she would be willing to invest the time to help you reach your potential.

      If you're entering a career as a product person and evaluating companies and positions, then the single most important thing you can do in the interview process (once you've convinced the company that you have the potential and are worth investing in) is to try to determine if the hiring manager is willing and able to provide you this level of coaching.