Case study · Leadership & people
Growing Product Owners into Product Managers
I coached two delivery-focused product owners to lead their own discovery and experiments, with rework clearly declining within four to six months.
The context
Product development was largely shaped by commercial requests, and our product owners mainly translated stakeholder requests into tickets. Two of them had never interviewed a user, run an A/B test, or set and owned an outcome-based goal.
The challenge
I set out to help both product owners grow into product managers who could own discovery as well as delivery. I believe discovery belongs within the product team rather than being directed from above.
How I approached it
I began with hands-on coaching. I conducted the first user interviews myself and invited the product owners to join, giving them a practical example of how to ask questions, uncover needs and avoid leading participants.
I then developed and delivered training on A/B testing and product discovery. It covered hypotheses versus opinions, the pyramid of evidence, metrics and guardrails, and writing post-mortems. After establishing these foundations, I asked them to apply the methods independently and linked their progress to personal development OKRs.
In our one-to-one meetings, I monitored their development, offered guidance when they were stuck, and challenged the substance of their hypotheses, data analyses and product requirement documents. Over time, I stepped back as they became more confident leading the work themselves.
What it delivered
Within four to six months, the amount of rework on their initiatives had clearly declined. Both product managers were independently running user interviews and experiments, while the wider team had begun contributing to discovery. Their development formed part of a broader experimentation programme that achieved an 11% win rate and generated €1.2 million in additional revenue.
Looking back
I learned that moving from delivery support to genuine product ownership takes more than training. It helped to model user interviews first, give both product owners clear methods, and then use one-to-ones and development OKRs to challenge their thinking. The clearest sign of progress was not just independent interviews and experiments, but less rework and wider team involvement in discovery.
I carry forward the principle that discovery belongs within the product team. My role is to create foundations, offer practical guidance, and step back as confidence grows. The broader experimentation results reinforced that disciplined hypotheses, evidence, metrics, guardrails and post-mortems can connect individual development with meaningful product and commercial outcomes.