Coach Essentials | DPM Bootcamp Coach Stephan van Rooden

Essential Icebreaker

Happy Salmon

Even though it's officially an energizer, I love to do this activity with in-person trainings and workshops. Check it out below!

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Essential Data Visualisation Tool

Excel

Start simple. Just start with what you know and what you have, to figure out what you need. Then look for a tool that meets your needs.

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My favourite___ Saying

"It depends."

Your context is unique, there are practices and tools that you can adopt but there is no certain outcome. There is no one best way, you need to figure that out yourself.

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Essential research method

Empirical Approach

The empirical approach is my favourite method since in most situation there are more 'unknowns' than 'knows'. Write down your assumption and verify.

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Essential ideation tool

Post-its.

Just plain old post-its, low tech and possibilities are endless.

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Essential stakeholder engagement model

Stakeholder Radar

I really like the stakeholder radar. It is a great tool to have an immediate and convenient overview of those stakeholders that need to be involved (and don't) to get to the right outcomes.

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Essential product management tool

The tools attached to your face.

Your eyes, ears and mouth. A tool can help you withcreating insights and overviews but in any product management environment it's the ability to listen, observe and engage in conversations with your customers, stakeholders and teams really makes the difference.

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My latest piece of learning

"Courage requires selfknowledge, curiosity towards others and recognising their talents."

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The biggest misconception in the industry

Two things.

1. First, the insane focus we put into creating new stuff and neglecting improving what we already have. Your customers are your customers, because of what you have right now, not what you are planning to build.

2. Second, that we assume that the work we do is predicatble and easy to be planned. While in fact it is very complex and requires creative people. Your digital product team should be treated as creative professionals instead of a feature factory.

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Essential piece of advice

1. Take decions and create focus for your team. Ensure to prioritise what to focus on first, second, third.
2. Try to maximise the outcome with the least amount of output. Your role is to clarify the outcome, your specialists will figure out the appropriate output.
3. Get stuff done. You can only verify if what you created is valuable if people can use it and interact with it. That requires finishing stuff instead of only thinking about it for a long time.

Use and rely on your brainpower and common sense and do not just turn to tools or practices expecting it to quickly solve your challenges.