Establishing product coaching in the company – product thinking for greater impact
How can I implement sustainable, customer-centric product development? R+V's digital.werkstatt has embarked on its journey to established product coaching in order to be able to offer holistic product consulting.
R+V Versicherung AG is one of the largest insurance companies in Germany and a leading force in the insurance market. With a wide portfolio of insurance products, R+V Versicherung AG is a trusted partner for its customers.
digital.werkstatt is its internal partner for the user-centric development of digital products and helps product development departments to achieve greater market success by providing advice, coaching, and individual support.
The project at a glance
- A common understanding within digital.werkstatt of "product thinking" and "product coaching" as a prerequisite for effective & consistent support of product development areas
- Description of the main tasks in product design
- Alignment and further development of existing formats to provide structured support to product development departments
Initial situation
R+V recognized the value of user-centered design at an early stage and set up a dedicated department for the purpose: digital.werkstatt. Experienced consultants and coaches with backgrounds in user experience design, design thinking, business model innovation, etc. accompany product development projects throughout the company. digital.werkstatt was quickly known as a brand and was in great demand for its services. Its service was initially intended for use on a project-by-project basis and for a limited time only by the product development departments. As an innovation unit with its own formats, it was initially possible to achieve positive results and to significantly sharpen the focus of product ideas. However, after the support provided by digital.werkstatt ended, the product development departments were often left without the long-term assistance of experts that they needed to integrate the new approach into their day-to-day work. They wanted guidance with impulses such as “How do you convert your product idea into manageable features?”, “How do you know if your product works and how can you steer product development accordingly?”, or “How does a clear product vision help teams make good decisions and move in a common direction?”.
Solution
digital.werkstatt sharpened its internal positioning. Instead of innovation-focused discovery, the range of services was expanded to include long-term, partnership-based assistance for product development departments, leading to outcome-oriented product development. Innovation coaching became product coaching. The promise was to convey and apply hands-on product thinking to a specific product.
This is where codecentric's support came in. As a competent and long-standing partner who brings together product development with the three facets of users, businesses, and technology, we helped to make "product thinking" tangible, communicable and, above all, usable.
After initial interviews and an analysis to accompany the product development projects, it became clear that a common understanding is needed, in particular: What is product and what is not? What is product management? What is product thinking? How does this fit with existing skills? How can this be consistently communicated and applied? Our first step was therefore to make product thinking tangible, identify the most important product development tasks, and supplement them with helpful methods. This also allowed the previously developed role of product coach to be categorized and refined.
In the second step, we then focused on reflecting on consulting and support services. Support is to focus on areas where the greatest improvement can be achieved, and not necessarily on those areas where support is desired. Reflection took place, for example, in the form of joint ART reviews, which were used to determine where a project/ART currently stands and what form of support is most helpful/meaningful in that situation.
Result
With their shared understanding of the product, product management, and product thinking, digital.werkstatt product coaches can provide comprehensive support for product development departments. The common basis helps to exchange experiences and continuously develop offerings.
Product development departments find it easier to create products that inspire customers and bring benefits to the company as a result of the long-term partnership and support. Product risks (value, usability, feasibility, business viability) can be effectively reduced by using state-of-the-art product design methods.
"Steffen brings state-of-the-art approaches to product coaching with a lot of passion. The collaboration is ruthlessly honest - but also motivates us for the work that still lies ahead."
Franziska Rossin
Head of department digital.werkstatt, R+V Versicherung
Any questions about the project?
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Principal Agile & Product Coach
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Steffen Oehme
Principal Agile & Product Coach