Managing product managers: Lessons learned and tracking success (Marte Patel, VP Product, Aschehoug Education)

Marte Patel is the VP of Product and Agile at educational publishing house Aschehoug Education. With over 16 years of experience working in the digital product and technology space, we caught up with her to understand the keys to leading product functions and managing product teams. 

At Aschehoug Education, the product team includes seven Product Managers, each managing a digital product platform, and ten Product Owners responsible for content development across various products. They collaborate closely with Editors, Content Developers, and Content Producers. The team also comprises 15 Designers, Tech Leads, Developers, Process Managers, and other roles, making for a comprehensive and multidisciplinary group working directly on their products.

Marte emphasises that managing product teams involves mastering leadership as well as product management. "You’re not an individual contributor anymore," she notes. "Your new role is to enable your product managers to succeed and thrive. Spend time on leadership literature and best practices, too."

Listening, reflecting, and being open-minded is key, she explains. The world of product management is usually fast-paced, and the ambitions are usually always bigger than the available time and resources, Marte says. “Set aside time to look at the bigger picture and reflect”

Using OKRs to aid with implementing strategy, she updates the strategic-level OKRs at least monthly, and the process of doing so gives her another push to look at the bigger picture and reflect.

Although there isn’t a one-size-fits-all-all to managing, many product managers appreciate a leader who loves the product craft and has hands-on experience. “I try to do as much as possible to make my product managers’ working weeks easier and more rewarding,” Marte says. This includes things like organising a product manager community of practice, creating a resource bank with templates and real examples from around the organisation, and focusing on continuing professional development, through books, podcasts, newsletters, meet-ups and courses.

Managing product teams can be tough. Marte explains that it’s a constant challenge to balance supporting the product managers in their daily work, and encouraging them to set aside time for continuous professional development, whilst also not micromanaging them. “I try to achieve this balance through active listening and through using both push and pull,” she says. 

Motivation can also be an issue, especially if a feature underperforms or there is organisational change. Marte addresses this by listening to understand the root cause of demotivation. "Is there something they can resolve on their own? Is there anything I can do? If the root cause cannot be solved, can it be minimized? Can we change our mindset? Once I understand the cause, I do my utmost to help," she explains. 

There are many ways to track the success of a product team, and at Aschehoug, Marte breaks down a few of her regular tracking assignments: 

By combining these methods, Marte gains a comprehensive understanding of her product teams' performance.

When used together, these various ways of tracking the success of product teams give her a good measure of how well the product team at Aschehoug are performing. 

Based on her experiences in product management and several collaborative projects, four key lessons spring to mind for Marte, the first of which is continuously learning and developing as a product person. “There is a world of product management experience and best practices out there. It’s worth spending time engaging with it,” she says. Learning is a key value for us at Aschehoug.”

There is a wide array of best practices content, frameworks, and methodologies in the product space. However, Marte admits that it can be challenging to execute these practices in their own working scenarios. “I’ve learned not to give up because those rewards you reap when you succeed make it worth the time and effort,” she says.

One example is our use of Opportunity Solution Trees (OSTs). “We all read Teresa Torres and wanted to try to implement her techniques, but the weeks go by so fast, and it can be tricky to get properly started,” Marte says, “Through a combination of pull and push, we eventually used OSTs as a technique in two different products (Juridika and Plus), with great success. It was really inspiring to see what we achieved when we decided to just go for it,” she notes.

Additionally, understanding and respecting each other is a key asset to managing teams. She stresses the importance of highlighting individuals' differences, as doing so will help product teams achieve something greater. True cross-functional collaboration and mutual respect are key to avoiding turf wars. 

Finally, Marte explains the importance of psychological safety when managing product teams.

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