Product Leadership Coach, Author of STRONG product people & STRONG product communities, Curator at Product at Heart Hamburg

Petra Wille is an independent product leadership coach, the author of STRONG Product People, and the creator of the Product Leadership Wheel (and several other coaching and assessment frameworks for product people). 
She's been helping product teams boost their skill sets and product leaders develop their teams (and themselves) since 2013. 
In addition to her coaching and writing, Petra co-organizes Product at Heart, a conference for curious product people in Hamburg, Germany and co-hosts the All Things Product podcast with Teresa Torres.

Phew. This Claude Code experience is getting wild.
I just wrapped a three-hour (!) refactoring session - tightening prompts, managing context, and trying to get a handle on token usage.

I’m finally happy with the setup… but it took a lot of back and forth.
I started using Claude Code in early December, mostly for:
 • Reviewing content from different user personas
 • Creating structured to-do lists
 • Tracking admin stuff like subscriptions, content drafts, etc.

Super useful but also… chaotic.
Context limits, rate limits, sudden memory loss - anyone else getting that “wait, we just talked about this” feeling?

Today I gave it a tighter briefing and restructured how I feed it context. It’s working better now, but wow, this tool still requires a lot of human thinking and steering.

Who else is using Claude Code and feeling the growing pains?
🧠 Drop your context engineering hacks, or frustrations in the comments. Let’s compare notes and save each other some time.

Petra Wille

Petra Wille is an independent product leadership coach and author of STRONG Product People who’s been helping product teams boost their skill sets and up their game since 2013. Alongside her freelance work, Petra co-organizes and curates Mind the Product Engage Hamburg, Germany.

Product Leadership Coach, Author of STRONG product people & STRONG product communities, Curator at Product at Heart

Here’s a simple (but often overlooked) tip for tackling your professional development:
Stop trying to do everything. 🙅

Instead of feeling guilty about all the areas where you’re falling behind, pick one area where you’ll focus your efforts.

🔎 I often refer to this as your “learning headline.”
You can keep it for a quarter, or longer — as long as it still resonates.

And during this time, don’t let yourself get distracted by everything else you could be doing. Instead, use this headline to guide your reading, reflection, and growth.

One easy trick?
🖥️ Add your learning headline to your desktop wallpaper.
Every time you open your laptop, it’s right there — not to pressure you, but to gently nudge your focus back to what matters.

👉 The image below is just one example of what that could look like. Feel free to borrow the format — or create your own that reflects your current focus.

If you are ready to write your own learning headline and start making progress that actually sticks check out my leadership course:  https://lnkd.in/eYh6XH5b

A Paris-based startup I’m invested in is looking for a ✨Product Designer✨.
The team works internationally, so they’re ideally looking for someone who speaks Spanish, English, and French — which is proving tricky to find.
Any leads or recommendations from your network would be super appreciated!

Pinging some Paris friends: Benoît Pisani, Nesrine Changuel, PhD, Rémi Guyot, Fabrice des Mazery, Hugo Geissmann, Axel Sooriah, Romaïssa Cherbal, Isabelle Bénard — do you know someone who might be a good fit?

Thanks in advance!

Some of you have been nudging me (very politely 😄) for updates on the Product at Heart Leadership Event.

Good news: the first group of speakers including Susanne Kaiser, Afonso Malo Franco, Bjoern Waide, Francesca Cortesi, Johannes Kleske, Dr Chris Heimann is now live on the website and the event is shaping up really nicely.

If you’re still wondering whether this one-and-a-half-day leadership format in April is for you, now is a good moment to take a look at who’s joining us. 

More speakers will follow over the next weeks. 

And yes – we’ll also share what they’ll actually be talking about, how the sessions connect, and what the agenda will look like ;-)
That part is still in the making, and I want to give it the time it deserves.

https://lnkd.in/dUNJGC7r

What separates product leaders who inspire and motivate their teams from those who frustrate them by micromanaging their every move, confuse them by giving vague directions, or overwhelm them by saying yes to every stakeholder request?

Strong product leaders are able to create a vision and strategy and communicate it with their team. 

These leaders understand that having clarity about the big picture helps teams stay aligned toward the same goal and avoid being distracted by whatever shiny new object comes along.

What I’m showing here is a small snapshot of the “Strategy & Decision-Making” content from my 52-week product leadership course, From Strong to Exceptional. You’ll see we cover topics ranging from defining vision and strategy and creating alignment to storytelling and prioritization.

Learn more about the course and how it can help you develop your own leadership skill toolbox: https://lnkd.in/eYh6XH5b

New year, new experiments.

In our latest episode of All Things Product, Teresa Torres and I swap notes on what’s shifting in our work in 2026: from rethinking delivery models and coaching tools to experimenting with AI, community building, and new product formats.

If you’re navigating a similar mix of:
 ✅ Coaching and team development
 ✅ Content creation and scaling your impact
 ✅ Figuring out where AI actually fits into your work
…this episode will resonate.

We talk about:
 🎯 Why discovery training needs to be ongoing, not one-off
 🤖 How AI is reshaping teaching tools and why that’s not always a good thing
 🧠 Why leaders need better tools to coach discovery habits inside their orgs
 📬 My plans for 2026: an email course, more PLwheel work, and building deeper community via Product at Heart
 🎤 The role of conferences and retreats in staying grounded and connected

It’s a behind-the-scenes conversation about how we’re both thinking, building, and evolving this year.

🎧 Listen in: [links in the comments]
Let us know what you're exploring or shifting in 2026 — we’d love to hear from you.

Annual reviews don’t have to feel like paperwork season.

In the latest STRONG Product People newsletter, I dive into a question many product leaders quietly struggle with: How do we make annual reviews more meaningful—for our people and for ourselves?

This edition explores how to move beyond HR forms, reduce the administrative burden, and turn reviews into something that actually supports growth, feedback, and trust throughout the year. 

👉🏻  You can read the full newsletter here (and sign up to get future editions straight to your inbox): https://lnkd.in/dT7JyhNK

If you’re leading product teams and want fewer check-the-box processes—and more real conversations—this one’s for you.

🎙️ How do you curate a product conference when everything is moving fast – especially AI topics wise?

That’s exactly what I unpack in a new "All Things Product" episode with Teresa.

We talk openly about what’s shaping Product at Heart 2026 – and why some of the decisions this year feel harder (and more important) than ever.

A few things we get into:
✨ Why we’re moving to a single-track conference – and what that changes for focus, curation, and attention
✨ Early glimpses of confirmed keynotes, including Christian Idiodi on storytelling, Elaine Kasket on digital afterlife and AI replicas, and what Teresa is currently learning about AI
✨ What we’re experimenting with around workshops – from Maker Studio formats to hands-on, applied learning with: Rich Mironov, ✨ Büşra Coşkuner, Marcus Castenfors, and Özlem Yüce
✨ Why the Leadership Event is evolving into a 1.5-day retreat with more space to think, connect, and step out of execution mode

If you’re curious how conferences get curated when the landscape keeps shifting this episode is for you.

🎧 YouTube: https://buff.ly/F0cHNMR
🎧 Spotify: https://buff.ly/Tm9x2V2
🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://buff.ly/cq83qKU

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