The Product Teacher Theory of Change
Our mission at Product Teacher is to make product management easier for everyone - but to do so, that requires changing the world around us.
Thankfully, we can draw from the nonprofit world to identify how to structure these kinds of large-scale changes. To that end, I’d like to share where Product Teacher is headed, and how exactly we plan to change the world for the better.
First, I’ll introduce you to one of the frameworks we use to drive strategic planning, which is the “theory of change” framework.
Then, once we’re familiar with the framework, I’ll walk you through our plans and directions so that you have a clear sense of who we are, and why we do what we do.
So let’s dive in!
What is a theory of change?
A "theory of change" is a framework commonly used in the field of program evaluation and social impact to outline the underlying assumptions and logic behind how a particular initiative or project is expected to create a positive change or achieve its desired outcomes.
It provides a structured representation of the cause-and-effect relationships that link the program's activities, inputs, outputs, and short-term and long-term outcomes.
In plain English, a theory of change is a set of related “if this, then that” statements. That is, we believe that if we do a particular thing, then some particular outcome will happen.
Here's why having a theory of change is useful:
Clarity of purpose: It helps articulate the purpose and goals of the initiative, ensuring that everyone involved understands what the program aims to achieve.
Strategic planning: It aids in the development of a strategic plan by identifying the necessary steps, activities, and resources required to reach the intended outcomes.
Accountability: It establishes clear benchmarks and indicators for success, making it easier to track progress and hold stakeholders accountable for their roles and responsibilities.
Learning and adaptation: It encourages a culture of learning and adaptation by allowing organizations to test and refine their assumptions and strategies based on real-world feedback.
Communication: It facilitates effective communication both internally and externally, helping stakeholders understand how the program works and its expected impact.
Resource allocation: It assists in the allocation of resources by prioritizing activities that are most likely to contribute to the desired outcomes.
Evaluation and measurement: It provides a foundation for rigorous evaluation and measurement, enabling organizations to assess whether the program is achieving its intended results.
Having a well-structured theory of change enhances the effectiveness and impact of initiatives and programs by aligning efforts with a clear understanding of how change is expected to occur and by providing a roadmap for achieving desired outcomes.
Now, I’d like to introduce you to our theory of change at Product Teacher.
Our theory of change
At Product Teacher, our mission is to make product management easier for everyone. So, here is our own theory of change to advance the mission, broken into four sections:
Problem area
Intended impact
Required interventions
Indicators of change
Let’s go through each in sequence.
Problem area & background context
The single most pressing problem we’re tackling is the lack of accessible and inclusive support systems for individuals from diverse backgrounds to enter and excel in product management roles.
This problem has several facets that feed into it, and it has downstream impacts on both individuals and the broader industry. Let’s break this problem down into five components.
1) Limited accessibility to PM education: Many colleges and universities do not yet offer specialized degrees or certifications in product management. This absence of formal education options leaves aspiring product managers without a clear academic path to gain the knowledge and skills required for the role.
2) High financial barriers: Traditional professional training organizations, such as General Assembly, Mind the Product, Pragmatic Marketing, and Reforge, often come with a high financial cost. This financial barrier can be prohibitive for individuals who are unable to afford these programs, limiting access to quality PM education.
3) Inflexibility of programs: Existing training programs can sometimes be inflexible, requiring participants to take time off work to attend in-person classes or workshops. This restricts access for working professionals who cannot afford to pause their careers for extended periods.
4) Theoretical vs. applied learning: Many existing programs focus on theoretical frameworks; frameworks are valuable, but they’re not necessarily straightforward to apply to real-world challenges. In fact, many product managers are already familiar with the most common frameworks; their actual need isn’t to learn new frameworks, but to receive guidance for putting them in place in real-world situations on the job.
5) Mentorship gap: Within the field, there’s a shortage of on-the-job mentors for product managers. The demand for mentorship far exceeds the supply, leaving many individuals without the guidance and support needed to navigate their careers effectively. While there are lots of mentorship platforms out there and many noble volunteer PM mentors, the fact is that nearly every single product person is incredibly busy on the job and doesn’t have much spare time to provide mentorship.
Combined, these five challenges have stark downstream impacts on diversity and inclusion within product management.
The statistics highlight glaring gaps:
While 2.9% of the US population is Indigenous, only 0.3% of all PMs are Indigenous (9.6x proportionality gap)
While 14% of the US population is Indigenous, only 4% of all PMs are Indigenous (3.5x proportionality gap)
While 19% of the US population is Latinx, only 12% of all PMs are Latinx (1.5x proportionality gap)
While 51% of the US population is women, only 35% of all PMs are women (1.4x proportionality gap)
These disparities underscore the urgent need for accessible, affordable, and inclusive support systems in product management.
Right now, the profession desperately needs help with bringing down barriers to entry, and it lacks many of the support mechanisms that exist in other professions to ensure sustained employment and a well-defined path for career advancement for product managers.
Product Teacher’s intended impact
Our intended impact is to reshape the product management education ecosystem, so that it becomes more accessible, inclusive, and effective for individuals from diverse backgrounds. By doing so, we empower them to pursue, excel in, and lead in product management roles.
This intended impact is quite ambitious! But, it doesn’t have to happen within a single shot. We further break down our intended impact into five pillars.
1. Creating accessible education: We aim to break down barriers by offering easily accessible knowledge and resources, enabling aspiring product managers to acquire foundational skills and knowledge regardless of their educational or financial background. Through our initiatives, we intend to democratize product management education.
2. Providing diverse perspectives: We seek to share underrepresented, unique, and well-rounded product perspectives. By amplifying diverse voices and showcasing a broad range of experiences, we aspire to foster a more inclusive product management community. Our goal is to challenge existing biases and stereotypes within the field and inspire individuals from underrepresented groups to pursue and thrive in product management careers.
3. Empowering aspiring PMs of all backgrounds: We’re driven to equip aspiring product managers with the practical skills and insights they need to break into the industry. We aim to close the gaps left by traditional education systems and expensive training programs, providing an affordable and flexible pathway into product management roles.
4. Supporting experienced PMs of all backgrounds: We’re dedicated to helping experienced product managers excel on the job and achieve career advancement. We recognize that the product management landscape is continuously evolving, and experienced PMs require ongoing support and upskilling to stay competitive. We intend to empower them with the expertise and guidance needed to thrive.
5. Strengthening product leadership of all backgrounds: We plan to target a long-running problem for many product leaders. Specifically, as their product teams grow, and as their product portfolio expands into new markets, verticals, and use cases, the skill set of the team drifts away from the skill set that the market demands. We want to address this skill / market mismatches within organizations, such that we enhance the overall effectiveness of product leadership and foster sustainable, profitable, and delightful innovation within companies.
We envision a future where individuals from all backgrounds have equal opportunities to pursue product management careers, where the profession thrives on diverse perspectives, and where product managers at all levels receive the guidance and resources they need to excel.
So, which specific initiatives will we need to “ship” to make this intended impact into reality?
Required interventions to drive impact
We’re not afraid of doing big hairy audacious things. Based on what we need to achieve above, we resolve ourselves to launch the following five initiatives.
Product management blog & resource repository
Inputs: We harness nearly a decade’s worth of firsthand product management experience. Unlike some other blogs, our content & editorial team has actually lived and breathed product management, with a track record of shipping & scaling multiple multi-million dollar products.
Activities: Through our blog, we craft in-depth guides, articles, and resources on a wide range of product management topics.
Outputs: We produce high-quality educational content that is easily accessible to all.
Outcomes: Aspiring and experienced product managers gain immediate access to valuable practical knowledge. They develop a deeper understanding of key product management concepts and principles, setting the foundation for their journey.
Product management newsletter
Inputs: Our curated highlights are sourced from a wide range of product leadership voices from underrepresented backgrounds.
Activities: Our regular newsletters showcase unique, underrepresented, and well-rounded product perspectives.
Outputs: Each issue of the newsletter offers a platform for diverse viewpoints, challenging the status quo.
Outcomes: Readers gain exposure to a broader spectrum of product insights, fostering a richer understanding of the profession. Perspectives from underrepresented voices increase awareness and contribute to a more inclusive and diverse product management community. Over time, these efforts result in a product management ecosystem that embraces diversity and welcomes a variety of experiences and backgrounds.
On-demand recorded courses
Inputs: Our courses are developed and taught by instructors who have built products, platforms, and ecosystems to positively disrupt & transform process-heavy, paper-heavy, regulatorily-complex industries.
Activities: We create on-demand courses tailored for aspiring product managers and experienced product managers, ensuring accessibility and relevance.
Outputs: Our courses provide accessible, high-impact learning at an affordable price. Product managers can retake any course at any time, at any speed they want.
Outcomes: Product managers gain foundational knowledge, boosting their confidence and readiness to excel in the field. A growing community of skilled product managers from diverse backgrounds contributes to the accessibility and vibrancy of the product management profession.
Live PM coaching
Inputs: Our experienced PM coaching team brings their expertise in individually coaching thousands of product managers one-on-one over the last decade.
Activities: We offer live coaching sessions designed to provide tailored guidance and support to experienced product managers.
Outputs: Coaching results in improved product management skills and enhanced job performance.
Outcomes: Experienced PMs see immediate skill development, positively impacting their daily work. Career growth and promotion opportunities open up for coached professionals, contributing to a highly skilled and confident PM workforce.
Group workshops & live clinics
Inputs: Our seasoned product instructors bring their lived experiences in implementing live training programs within both early-stage companies and publicly-traded companies.
Activities: We conduct group workshops that provide targeted training for product leaders and teams.
Outputs: Workshop participants acquire skills and knowledge that enhance their collaboration and effectiveness.
Outcomes: Teams experience immediate improvements in collaboration and skillsets, which is then reflected in improved product outcomes and market responsiveness.
Through these initiatives, we aim to transform the landscape of product management, making it not only more accessible but also more inclusive, dynamic, and conducive to personal and professional growth. Our theory of change is rooted in the belief that by addressing these critical challenges and providing innovative solutions, we can indeed change the world for the better and make product management easier for everyone.
In fact, one of the great things about this design is that it creates a self-sustaining flywheel, enabling us to create a cascading effect.
Our foundational flywheel
Each of our initiatives feeds into other initiatives and therefore amplifies our impact. Our end-to-end coverage creates enduring loops that support product management from cradle to grave.
Loop #1: We help people secure their first PM jobs, then get promoted, then lead groups and teams. The individuals within these teams then eventually seek promotions, where they will then lead groups of their own.
Loop #2: Our free offerings (blog and newsletter) create awareness of our paid resources (courses, coaching, and workshops). Our paid offerings encourage PMs to leverage our free resources.
Loop #3: Our work with product orgs enables us to access individual product managers. Our work with individual product managers enables us to access product orgs.
Here’s a diagram for how our interlocking initiatives work in concert.
The Product Teacher flywheel of initiatives
Indicators of change
Of course, for us to know whether we’ve made a meaningful dent in the problem, we need to measure our progress. We believe the following four indicators of change enable us to do exactly that.
1) Diversity in product management roles: We will monitor the percentage of underrepresented groups in product management roles at the industry level. Our goal is to close the diversity gap by increasing the representation of women, minorities, and other underrepresented groups in the field, so that we align with (or surpass) real-world demographic proportions.
2) Promotion velocity for PMs: We will measure the velocity of promotions for product managers who we have engaged with, for example using “average number of years to get promoted to the next level.” This metric reflects the effectiveness of our initiatives in advancing the careers of product managers.
3) Time saved for product leaders: We plan to ask product leaders to report the number of hours saved as a result of not having to provide extensive in-house training. This metric demonstrates the efficiency and effectiveness of our group workshops and coaching sessions in meeting the training needs of product teams.
4) Increased tenure and decreased churn: By tracking the tenure and turnover rates of product managers at organizations that engage with us, we can observe whether product managers feel more satisfied, well-equipped, and engaged in their roles. An increase in tenure and a decrease in churn indicate that our interventions contribute to higher job satisfaction and retention within product teams.
Our path forward
We have a long way to go ahead of us, but this challenge energizes us to dream big and work hard. We stand today at the threshold of change, and we are galvanized by the opportunity to create a lasting impact.
Our five identified initiatives (blog, newsletter, courses, coaching, and workshops) guide our path forward. While we've laid the foundation for these initiatives, we are fully aware that we've only scratched the surface of what's possible. The canvas is vast, and the potential for transformation immense.
We've been gathering momentum and establishing repeatable & scalable building blocks. We've reached out to aspiring and experienced product managers, learning from their experiences and needs. We've started to forge partnerships with organizations that recognize the value of our mission.
Yet, we stand at the base of a mountain, looking up at the peak of our vision. We understand that creating a more accessible and inclusive product management community will require innovative thinking, dedication, and collaboration. We're prepared for the hard work, the late nights, and the challenges that will inevitably arise.
Our path forward is guided by a commitment to excellence and a deep sense of purpose. We aim to nurture a vibrant community that fosters diversity, embraces inclusion, and thrives on shared knowledge. We envision a future where product managers from all backgrounds can pursue their passions, excel in their roles, and lead with confidence.
As we continue to develop and refine our initiatives, we will be proactive in seeking feedback, engaging with our community, and adapting to the ever-changing landscape of product management. We are committed to staying true to our mission.
We know that the road ahead will be challenging, but it's the very challenge that inspires us. We dream big, envisioning a world where barriers to entry in product management are dismantled, where underrepresented voices are amplified, and where product managers, both aspiring and experienced, have the resources and support they need to thrive.
This is our path forward — a path illuminated by the belief that together, we can change the world of product management for the better. So, with unwavering determination and boundless enthusiasm, we set forth on this transformative journey
Come join us as we make product management easier for everyone!
