Join us as we sit down with Will Chan, Product Coach at The Product Coach.

With over 7 years of experience in both B2C and B2B businesses as a product management leader, Will has a proven track record of launching innovative products and driving significant revenue growth. Thriving to collaborate with teams to develop and execute product strategies, Will loves to solve customer problems and exceed business goals.

Beyond product management, Will is passionate about coaching and mentoring, believing in the positive impact it has on individuals and the industry. Open to connecting, Will offers valuable insights and guidance on career development. 

So, how has his time with PLA affected his career? We caught up with him to get the low down:

Community

I joined the community off the back of being a speaker at the London Product-Led Summit in 2022. I am now in the process of moving to London, so I thought it would be important to get established in a few different communities. I think the PLA is one of the biggest and best communities out there.

I have enjoyed getting to know some new people and answering some of the interesting product-led growth questions from the community. I’ve also enjoyed the updates from the jobs channel, as since I’m moving, it’s always good to understand better what the market is like in London.

Insights

I have found the discussions in the PM Mentoring area of Slack to be useful, as it has given me information that I can use to shape my own product management coaching and mentoring offering.

There seems to be a steady stream of new start-ups and other product launches as well as job openings that get advertised in the community, so I think those are the most helpful for me right now.

Connections

I have only just started building connections in the community. Still, as soon as I land in London, I’ll be looking to connect a lot more with locals to get a better understanding of the market and how I can contribute both personally and professionally.

I have started to converse with other PMs about coaching and mentoring, and speaking at the PLA event has given me some gravitas when I talk to businesses about my work and contributions to the wider community.

Contributing to the community

I gave myself the goal of speaking at more events and becoming a more public figure in the PM community. The opportunity to speak at the PLA event last year has given me a stepping stone to my goals. I’m hoping to speak at another event next year when I am in London.

My main contribution has been through speaking, and I think I got some really good engagement from the participants at the event. I hope to engage more in the Slack community over the coming months.

The PLA community is huge and very diverse, I think there are more events and opportunities because of the size of the community that you just don’t get through smaller and more local operations.

I think it’s always better for product professionals to be members of a number of communities. One of the best ways to grow personally and professionally is to meet new people and share ideas - groups like the PLA are the perfect place to do this.