Empowering Transformation: Collaborative Product Coaching at METRO

Let me share a milestone from my journey at METRO AG & METRO.digital…

I have been working as a Product Coach to drive our digital transformation at METRO.digital. Our mission has been clear: to build software that truly meets user needs and delivers substantial value. Achieving this goal required overcoming several challenges, including the alignment between business stakeholders and product teams on user focus, desired outcomes, and success criteria for every initiative.

One of the key hurdles we faced was ensuring that all parties involved agreed on the core aspects of any initiative before starting work. To address this, our team of Product Coaches, with the support of top management, introduced a structured "use cases" template. This template, composed of six critical steps, helps articulate the situation, the problem's significance, the solution, the rationale for the initiative, success metrics, and the consequences of inaction. By fostering a shared understanding through this framework, we aimed to enhance contextual knowledge, enabling more effective brainstorming and decision-making.

As part of this initiative, I had the privilege of working closely with the Quality Assurance team, including Bogdan Mihai Dimitru, Gabriela Stanca, and Ihab Albaldawi. Here’s what some of them had to say about our collaboration:

Bogdan Mihai Dimitru, Product Manager:
"Kevin helped us to bridge the gap between business and tech, building trust and fostering effective communication. He guided us through defining use cases, identifying the right metrics, and understanding the true essence of ‘why we are doing it,’ which was a challenging yet rewarding process. We were pushed out of our comfort zones constructively, towards a common goal. Implementing the problem and solution exploration framework has significantly deepened our product discovery practices, ensuring we build solutions that truly solve our customers' problems."

Gabriela Stanca, Head of Product (Domain Owner Own Brand):
"Kevin’s contribution as a coach was invaluable. Initially, the exercise of creating use cases seemed daunting, with many question marks. However, the process became straightforward. I noticed that business stakeholders were highly engaged. Kevin quickly grasped the intricacies of our area, facilitating discussions with relevant questions that drove our understanding forward."

These testimonials reflect the collaborative spirit and mutual trust that we have cultivated. By working together, we are not only transforming our product management practices but also ensuring that we deliver software solutions that make a real difference.

I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to METRO's journey in digitalisation and look forward to continuing our work towards creating impactful and user-centric products!