Case Study: Improving Visa’s product management with a bespoke Colab Cohorts program

Overview

Colab works with top-tier product companies globally to provide bespoke training and coaching for product teams. In March 2024, Visa’s Asia-Pacific product leadership team aimed to create a more dynamic, innovative, and strategically focused product management practice. They wanted to improve their product leadership skills, communication, and product strategy capabilities and approach. 

Colab Cohort’s strategy, solution, and approaches were multi-dimensional.  Working with Visa over five weeks, we delivered a deeply interactive product training program consisting of presentations, case studies, panel discussions, and guest speakers.

The program effectively addressed these challenges, achieving:

• Strategic Clarity: The training resulted in a 33% increase in participants’ understanding of product strategy, equipping them with practical tools to enhance strategic execution.
• Communication Skills: Technical Product Managers reported a 46% improvement in their communication skills, enhancing their ability to engage with stakeholders and manage teams.
• Leadership Development: Both cohorts experienced significant gains in leadership abilities, with a more profound grasp of modern product management roles and responsibilities.

Overall, the initiative was rated highly, with a satisfaction score of 4.89 out of 5, marking it as successful in boosting Visa’s product management practice and impact.

Getting to know Visa — their products, people, and practice

At Colab Cohorts, we take the time to get to know our clients. We worked with Visa’s product management teams to delve deeply into their inner workings to understand and address identified challenges. 

Everyone knows Visa—for one, it’s a key player in the fast-paced digital payments sector worldwide. Visa also drives its business forward by working with an extensive range of products and customers in various markets and sectors.

Visa needs an exceptional group of product managers and leaders equipped to drive innovation and product strategy. Given the significant global nature of Visa’s products and services, product teams at Visa are structured by product and division with some regional alignment.

Visa’s Challenge — continuous change and communication

The initiation of the collaboration between Visa and Colab was rooted in a multifaceted challenge. Visa’s environment is one of continuous change. This environment, combined with a recent organisational restructure, had led to a lack of clarity around roles, responsibilities, and methodologies. Although the most recent restructuring had aspired to define clear pathways for individuals and leaders within product management, the changes hadn’t yet been fully translated and been embedded into day-to-day realities and practices. 

Senior Director of Product, Phil Metcalfe, detailed the complexities involved and his reasons for seeking training support. 

“It was coming into a new organisation where there was a long history of successful product development with a number of people really accomplished in helping that success, but the changing, through the years, of different titles, position descriptions, and applications of how product development is done which creates confusion and non-clarity.

I started looking around to see who could help me with this reset to raise awareness around what modern product management looks like and get excited about the next few years. It’s actually the start line. The team deserved that, and they also deserved a moment to stop, pause, reflect, and understand modern product management in these new roles with new titles and new responsibilities” 

Visa identified a need to invigorate their product teams by enhancing the skills of two cohorts within the Asia-Pacific region — their Product Directors and their Technical Product Managers.  Their overall goal was to shift towards a more dynamic, innovative, and strategically focused product management practice that could be measured over time. To do this, they wanted to improve leadership skills, promote effective communication, and instil an understanding of modern product strategy.

Specifically, Visa’s desired outcomes for each cohort included —

• Product Directors 

For Product Directors (PDs), Visa’s focus was to improve their product leaders’ skill sets in – 

• product strategy skills, approach and rigour of thinking 
• effectively communicating product strategies to stakeholders 
• confidence and impact as product leaders managing technical product managers.

• Technical Product Managers

Visa’s priorities were to focus on improving the skill sets and confidence of Technical Product Managers (TPMs) in —

• understanding their product management roles and responsibilities
• effective communication and stakeholder engagement/management 
• how to engage their product teams and empower them to ultimately drive better outcomes for their specific product responsibilities.

Our Solution and Approach — Collaborative, Engaging, and Hands-on

Colab Cohort’s strategy, solution, and approaches were multi-dimensional.  Working with Visa over five weeks, we delivered a deeply interactive product training program consisting of presentations, case studies, panel discussions, and guest speakers.  The program was structured around the following three key pillars —

Collaborative Discovery

We worked in tandem with Visa’s product teams to identify skill gaps and strategic directions prior to the training. This was achieved through robust discussions with each other in real-time and feedback obtained from surveys individually completed by product team members. Our collaborative effort ensured the program aligned with Visa’s objectives of innovation and strategic excellence.

Ensuring Engagement

Colab and Visa prepared participants for the workshops in the weeks prior to the training to ensure readiness, high engagement, and motivation for long-term change. Bespoke courses were developed for six Product Directors and 12 Product Managers.

Visa’s commitment, in particular, was exemplified by their Senior Director of Product, Phil Metcalfe, and his efforts to generate enthusiasm, secure resources, and support Colab during each of the daily segments, for both cohorts. Phil worked directly with Adam Davis to lay the groundwork for a highly effective learning environment.

Hands-on Learning 

We focused on practical ways to reinforce learning and relate it directly to participants’ everyday work. 

External and international perspectives were incorporated through the involvement of guest speakers. These guest facilitators provided course participants insight into the experiences of other product professionals outside of their organisation and an appreciation of common issues faced throughout the product industry. The speakers at this course included —

• John Carter, Founder and Principal at TCGen. As Founder and Principal of TCGen Inc., he has advised some of the most revered technology firms in the world: Abbott, Amazon, Apple, BOSE, Cisco, Fitbit, HP, IBM, Roche. He was also the inventor and patent holder of Bose Noise Cancelling headphones. John presented a masterclass on individual contributor product management.
• Corinna Stukan, VP of Product. Corrina delivered on how to use data to drive strategic decisions. 
• John Bowker, Head of Product Operations at ezyVet. John presented content on effective stakeholder management.

Practical and relevant product insights were provided and leveraged via industry-specific case studies — Wise and Monzo, for example.  Participants’ learnings and understandings of content were reinforced through group discussion, direct questioning, and written exercises. The topics and theories presented in the course were applied to Visa’s products and challenges by participants during these activities. 

Course Impact

The overall impact of this work with Visa was clear. An overall rating of 4.89 out of 5 showcased the true value of what was delivered. A wider set of qualitative and quantitative data obtained from the course evaluations were used to assess the impact and outcomes of the course.  Evaluations completed by the participants after the training used 1-5 rating scales and collected comments and feedback on what they considered to be of most value.  Participants were also asked to rate their understanding of product management before and after completing the training.

The transformation journey was rich with insights provided against the intended outcomes from both the Product Directors and Technical Product Managers. 

Game-Changing Product Strategy Skills and Capabilities 

Product Directors highlighted the product strategy development framework as a game-changer, with their post-course evaluation of their understanding of product increasing by 33%. In particular, feedback said it provided participants with the tools to demystify product strategy and identify opportunities. 

Empowered Understanding of Product Management Roles

Both Product Directors and Technical Product Managers reported an increased understanding of their respective roles after the training. Participant feedback indicated that they discovered more about how to work effectively with products, people, and processes. 

Product Leaders

Post-course, Product Directors evaluations of their understanding of product leadership roles increased by 33%. 

“Plenty to think about and use straight away as we go through our upcoming planning rounds. Also looking forward to connecting with my STPM to improve our ways of working.”

“I really enjoyed this training. I think I’ve got some great tools to start using to help myself and my team grow.”.

Product Managers

The Product Manager’s post-course evaluations of their understanding of their product management roles showed an increase of 42%.

Increased Skills in Communicating Effectively

Technical Product Managers reported significant increases in their understanding of how to use and develop their soft skills to communicate effectively to engage and manage stakeholders and build trust. After the completion of the “effective communication” module, TPMs conveyed that they felt significant increases in their communication capabilities. Feedback indicated they gained practical skills to take back to their respective teams.

Understanding of How to Effectively Communicate

Post-course, Technical Product Managers indicated their understanding of how to communicate effectively increased by 46%.

“[Most valuable was the] insights from experts, sharing from other S/TPMs, and learning new and useful skills like status reporting.”

 

Understanding of Product Leadership and Building Empowered Teams 

Technical Product Managers post-course evaluations indicated their understanding of product leadership and empowering product teams increased by 37%. 

“It was an eye-opening session about how we should work with our teams and stakeholders and how involved we should be at every step of the way.”

Invaluable Learning as a Cohort Experience 

Both groups gave positive feedback on the value of learning as a cohort in the product management workshops.  The Technical Product Manager group recognized the strengths and limitations of their current practices and valued the bonding and knowledge-sharing that the program cultivated. 

“Super valuable use of the product team’s time. It’s clear that the current practices are not as effective as they could be. This workshop really brought that to light and inspired the team to take action.”

“The content was always relevant; the discussions were always engaging. We were all able to tie the theory back to our current situations and identify real actions.”

“Appreciated the discovery phase, and flexible, relaxed approach on the day. Looking forward to working with you further over the next 6 months. Also looking forward to delving into the supporting content on Circle. “

From both cohorts, all Visa product team members shared that they would not hesitate to recommend Colab Cohorts product management courses to a friend or colleague. 

Learning Outcomes

This collaboration between Visa and Colab led to significant learning outcomes. Together, we addressed the primary challenges and catalysed a transformative shift in the approach to product management at the organisation. 

After the completion of the workshops, Visa’s Director of Product, Phil Metcalfe, shared insights that revealed tangible improvements in strategic thinking, communication, and the operationalization of new product management practices. For example —

Strategic Clarity and Execution

After the program, there was a marked improvement in the team’s ability to articulate and execute on clear product strategies. Team members who previously struggled with defining or communicating their product areas’ strategic narratives began to do so with confidence and urgency.

“The week after they’re like, ‘Yeah, I know exactly what you’re talking about. And I know that that’s something I’m responsible for, and I know I need to go and get that from the draft, right through to stakeholder alignment and team alignment’.”

Enhanced Communication

The program fostered clearer, more consistent communication practices. Where there was once a lack of proactive communication, there emerged a culture of regular updates and engagement across teams, enhancing overall transparency and alignment.

“Clarity and consistency with status updates and people speaking up in forums more. There’s a lot more proactive email and async communication going on across the team — which just simply wasn’t before.”

Operationalizing New Practices

Visa began to operationalize the learning from the program by integrating Colab’s platform with custom content and resources into recurring sessions and using them as a foundation for ongoing dialogue and development within their product management practice.

“The follow-up material is being referenced quite a bit — definitely the Circle material. There’s so much in there that can be used as an agenda.”

Fostering a Cohesive Product Practice

An unintended yet beneficial outcome was the realisation of the importance of bringing product management teams closer together, facilitating more frequent interactions between PMs and PDs, and establishing recurring forums for collective strategizing and learning.

“I didn’t realise how little time they were spending together as a cohort of product managers. It really dawned on them that our problems are not unique to us.”

These learning outcomes highlight the program’s success in not only addressing the initial challenges faced by Visa’s product teams but also in laying a foundation for sustained improvement and strategic excellence.

Conclusion and Takeaways

This collaboration between Colab Cohorts and Visa was transformative.  Highlights from working with the two cohorts at this organisation include —  

• Preparation is always key.

The lead-up work undertaken in advance by both Colab and Visa was critical in delivering a course to meet the specific needs of the product professionals who attended.  The pre-course discovery helped to build enthusiasm and readiness to engage during the training sessions. 

• Hands-on activities convert theory into practice. 

The hands-on, practical, and participatory learning format was effective. Participants could engage with content and apply it directly to their day-to-day work. Being able to relate topics and theories presented to an actual product, process, or people assisted the participants engage with course content. Practical and engaging activities in the workshops helped participants understand the topics and theories presented in the course and equipped them for long-term retention and use in the future.

• External perspectives are powerful.

The external perspectives of the guest speakers and facilitators were powerful. Course participants felt connected with others in the industry from around the world with different experiences. The insights of these experts also helped participants understand the common issues and challenges product professionals face and explore solutions to common problems.

Connect with Colab Cohorts

Keen to collaborate or want to know more about how you can upskill your product teams? Get in touch with me (Adam Davis) at adam@colabcohorts.com, or grab some time to chat.  We create a training and learning environment for product management professionals that is —

• Focused on helping product professionals connect, collaborate, and prosper
• Engaging, interactive, and memorable
• Thought-provoking and stimulating.