The Product Leadership Wheel - A Framework for Defining and Growing Product Leadership at Scale
Is this you?
• As a Chief Product Officer, Head of Product, VP of Product, or Director of Product, are you missing a clear rubric for defining what good (or exceptional) looks like in your role?
• As an HR or L&D professional, have you been tasked with creating career paths for product roles (but maybe you're missing practical experience to know how to differentiate between different levels of product leadership expertise)?
• As an executive, are you looking for a more consistent way to evaluate product leaders' work?
The PLwheel is a structured self-assessment and development tool for product leaders—CPOs, Heads of Product, Directors, and VPs—designed to define what great product leadership looks like in your organization and help leaders create a professional development plan so they can grow intentionally into that definition.
Why Organizations Choose the PLwheel
It’s surprisingly rare for companies to have a shared understanding of what strong product leadership looks like. If you’re navigating a major change (and let’s be honest—who isn’t these days?) like digital transformation, scaling your product org, or rethinking your leadership development strategy, the PLwheel brings consistency, alignment, and momentum to these conversations.
This Is for You If You’re...
HR / L&D building career paths for product roles
Digital transformation teams clarifying leadership responsibilities during org change
Execs aiming to have better conversations with product leaders
A glimpse inside the PLwheel - Three of the many pages that help product leaders reflect, align, and grow.
What’s Included
Licensable Tool + Consulting Package, tailored to your organization. You’ll get:
A structured framework breaking down leadership into 12 responsibilities across People, Product, and Ways of Working
A performance scale to assess where your leaders are now
Time allocation diagnostics to align focus with company context
Reflection guides and optional coaching formats to support growth
Guidance for team workshops, development planning, and leadership conversations
What the PLwheel Helps You Do
Clarify leadership expectations and career progression
Benchmark leadership maturity across your org
Move leaders from execution mode to strategy mode
Enable better 1:1s and coaching conversations
Build product leadership capability intentionally, not accidentally
Use Cases for the PLwheel
🧭 Self-assessment
🧠 Leadership team alignment
💬 Coaching and development conversations
⏳ Time allocation analysis
You may also discover that the PLwheel provides a foundational framework that you can adapt to your organization's specific needs. Learn more about how Novo Nordisk did this with my other tool, the PMwheel, here.
What Makes the PLwheel Different
Similar to tools like Gartner’s Strengths Finder or Gallup CliftonStrengths, the PLwheel supports structured reflection and intentional growth.
But what sets it apart is this:
👉 It’s built specifically for product leadership.
Where other tools focus on general leadership traits, the PLwheel is tailored for those leading product teams—navigating alignment, strategy, culture, and execution across fast-moving, cross-functional orgs.
👉 It’s grounded in real coaching practice.
I developed the PLwheel after years of coaching product leaders—from Heads of Product to CPOs—and after thousands of conversations about what great product leadership actually looks like in the wild. Every element of the PLwheel is rooted in what product leaders are truly grappling with, not what looks good on a poster.
This isn’t theory. It’s a framework built for the messy, rewarding, high-leverage work of leading product at scale.
What others say
"The PLwheel helped me quickly assess where I—and my direct reports—stand as product leaders. It gave us a structured way to evaluate our strengths and identify development areas. For anyone looking to baseline leadership maturity across a team, it’s a really effective starting point."
Jinto Jose, ING Netherlands, Product Area Lead Data Management
“As we continue building the capabilities needed to realize our digital ambitions, strong product leadership is key. The PLWheel outlines the core pillars of product leadership, highlighting the mindsets and skills needed to lead effectively. If you’re looking for a shared language around product leadership,
and practical guidance to turn theory into impactful development initiatives - this is an excellent place to start.“
Natalia Dornonville de la Cour, Digital Capability Lead, Novo Nordisk
“I knew I was spending too much time on hiring and delivery fire drills—but I couldn’t articulate what I was supposed to be doing instead. The PLwheel made that crystal clear. It helped me not only reframe how I show up as a leader, but also sparked better conversations with my peers about what product leadership actually means here. It’s the tool I didn’t know I needed.“ - Head of Product, Series C SaaS Company
“We were trying to ‘level up’ our product leadership, but honestly—no one could agree on what that even meant. The PLwheel gave us language, structure, and direction. It exposed gaps we hadn’t named before and turned vague ambitions into tangible development goals. If you want to stop guessing at leadership growth and start building it intentionally, this is where to start.” - VP Product, Enterprise Transformation Lead
Ready to bring clarity to product leadership?
The Product Leadership Wheel helps product leaders see their role clearly: twelve responsibilities, an honest self-assessment, and a sense of what to work on next. There are three ways to put it to work - depending on whether it's just you, your team, or your whole organization.
1. For you as a sole leader
The easiest way in is my From STRONG to Exceptional email course 🏋️. The PLwheel is built right into it, so you assess yourself and then work through your responsibilities week by week, at your own pace.
If you'd rather go deeper with support, the wheel is also part of my 1:1 coaching, where we use it to shape what we focus on together.
2. For your team - a PLwheel workshop
A focused, hands-on session where your product leaders map themselves against the wheel together and leave with a shared language for what each of them is working on.
I run these as public workshops - most recently at the Product at Heart Leadership Event and at the MENA Product Summit in Cairo (photos below) - and the same workshop can be run inside your company for your own leadership team.
3. For your organization - the Enterprise package
For larger rollouts, or organizations with more complex role structures. A company-wide setup with a version of the PLwheel tailored to how leadership actually works in your org, plus enablement workshops to help it land.
Not sure which fits? Just email us at office@petra-wille.de and we'll find the right starting point together.
