Source for this wonderful images of Petra Wille: it’s taken from the Flickr collection for MTP Engage Hamburg Leaders’ Forum 2021.
Why is Petra Wille on this list and Arne Kittler isn’t? Because she has written a book, and because she appears on way more podcasts.
Both are charming, and if you think of the Mind the Product community in Germany, both immediately come to mind. Both are the MCs for the Mind the Product events in Hamburg. So they exist as a duo, at least in my mind.
I have not talked to Petra in person yet, yet it feels like I have known her for ages. Her salient points from the book and from her podcast appearances have helped me immensely in the past.
One podcast, I would call out especially: her appearance in December 2021 on “The Product Experience” podcast, hosts Lily Smith and Randy Silver. For me, she neatly summed up the job of the product leader:
So what I think he really helps us kind of understand, once you are in a leadership role, then you have a role, then you have impact through others. So you should not be the one creating all these things and pushing all the projects and all these kinds of things. Um, It’s more of, okay, how can I set my team up for success?
PEtra Wille, on the Product Experience Podcast
It’s very close to Marty Cagan’s talking point of “Your team is now your product”.
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