Starbucks

THE WORLD BANK GROUP

IRSnews

Deloitte

Emirates

Bill

Author, educator, information designer

Uncover what people need before doing what they ask

Harvard University

The Walt Disney Company

Bill Shander

We are driven by our subconscious. We often do things because that's "how it's done", not because that's what's needed.

Understand stakeholders don't always know what they need

To get past the subconscious response, use the Socratic Method: a specific type of questioning to unearth real insights.

The art of the conversation to uncover what people need

A particular approach to this method carries the key lessons to master these conversations with stakeholders

The Dance of the 6 Ws

Creator of Information Product Canvas

Shane Gibson 

Creator of the Information Product Canvas, 10+ years coaching data teams

US August 4th (8am - 2pm PST / 9am - 3pm MST / 10am - 4pm CST / 11am - 5pm EST)

US  Aug 4th 2026

Suitable for students in UK and European timezones

UK/EU - Wednesday, 7th October 2026

“Thats not what I wanted”“But thats what you asked for!” If this sounds familiar, then chances are your struggling with some of the following:🚩 Your stakeholders and your data team seem to be speaking VERY different languages🚩 Gathering data requirements takes too long🚩 The process of gathering data requirements is not fun for you or your stakeholders🚩 Your stakeholders needs and your data requirements are full of ambiguity (no matter how hard you try)🚩 Your data team cannot work out what to build from the data requirements you capture🚩 Your data requirements are full of the what, but not the why🚩 You capture screeds of detailed data requirements that are never used In my 1 x 6-hour masterclass workshop, you will learn learn how to solve these problems by using the Information Product Canvas pattern to gather data requirements in 30 minutes or less, using a shared language.✨ Become the data universal translator in your organisation✨ Capture needs clearly and quickly with a proven template✨ Get fast stakeholder feedback while you are in the room✨ Give the team enough to build, without noise and distraction✨ Build trust by linking requirements to real actions and actions

How many times have you heard this.... 

Stop boiling the ocean, capture requirements in a repeatable way. Requirements your stakeholders love and data teams can build from

Become the data universal translator in your organisation

Capture stakeholder needs and data requirements

Empower data teams with everything that they need to build

Create trust within your stakeholders

This is a live course. Over 50% of the course is hands on team work going through a case study to "learn by doing".

You need to attend the live session in person to participate

You need to attend the live session in person to participate. Access to the content is available on the companion website after the course.

The course is not recorded

Any automated AI transcription bot will not be accepted into the session.

No "AI Bots"

Business Analysts who are gathering data requirements on behalf of their data teams

Data Product Managers who need to define and prioritise the data work coming up

Data Analysts who want to agree upfront the outcome of the work they are about to do for their stakeholder

How to close the gaps between your effort and visible impact so you become indispensable and unlock career progress: ratings, scope, promos.

19+ yrs leading teams at P&G & LinkedIn

LinkedIn

Procter & Gamble

Co-Active Training Institute

Sudha Ranganathan

Nearly 20 years leading teams at P&G & LinkedIn | Trained Coach and Facilitator 

Cohort 1

Cohort 2

You're working hard and delivering results. And your career still feels... stuck. Your ratings, scope, and promotions haven't moved. A. You're not imagining itB. The issue is not your effort It's actually 3 specific gaps standing between your effort and the visible impact that makes you indispensable to your org. Gap #1: Your effort isn't pointed at what the org values: everything seems equally urgent. And limited capacity and new asks keep pulling you off course. Gap #2: Priority work gets derailed because of stakeholder misalignment or late inputs: forcing you to pivot or backtrack mid-project, which costs you both momentum and credibility. Gap #3: Impact doesn't translate into visible reputation: even when the work is impactful, the right people (especially your manager and senior leaders) can't see it, speak to it, or advocate for it. Knowing how to close these gaps isn't some innate trait.It's a learnable set of skills, whether you're an IC or a People Manager, and it's exactly what you will learn in this course. 3 live sessions: 9 AM to 1:30 PM PT on Nov 7, Nov 14 and Dec 5.Early Bird: 1st 10 enrollees get a free 1:1 live coaching session worth $250.

What's Actually Stalling Your Career Progress

Know how to prioritize and resource what matters to the business

Keep priorities on course amidst context shifts and new incoming asks

Prevent misalignments from derailing progress or credibility 

Manage your manager: maximize value to and from your most critical stakeholder

Help your impact travel, even when you're not in the room

At your level, strong work alone isn't enough. The onus of delivering visible impact and earning advocacy falls on you.

You're a Senior IC or People Manager in a complex organization

Including stakeholder conversations and applying what you learned in live sessions to your work.

You're willing to do the work between sessions

This is for strong performers who are self-aware and eager to operate at the next level

You believe you have room to grow, and want to

Stalling Momentum Despite Strong Effort: You're an IC or Manager doing the work, but ratings, scope, and visibility aren't following.

Credibility in a New Context: You've been through a reorg or leadership change and need to re-establish reputation, as an IC or a Manager.

Recently Promoted, Newly Accountable: You've stepped into a larger scope and the stakes for visible impact are different, and higher.

Build on your product skills to excel at team-building, improving performance, seeing what others are missing and enabling impactful change.

Excellence & Impact for Product Leaders

Sascha Brossmann

Fractional CPO · Executive Advisor · Community Builder

Research is clear: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://hbr.org/2009/05/why-teams-dont-work">most teams underperform</a>. To make it worse, many organisations struggle to define how their employees will be successful at teamwork. People are complex – they require work to make the work work. :)This can be hard even for seasoned leaders. As a rookie manager, the challenge becomes even more daunting: suddenly you're facing entirely new problems that require equally new skills. It often feels like assembling your parachute while already falling.It does not have to be that way.I've been that manager. Muddling through, failures along the way. Until something clicked:As product people we habitually point all our skills outward, at users. Our organisations and the people we work with remain a blind spot.This changes fundamentally when we reframe what we already know.People Discovery turns our skills inward: to understand the people we work with, surface needs and capabilities, and convert that into trust, cohesion, and visibly better work. A win/win for people and performance.With that we can approach our teams and organisations like a product: human-centric, outcome-focused, agile, strategic, intentionally designed.It profoundly changes the game. Like to see how?

Turn your product skills inwards to become a high-impact leader

The unlock: Reframe your product skills for management and leadership

The backbone: Build situational awareness with people and business discovery

The heart muscle: Turn insights into effective team agreements that stick

Benefit from people discovery across the team lifecycle

Diagnose and fix performance and culture issues

The growth hormone: Leverage product skills beyond leading teams

You have senior work experience in a product-related role. You're confident with your skills so that you can start building on them.

Senior product-related experience

Both a team you're leading or one of equal peers (e.g. exec team) works. No team? We will also use roleplay and an AI team for course work.

Ideally: you have a team to get right into practice

New managers coming from a product, design, tech, or related role who want to hit the ground running.

Experienced managers looking for new ways to improve both team performance and talent attrition.

Senior leaders discontent with the status quo who want to align human flourishing with business impact.

Align leaders around capabilities to produce desired outcomes and adapt projects and outcomes to changing conditions.

Orchestrator of enterprise performance 

Amber Román

Coach to enterprises on growth, team performance & capability development

Innovator & strategy to results guide

Jim Dowling

Enterprise performance coach and methodology innovator

Strategy-to-Results innovator

Rich Lynch

Business performance methodology innovator

Align projects to realize vision by closing capability gaps … and how  AI can help.

Exceptional project leaders understand a critical truth: projects don't exist in a vacuum. They thrive when deeply aligned with the organization's operational capabilities and strategic objectives. This isn't just about delivering outputs; it's about understanding the tangible and intangible outcomes your projects are intended to achieve and becoming a true strategic business partner.Imagine having a clearer understanding of the fundamental building blocks of your organization: Communicate more effectively with stakeholders across all levels, using a shared language of business value.Make more informed project decisions, prioritizing initiatives that directly contribute to desired goals.Pivot quickly and confidently when faced with changing market dynamics or organizational needs.Manage project resources more effectively, ensuring they're focused on activities that drive the most significant impact. We'll equip you with actionable strategies to connect the dots between your organization's essential capabilities and your projects. You'll learn how to ask the right questions to uncover these critical links and ensure your work is always aligned with the bigger picture.

Outcomes-Driven Project Leadership

Gain a powerful new strategic lens

Become a more influential communicator

Faster decision-making

Effective resource management

Project Managers who recognize that projects don't exist in isolation and are interested in addressing the bigger picture.

Business Analysts who have a project focus and are interested in bridging the gap between business needs and project execution.

Leaders at all levels who provide the necessary resources, guidance, and support to enable project teams to achieve their objectives.

Agentic AI

Coding with AI

AI Workflows

Claude Code

OpenClaw

Vibe Coding

AI Evals

AI Transformation

RAG & Search

AI for PMs

AI for Engineers

AI for Designers

AI for Marketers

AI for Founders

Product Sense

Product Discovery

User Research

Prototyping

Growth

Analytics

Tech Foundations

Strategy

Influence

Leadership

Career Growth

Machine Learning

LLM Ops

Context Eng

Security

System Design

Figma

Design Systems

Visual Design

Design Strategy

Automation

Content Marketing

Demand Gen

Go-to-Market

Product Marketing

Positioning

Social Media

Brand

B2B Marketing

SEO & AEO

AI for Leaders

AI Governance

Communication

Management

People Operations

Exec Presence

Storytelling

Goal-setting

Personal Brand

Fundraising

Everyone

Operators

Data Scientists

Business Analysts

User Researchers

Customer Success

Project Managers

HR Professionals

Sales People

Lawyers

Finance

Investors

Real Estate

Educators

Creators

Introduction and Icebreaker

The "Want vs. Need" Problem and Brain Science

Automated Responses and "Nexting"

The Henry Ford Paradox: A Story of Success and Failure

The User Experience Perspective

The Socratic Method: Guiding Stakeholders to Insight

The Dance of the Six W's: A Practical Questioning Technique

Example Dialogue: Deconstructing a Sales Report Request

Q&A: The Importance of Clarifying Needs

Q&A: How to Handle Inarticulate Stakeholders

Q&A: Quick Techniques for Time-Crunched Situations

Q&A: The Role of Human Insight in the Age of AI

Executives and senior leaders who set strategy, lead teams, and drive organizational outcomes.

Broad professional audience — content relevant across many roles and functions.

Project managers who organize and oversee execution of initiatives, timelines, and cross-functional delivery.

Executive communication — presenting to boards, writing memos, running all-hands, and high-stakes messaging.

Developing leadership skills — inspiring teams, building culture, navigating organizational complexity, and driving results through others.

Persuading stakeholders, presenting ideas, and getting buy-in across an organization without formal authority.

Uncover what people need before doing what they ask

What you'll learn

Why this topic matters

You'll learn from

Bill Shander