Carolina Poll

Lightning Problem-Solving for Product Teams

CoachHub

MODIFI

Beam AI

MVP Factory

CrispyCoaching

17 years on Design | Strategic Product Designer & Workshop Facilitator

Learn the exact steps to facilitate this proven format that helps teams align fast and solve real problems.

Run a Lightning Decision Jam from start to finish

Practice techniques to help your team cut through ambiguity and focus on what matters most.

Turn fuzzy challenges into clear, prioritised actions

Discover how to lead strategic conversations—even if you’re not the loudest in the room.

Use facilitation to boost collaboration

The Facilitation Leadership Lab has become “Master the Craft of Group Facilitation.” We’re rebranding and refocusing our course because after running four cohorts on Maven and supporting organizations like Humanity United and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, we’ve learned what’s most valuable about it: the craft of leading and facilitating groups through complex and fraught dynamics, so that they can achieve their purpose. We’ve all been in stuck meetings that fail to achieve their goals, planning processes that are hijacked by conflict and/or unproductive group dynamics, and strategy retreats that focus on all the wrong issues. By the end of this two-week, live, online course,&nbsp;you’ll be able to lead groups to turn: 💫&nbsp;Group confusion into focused strategy: Develop actionable and purposeful strategies that address the roots — not symptoms! — of group challenges, while bringing the group along with you. 🛠️ Broken processes into purposeful planning: Implement intentional planning processes, sequence key issues, set purposeful agendas, and navigate high-stakes decisions. 💡 Stuck meetings into breakthrough moments: Generate movement, surface divergence, and clarify decision rights. 💛 Cultures of conflict into group belonging: Make productive use of difference and conflict, release unhealthy group dynamics, and manage challenging colleagues. Master the Craft of Group Facilitation is a live, online, cohort-based course for rising and established leaders who want to master the craft of leading and facilitating groups. You’ll learn and practice proven facilitation skills in a lab-like environment so that you can lead a group through complex and fraught dynamics, and help them achieve their purpose. You’ll also receive 1:1 coaching with instructors, and access to a peer-learning community with 100+ leaders from organizations like Humanity United, Google, Center for Tech &amp; Civic Life, More in Common, and many more. Enroll today!

Facilitating groups is a craft anybody can learn –  we’ll help you master it.

✏️  Course syllabus

Session 1: Saturday, Aug 2, 12:00 - 4:00 pm ESTSession 2: Sunday, Aug 3, 12:00 - 4:00 pm ESTSession 3: Saturday, Aug 9, 12:00 - 4:00 pm ESTSession 4: Sunday, Aug 10, 12:00 - 4:00 pm EST

August 2-10

In between the two weekends, participants will be given ‘homework’ that they can use to practice the skills they’re learning with course participants and deepen their understanding of the frameworks.

‘Homework’

📅 Course schedule

Civil society leaders who want to master the craft of group facilitation and level-up their organization.&nbsp;

Operators and product managers who are tired of all the ‘people &amp; process stuff’ getting in the way of key outcomes.

Managers of cross-functional teams or partner-facing leaders who want proven tools to facilitate groups to achieve their purpose.

🤔 Who is this course for? 

What you’ll get out of this course

You’ll learn proven facilitation skills, practice them in a lab-like environment, and receive personalized feedback from the instructors.&nbsp;

Master 18 key facilitation skills you can implement immediately

You’ll have access to a practical workbook by your side to navigate complex group dynamics in the future.&nbsp;

A 60+ page workbook full of 20+ tip-sheets, check-lists, and exercises to refine your craft
 

Participants will join a peer-learning community with 100+ leaders from organizations like Humanity United, Google, Center for Tech &amp; Civic Life, More in Common, and many more.&nbsp;

Access a private peer-learning community to support your ongoing facilitation and leadership development.
 

You'll have the opportunity to engage 1:1 with the instructors in a free coaching session after the workshop is complete.

1:1 Coaching

You’ll develop a ‘Customized Facilitation Plan’ to address key issues at your organization, guided by the instructors.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Hands-on Capstone Project

Transform stuck meetings into breakthrough moments, cultures of conflict into group belonging, and workplace ambiguity into strategic action

Kate Krontiris

Charley Johnson

Cohort 4

Cohort 6

Is this familiar? &gt;&gt; Writing papers and presentations feels like a chore that burdens your nights and weekends. It might also feel like an unavoidable waste of time. It goes like this ... You are sitting down to review another round of edits on your latest Senior Leadership Team (SLT) or Board paper.&nbsp;This is the fourth round of minutiae you have received.&nbsp;There are minor comments and tweaks in track changes throughout. The draft is a sea of red and you can’t work out what is wrong.&nbsp;You referred to examples your predecessor left you. You and the team have thoroughly addressed every issue the template raises, so this paper should deliver what is needed.&nbsp;On top of this, you urgently need leadership support if the project is to go ahead.&nbsp;But your stakeholders’ continuous focus on minutiae is driving you nuts. They are muddying the message which you have worked toward.&nbsp;What on earth is going on? Seemingly endless rounds of minor edits are getting in the way of a project that will make a real difference to meeting key performance indicators.&nbsp;&nbsp;You settle in for a long night as your days are full moving the project forward and the last thing you want is for your manager to rewrite your paper again.&nbsp;Many executives tell me they draft multiple iterations of every paper and that it is not uncommon to present to leadership multiple times before getting a decision. They think this is a normal part of professional life. It doesn't have to be. I have seen many executives turn this around and look forward to helping you do the same.&nbsp;&gt;&gt; Wouldn’t it be amazing if you consistently got better, faster decisions from papers and presentations that are (mostly!) written within regular working hours? Board Paper Bootcamp teaches you how.

Write papers that lead to better, faster decisions 

Course syllabus

The workshops build on the knowledge from the preparatory modules. The more you know, and the more experimentation you undertake before hand ... the more you will get out of the workshops.

Start learning immediately

These two-hour workshops are highly interactive. They mix group work, individual work and breakouts as you each prepare your own paper step by step. Build on what you have learned in our short powerful online modules.

Learn online, stretch in class

Each workshop introduces a step in the paper preparation process. You will want to progress the paper further outside class. You will also have ~1 hour of short online modules to complete between each session.

Write a paper while you learn

Continue learning with your cohort and others also seeking to lift the quality of their team's thinking. Join monthly MasterClasses, share ideas, ask questions and complete challenges. Access extensive library of sample papers.

Receive 6 months' extra support

Schedule

Leaders, PMs and experts who want to set up better conversations that lead to better, faster decisions from their leaders.

Finance leaders wanting strategies to make it faster and easier to review business cases drafted by divisional teams.

Company secretaries, chiefs of staff and communication experts wanting to help their teams deliver crisper and more valuable insights.

Independent consultants who need greater buy-in from their clients when sharing their insights and recommendations.

For executives preparing papers and presentations for senior leaders and Boards

You'll leave the Board Paper Bootcamp with ...

My Elevate framework sets up a simple strategy for clarifying the desired outcome for your paper. It works for business cases, recommendations, updates and all other forms of formal engagement with your top decision makers.

A strategy to get clarity around the brief really quickly 

A major challenge in preparing papers and presentations is crystalising the message. Our one-page message maps help structure your thinking to drive both clarity and insight.

A technique for mapping and 'nailing' your messaging

Leverage story patterns, templates and guides to lift the value you deliver in each and every paper. Spark off our extensive library of real-life examples too.

A toolkit for implementing the ideas for future papers

The main 'exercise' during the program is to prepare your own paper. I will take you through the process step by step so you can progress it between sessions.

A finished paper you can be proud of

Program participants enjoy 6 months access of my Clarity Hub. This offers tools, templates, MasterClasses and the opportunity to grow alongside other members, with contributions from me also.

6 months of opportunities to keep asking questions

Joining with at least one colleague helps you embed the approach more effectively in your work. You can not only collaborate in breakouts on your own material, you can help each other afterwards.

An even better experience if you come with a colleague or two

Learn to crystallize the messaging for papers and presentations with minimal rework for you and your team.

Davina Stanley

Clarity First Program

2025 May Cohort

October 2025, for those in Europe, Africa, and for Australians who want to learn in the evening.

Europe, Africa & Australian evening - 2025 October Cohort

Without it… That critical budget you need?&nbsp;Out of reach. The headcount you’re pushing for?&nbsp;Denied. The dependency you need prioritized?&nbsp;Not happening. The promotion you deserve?&nbsp;Maybe next year. Without the power to persuade, you’re stuck on the sidelines. Others who can rally teams, secure resources, and inspire action move forward. Their products get funded. They’re given a seat at the table. And when the time comes – they get promoted. Meanwhile, you stay in place, struggling to gain traction. I get it. Convincing people to take action&nbsp;can be frustrating. You have a vision. You have a strategy. You have a plan. You have&nbsp;all&nbsp;the things. Yet, despite your strong – maybe even groundbreaking – ideas, they get lost in endless rounds of approval. Stakeholders are indecisive. Leadership hesitates, and asks “for more data”. You find yourself trapped in an endless cycle of planning, proposals, and presentations.&nbsp; I’ve been in your shoes. For a long time, I felt stuck while others seemed to move forward effortlessly. But I found a system that helped me break through the noise – one that took me from leading a team of 5 to leading a 300+ org at Google, and helped me secure 9-digit budgets and close Fortune 50 partnerships. And now, I’m going to teach you my system. - - - - - HOW THIS COURSE WILL TRANSFORM YOU:You'll become known as the PM who can rally a room, persuade senior leaders, and shape strategy through influence - not just ideas. You'll be able to frame your message to be persuasive, engaging, and memorable – in every meeting, presentation, or written update. You’ll walk away with a repeatable system to craft your message for impact. Whether you're pitching a roadmap, defending a strategy, or asking for resources, you’ll know exactly how to make your message land with power and clarity. YOU SHOULD TAKE THIS COURSE IF:- You want execs to stop seeing you as a solid PM and start seeing you as a leader.- You want to turn your ideas into outcomes – not just discussions.- You want your vision to ignite excitement, not indifference.- You want people to take action immediately – not just nod their heads politely.- You want to confidently control the room, even when you're not the most senior person in it.- You want to build a reputation that travels ahead of you into every new role. The most important reason:👉🏼 If you want to be a Product Leader, learning how to influence at scale is an absolute must. WHAT'S INSIDE:Here are just some of the topics we'll cover: → 4-Step Story Framework→ 3 Core Principles of Great Storytelling→ Create Your Story Map→ Design Your Narrative Flow→ Captivate Your Audience's Attention→ Design Amazing Decks,&nbsp;Fast→ Control the Room with Ease→ Close the Loop the Right Way→ Amplify Your New Superpower Plus: Projects, Instructor/Peer Feedback, and Live Coaching BONUS:For this upcoming cohort, I am including a 30-minute private "Ask Me Anything" session you can use within 6 months of the course. We can work on one of your pitches together. We can talk about your career. Or we can cover something else. It's your choice! - - - - - WHY LEARN FROM ME?I wasn’t born a natural storyteller. It’s a skill I built over 25 years by studying the world's best copywriters, deconstructing compelling arguments, and relentlessly practicing my craft. It became my edge. In fact, my ability to "frame and persuade" was specifically cited when I was asked to lead a 300+ org at Google. Now, I teach this system to the next generation of Product Leaders – through courses, corporate workshops, and product conferences. HEAR WHAT PAST STUDENTS HAVE TO SAY: "I love that this course is so concise, direct, and filled with practical frameworks, advice, and tips."- Director of PM @ Google "I find myself using Roshan’s framework every day, both at work and at home."- Chief Product Officer @ Provi "The signal to noise ratio is off the charts!"- Product Leader @ Electronic Arts "What stood out was how practical it was – I could apply everything right away."- Founder @ Startup "I gained so much in such a short amount of time from this incredibly effective workshop."- PM @ Google

Influence is THE #1 skill for Product Managers.

12–2pm Eastern • 5–7pm London • 9:30–11:30pm India Topics include:<ul><li>4-Step Story Framework</li><li>3 Core Principles of Great Storytelling</li><li>Story Maps</li><li>Design Your Narrative</li><li>Captivate Your Audience</li><li>Design Amazing Decks, Fast</li><li>Control the Room</li><li>Close the Loop</li><li>Amplify Your New Superpower</li></ul>

Day 1 | Day 3 | Day 4 – Core Sessions

12–1:30pm Eastern • 5–6:30pm London • 9:30–11pm India Volunteer students get live coaching on their real pitches using the Story Map. Seeing pitches sharpen in real-time is often the most eye-opening part of the workshop. Ends with an open Q&amp;A/AMA.

Day 2 – Live Coaching + AMA (Optional)

After Days 1 &amp; 3, you’ll get an optional exercise to apply what you’ve learned. Submit for my feedback, and share with the cohort for peer input. Quick, actionable, and highly recommended to sharpen your skills.

At-Home Practice & Feedback (Optional)

For this upcoming cohort, I am including a private 30-minute "Ask Me Anything" session you can use within 6 months of the course. We can work on one of your pitches together. We can talk about your career. Or we can cover something else. It's your choice!

Private AMA Session with Roshan (BONUS)

Course schedule

Mid-level to Senior-level Product Managers looking to ascend to leadership roles.

Product Leaders looking to hone their skill and coach their teams to be more influential.

Ambitious early-career PMs aiming for rapid career growth.

Who this course is for

Most people lack a systematic way to create stories. Every time they have to create one, they start from scratch - which is so much harder.

Craft persuasive stories with a clear, repeatable system

Most people assume the audience will pay attention. That’s not how it works. You must learn to make people&nbsp;want&nbsp;to hear you.

Make your message irresistible to your audience

Your audience won’t take action just because you told them to. You must learn to make your arguments&nbsp;convincing.

Drive decisions and action with the strength of your message

Learn how to walk into any meeting or exec review with a clear story, total confidence, and full control.

Own the room and present with calm authority

Become known as the PM who can rally a room, persuade senior leaders, and shape strategy through influence - not just ideas.

Build a career-defining reputation as an influential storyteller

Get direct feedback and tactical advice from Roshan through exercises, Q&amp;A, and a private coaching session – so you can apply the course to your real-world work right away.

Personalized 1:1 guidance

Turn ideas into outcomes. Master the persuasive storytelling system I used to secure 9-digit budgets & close Fortune 50 deals at Google.

Google

Yahoo

Oracle

Bazaarvoice

Roshan Gupta

Cohort 1

Cohort 2

You’re expected to back big decisions with evidence ... fast.But research takes weeks, and your sprint won’t wait.Without insight, your roadmap is exposed.Without time, you’re flying blind.You need answers you can trust –&nbsp;at the speed product demands.This course solves that. Rapid AI Research for PMs Shrink research from weeks to hours. Defend your roadmap with confidence.In this 4-week, hands-on course, you’ll master a new way to answer critical product questions – fast, credibly, and without needing a dedicated research team.You'll combine purpose-built AI research tools&nbsp;and&nbsp;flexible prompting skills so you can operate in any environment—even if your company blocks new software.By the end, you’ll go from hunch → tested insight → evidence-backed decision in under 24 hours. 🚀&nbsp;What You’ll Actually Learn to Do This course mirrors the real flow of product discovery: 🔎&nbsp;1. Start with a strategic product questionYou’ll define a real decision you need to make, and turn it into a focused research plan.→&nbsp;What assumptions must be true for this to succeed? 🛠&nbsp;2. Use AI to build and launch a research study—fastYou’ll learn how to use tools like Wondering and ListenLabs to generate interview guides, auto-schedule AI-moderated interviews, and recruit users overnight.→&nbsp;No meetings, no waiting on UX.If your team can’t approve those tools?No problem—you’ll also master&nbsp;prompt-based workflows&nbsp;to simulate user feedback, summarize forums, and build studies using ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini. 🎥&nbsp;3. Test concepts and capture rich feedback at scaleYou’ll gather qualitative insights – whether from real users or synthetic ones – and learn how to generate summaries, transcripts, and video highlight reels you can trust. 🧠&nbsp;4. Synthesize across sources and surface the real patternsYou’ll use tools like Marvin and Coloop – or custom prompts – to analyze interview transcripts, support logs, app store reviews, or survey data.→&nbsp;What themes are emerging? What’s surprising? What can I act on? 🧾&nbsp;5. Produce a 1-page, executive-ready recommendationFor your capstone, you’ll bring it all together in a&nbsp;defensible, evidence-backed Go / No-Go brief. It’s the kind of document you’ll reuse in roadmap reviews, pitch decks, or strategy memos showing not just what you think, but&nbsp;why. 🧠&nbsp;What You’ll Walk Away With ✅ AI research workflows that slot into your sprint—not fight it✅ Evidence you can use in planning, roadmap defenses, and executive decks✅ Confidence to defend decisions—and challenge assumptions—with data✅ A prompt library for discovery, validation, and synthesis✅ A real-world toolkit that works with or without enterprise AI tools✅ Time back every week—so you can spend less time wrangling feedback and more time leading 🔍&nbsp;Why This Course Is Worth It Because you already know the cost of skipping research:🚩 Missed needs🚩 Misplaced bets🚩 Confident presentations with shaky backing This course gives you the workflows, tools, and framing to become the PM who always has customer evidence in hand—without needing to slow down.It’s not just about speed.It’s about&nbsp;strategy that sticks, and a reputation for&nbsp;decisions that hold up under scrutiny. 🧰&nbsp;What Makes This Course Unique 🎙&nbsp;Tool + founder access&nbsp;– Get guided trials of real platforms (ListenLabs, Coloop, Marvin) and hear directly from the people building them—so you understand not just what they do, but why.⚙️&nbsp;Prompting-first mindset&nbsp;– Learn AI workflows that work even without tools. Prompt your way to insight using general-purpose LLMs, safely and flexibly—no install required.🧪&nbsp;Practice with your real product decisions&nbsp;– You won’t learn in the abstract. Each week, you’ll apply what you learn to a strategic decision you're facing right now.👥&nbsp;Hands-on, collaborative format&nbsp;– Each session blends expert demos, peer breakout groups, live critiques, and take-home sprints. This is not a lecture series—it’s a working lab.📎&nbsp;Repeatable, shareable assets&nbsp;– Leave with a complete research toolkit: interview templates, prompt libraries, decision memos, and synthesis workflows you can plug into your team immediately. 🗓&nbsp;Course Format Live Workshops:&nbsp;Four 2-hour sessions, offered twice every Thursday (1–3pm or 7–9pm ET)Homework Sprints:&nbsp;1–2 hours/week to apply each workflow to your productOffice Hours:&nbsp;Weekly Q&amp;A for deeper dives, troubleshooting, and feedbackOn-Demand Resources:&nbsp;Walkthroughs, videos, prompt libraries, and templates for reuse 🧭&nbsp;By the End of This CourseYou’ll know how to turn product questions into tested answers—in hours, not weeks.You’ll have the&nbsp;evidence to defend your roadmap.You’ll become the PM who shows up with insights and results—not excuses.

Go from product question to decision-ready insight in 24 hours – AI + verified

Interactive workshop: Learn new concepts and get set up to conduct hands-on training with AI-powered research tools. Workshops are being run identically in the afternoon and evening so that you can pick what works best for you!

Thursdays

Test and master AI-powered tools for Product Discovery, Continuous Discovery and Concept Testing. Determine which tools are right for you.

Weekly projects

Optional time to meet with the session host and get 1:1 advice and support.

Office hours

Time-pressed PMs who need fresh user evidence to ship features—without waiting on a research team.

PMs eager to fold AI-powered discovery loops and concept tests into their workflow in weeks, not quarters.

Senior product leaders seeking confident, user-centric roadmap calls via rapid synthetic-user &amp; qual-at-scale studies.

Who is this course for

Master a fast, flexible research system—so you can test ideas, synthesize feedback, and defend your roadmap with credible evidence.

Start with a strategic question—like “Will customers use this?” or “Is this worth building?”—and turn it into an AI-powered study in minutes. You’ll learn how to scope, prompt, and launch AI-moderated research that delivers real evidence by morning.

Ask Better Questions. Get Insight in Hours.

Use tools like ListenLabs or Wondering to generate interview guides, recruit users, and auto-run conversations overnight. Themes are clustered by AI, transcripts are searchable, and video highlights are exportable—ready for standups, pitch decks, or planning docs.

AI Discovery Sprints That Fit in a Sprint

Connect tools like NEXT, Sprig, or raw data to AI prompts that tag, group, and summarize incoming feedback. You’ll build a continuous loop that flags real changes in sentiment or behavior—so you never miss the moment to pivot or double down.

Continuous Feedback Without the Chaos

Test new ideas with AI surveys, concept validations, and short-form interviews. Capture screen recordings, sentiment signals, and usage reactions—then let AI tools cluster results and generate summary reports that cut through ambiguity with clarity.

Fast Concept Tests. Clear Go / Iterate / Kill Calls.

Generate credible synthetic personas trained on customer data to simulate interviews, test assumptions, and explore edge cases. Then triangulate with real feedback for high-confidence decisions. Learn to ask “impossible questions” safely and early.

Synthetic Users for Edge Cases & Idea Stretching

Combine interview transcripts, app reviews, support tickets, and market intel into a single insight story. You’ll use tools like Marvin and Coloop—or structured prompts—to find themes, contradictions, and alignment. Great PMs don’t collect—they synthesize.

Synthesize Across Sources—Not Just Summarize One

Your capstone: A Go/No-Go brief that is a polished, insight-backed recommendation with linked quotes, videos, and a clear recommendation. This format becomes a reusable asset in roadmap reviews, strategic pitches, and prioritization meetings—where proof matters most.

Evidence-Backed, 1-Page Strategic Recommendations

Research can take too long. Master AI tools to get decision-ready insights fast—and defend your roadmap with speed, clarity, and confidence.

Lightning Lessons

Lightning Problem-Solving for Product Teams