June 12th 2025 Newsletter
- Vicky Pike
- 6 days ago
- 3 min read
Welcome back to my newsletter. You’re receiving this because we’ve worked together, connected through coaching, community, conversation, or you’ve shown interest in leadership, inclusion, or product/tech excellence.
🔥 This one’s for the product thinkers
With many years in product and tech, I often ask my coaching clients:
👉 What if you treated your life like your most important product?
Sounds odd at first, right? But stay with me.
In product teams, we’re brilliant at driving clarity, aligning to a shared vision, setting measurable outcomes, and iterating toward customer value and impact. But when it comes to ourselves, we often end up operating like a feature factory: constantly producing, staying busy, and shipping “stuff” without stopping to ask whether it’s really adding value.
So this edition is about bringing product-led thinking into leadership and life for those of you who might be:
Doing but drifting.
Making progress but not sure toward what.
Wondering whose roadmap you’re following.
🎯 Want to dive deeper? Read my full blog here: Product-Led Thinking for Use in Leadership Coaching.
🧭 My Vision-to-Action Framework helps build a personal strategy
Here’s a five-step approach I use with product leaders and coaching clients to go from drift to design:
Craft your personal vision
Your North Star. A vivid, present-tense statement of who you want to become.
Examples:
I am a courageous, calm, and creative leader who builds meaningful things.
I live a spacious, joyful life surrounded by deep relationships, creative flow, and purposeful work.
Make it bold. Emotional. Yours.
Clarify your guiding principles
These are your core values, the non-negotiables that shape your choices.
Ask:
What do I want to be known for?
Where do I not compromise?
When did I feel most alive?
Set Personal OKRs (Objectives and Key Results)
Start by shifting from what you’re doing to why it matters.
Objectives: Don’t just frame goals around activity (the what), like: “Go to the gym 4 times a week.” Instead, focus on the why, the outcome you want to create: "Build strength and energy for a more focused life."
Key Results: Measurable characterisations of the objective; they track whether meaningful change is happening.
Examples:
Increase total weight lifted by 20%
Raise resting metabolic rate
Add 1.5–2kg of muscle mass
Bets/Initiatives
Now add your 'what'. The testable actions you believe will help you hit your objective.
Example:
Go to the gym 4 times a week
But keep this flexible. You might discover that 3 focused sessions work better, or that you need 5 to see real change.
That’s why regular review matters. Check in every two weeks, like a great product team would. Ask:
What’s working?
What needs adjusting?
What’s no longer serving the goal?
Build a Vision-to-Action Board
Use a whiteboard, Miro, Notion, good old pen and paper.
Structure it like this:
Top = Vision
Columns = Objectives
Underneath = Key Results
Beneath that = Bets/Initiatives/Activity
Bottom = Values
It’s your personal strategy on a page.
Review Regularly
Fortnightly check-ins = small pivots.Quarterly reviews = pattern recognition.Annual retros = big-picture shifts.
Ask:
What’s giving me energy?
What surprised me?
What will I double down on or let go of?
🛠️ One shift to try this week:
Review your activity and ask yourself: “Why am I doing this?”If the answer isn’t immediately clear, ask “why” again. And again.
Drill down until the purpose becomes visible.
This simple practice can reveal what’s driving you and what’s just noise.It’s a powerful source of motivation, clarity, and alignment.
📣 Want to explore this with support?This kind of clarity isn't always easy to access on your own. That's why I work with leaders and tech professionals who want to reconnect with purpose, strategy, and momentum.
👉 Book a free discovery call to explore how this thinking can help you align what matters most.
Until next time, keep leading (and living) with intention.
Warmly,
Vicky
Founder, Ideara
