The PM Wheel
An eight-bucket self-assessment for locating a product manager's strengths and gaps
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 3
- Confidence
- 90%
A structured competency map that splits everything PMs do into eight buckets, each with at least 15 framing questions, used to start coaching conversations. Because 'T-shaped' is not enough for the multi-faceted PM role, the wheel gives a well-rounded picture of where a person currently stands from three perspectives.
Origin
Created by Petra Wille out of her own need as a new product coach for a 'compass' to structure first coaching conversations; she references other assessments (PM Daisy, Marty Cagan's assessment) as alternatives to customize from.
Core principles
- 01A product person is an 'eight-legged creature', not just T-shaped
- 02Assess from three angles: self-assessment, line-manager assessment, and peer/team assessment
- 03Don't copy-paste a template — customize it to your organization's reality (e.g. deprioritize discovery buckets for a technical org)
- 04Include personal growth as a permanent bucket so it enters every coaching conversation
How to run it
- 1
Score the eight buckets
Rate the PM across the eight areas: (1) understanding underlying problems, (2) finding solutions, (3) planning/roadmap/goals, (4) get-it-done delivery with the team, (5) listen-and-learn from qualitative and quantitative data plus iteration, (6) teamwork and motivation, (7) personal growth, (8) agile foundations.
Pro tip Use the 15+ framing questions per bucket ('is this person good at doing X?') to make each score concrete rather than a vibe.
Watch out Don't skip the agile bucket — PMs often never reflected on the agile Manifesto, values, or principles underneath whatever framework they use.
- 2
Gather three perspectives
Run a self-assessment, then ask the line manager for an assessment, then ideally some team members, because each sees the PM's personality and capabilities differently.
Pro tip Start a first coaching conversation from where these perspectives diverge — that's where investment of coaching time pays off.
- 3
Pick and adapt a template if you lack one
If your company has no career ladder or competency framework, find an existing assessment close to your view of a good PM (PM Wheel, PM Daisy, Cagan's) and customize rather than adopt wholesale.
Pro tip Merging one or two templates and tailoring them is a great way to surface all the things others think a PM should be doing.
Watch out An assessment full of user-interview and discovery points may not fit a team of predominantly technical PMs.
In the wild
Petra explained she built the wheel because a coach often arrives at a company-paid session and the coachee just says 'they told me to show up, what should we do?' She needed a compass to learn the coachee's perception of their own capabilities before working on anything.
→ The wheel gave a structured first conversation about where to invest coaching time, replacing unprepared, aimless sessions.
Common mistakes
Copy-pasting an assessment unchanged
Templates carry assumptions (heavy discovery/user-interview focus) that may not apply to your team, producing misleading scores. Customize to your context before using.
Leaving personal growth off the map
If growth isn't an explicit bucket, it drops out of coaching conversations. Petra keeps it on the wheel specifically so it's part of every conversation with a PM.
Is it for you?
Best for
Product leaders and coaches who need a repeatable structure to assess and open development conversations with PMs
Not ideal for
Teams wanting a lightweight quick tip rather than a multi-bucket, multi-rater assessment
From the transcript
“I use this method for of the eight-legged creature because people tend to talk about t-shaped employee profiles but t-shaped is so not enough”
“so I split all the things that PMS usually do in eight buckets”
“every of those buckets comes with at least 15 framing questions”
“I usually advise people to do a self-assessment then ask the line management for an assessment and ideally some of your team members”
“use one template that is close to what you want to achieve have you customize it”
From the episode
How to be the best coach to product people
Petra Wille (Strong Product People)