Lisa HagenProduct executive, advisor & coach
Changing the way people work takes more than a framework.
You can introduce new roles, reorganize teams, and adopt all the right practices. But if the same people are still making the same decisions, what’s really changed?
I’ve spent much of my career tackling that problem from the inside. Now I coach product leaders and advise executives who are trying to change how their organizations work.
Where I usually start
A lot of my work starts with questions that sound simple.
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What are you willing to stop doing? Priorities, trade-offs, and the difficulty of saying no.
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Who actually gets to decide? Decision rights, accountability, and why teams get stuck.
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Are we aligned on the outcome, or just the roadmap? The difference between agreeing on a plan and agreeing on what matters.
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Is this really a process problem? Why another framework won’t necessarily fix what’s broken.
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Where should the next dollar go? Making investment decisions when everything feels important.
Who you’d be working with
Most of my career has been building product organizations in companies that didn’t have one. Often in businesses where technology was treated as a delivery function, and where changing that meant working across the entire organization, from the executive team to the people doing the work.
I’ve been the first product hire, built and led product organizations, and helped executive teams rethink how they set priorities, make decisions, and invest in product and technology.
One thing I’ve learned is that you can change the org chart, introduce new roles, and put new processes in place without changing much of anything. The real test comes when people have to give up control, make different trade-offs, or stop doing things that have always worked for them.
I’m Canadian, and I’ve been told I live up to the reputation: friendly and pragmatic. I lived in NYC for years and now live outside Boston. When I’m not working, I’m usually in the garden or planning the next backcountry canoe trip.
Community matters a lot to me. I’m Co-President of the Boston Product Management Association, mentor product managers, and co-wrote Ready Steady Grow.
What people say
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“One of Lisa’s greatest strengths is her ability to ask the right questions. From the very first conversation, she challenges you with, ‘What problem are you trying to solve?’ Under her guidance, you gain both clarity and a clear path forward.”
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“I have had the pleasure of collaborating with Lisa for the past three years, as part of One Call’s successful evolution into a more product-centric organization.”
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“One takeaway that stood out was her advice on making an early product roadmap goal-oriented rather than Gantt-driven, freeing up engineers from unnecessary constraints… I can’t recommend Lisa enough to anyone looking for a product leadership coach.”
How I can help
- Coaching for product leaders
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You might be new to a bigger role, or years into one that’s stopped working.
I work one-on-one with product leaders on the decisions, challenges, and sometimes difficult conversations that come with the job.
- Executive coaching and advisory
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You’ve decided your organization needs to work differently. The harder part is how.
I work with business and technology executives who are trying to move beyond project delivery, give teams more ownership, and change how product, engineering, UX, and the business work together.
- Workshops and talks
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I speak and facilitate sessions on product leadership, strategy, and the realities of organizational change.
The sessions spend less time on what good looks like and more on what’s getting in the way.
Changing how your organization builds products?
For larger organizational challenges, I work with Chris Kincanon through Ready Steady, the consulting practice we founded together.
We bring product and technology leadership together to work across product, engineering, UX, and the business.
Sometimes we start with an assessment to understand what’s actually happening. Sometimes we’re working directly with teams, coaching leaders, or helping build a product and technology organization that can operate differently.
“Their assessment gave us a clear, shared view of where alignment was breaking down, and their coaching created the space and structure for our teams to identify the most meaningful areas to focus on.”
Start with a conversation.
If I’m not the right fit for what you’re working on, I’ll say so, and I’ll probably know someone who is.