From Tactical to Strategic: How Polly Scaled Her Impact in Product
Marisa Crous
As Chief Operating Officer at Enterprise Nation, and formerly Head of Product, Polly had already achieved what many product professionals aspire to. She’d helped scale the organisation from four people to 50, shaped new features, and led its transition from in-person delivery to a digital platform.
She had the experience. She had the credibility.
But she also recognised a gap.
The reason why I came on the course was because I didn’t go to university to study product. I was like, surely I’m missing frameworks, theory, stuff that big corporates do and bigger products and platforms do that I don’t know about.”
The idea was never to change jobs, but rather to strengthen her foundations and lead with more intention.
Polly didn’t come to the programme as a beginner or someone trying to “break into” product. She’d led teams, shaped platforms, and helped scale the company.
On paper, she’d made it.
In reality, she felt something experienced PMs rarely admit: there were gaps she could feel, but couldn’t quite name.
Her product career had been built the way many mid-career PMs learn, through doing. Trial, error, iteration. It worked, but instinct alone wasn’t enough anymore. She was ready to operate more strategically.
I think I kind of did things a bit backwards. I got the experience first and then I thought I need to look for a product course as well.”
Polly wanted to validate what she already knew and build a more structured toolkit to support the next stage of her career. She wasn’t stuck – she just wanted to sharpen her thinking and step into a more strategic way of operating.
Why thinking like a team made all the difference
For Polly, the most valuable parts of the programme weren’t the frameworks or tools – it was the shift in how she approached problems, and how she learned to think alongside others.
This shift happened not just through theory, but through deliberate practice, especially in the group sessions.
A lot of my role is just me working with a CEO, so my role as a COO and Head of Product before was solving problems, and you have to get comfortable with solving problems and failing. For me, the practical side of doing the breakout rooms every single week was really good.”
Each session blended a framework with immediate application.
Our course facilitator would do a session around, let’s say, a particular SWOT analysis framework, and then you would take it, and he would say, ‘Okay, here’s a made-up situation – how would you solve this problem?“
For Polly, this was a turning point. After years of making decisions alone, collaborating with others in a structured environment stretched her thinking in new ways.
And that, for me, was really good because it felt like for a long time I’ve just been solving problems solo. And that’s okay, but it’s nice to get a group environment as well.”
Not only did she love collaborating with her peers in these sessions, but she also noted that working as part of a team on other projects was “really impactful.”
Yes, it fits into a full-time job
If you’re looking to upskill and further your career, you probably share the most legitimate concern of all: Will I have enough time to fit this intensive course into my day-to-day?
Polly felt the same. As a COO, her plate was already full: leadership responsibilities, board roles, speaking and mentoring commitments, plus running a not-for-profit on the side.
She went into the programme assuming the time commitment might be exaggerated. It wasn’t.
It’s intensive but incredibly rewarding. When someone said it’s intensive, I was like, ‘20 hours a week is for those who read quite slow’ and I was like I’ll be able to do that in 10 hours. But it really is 20 hours a week.“
The key difference? She designed for it: “I changed my whole work day to accommodate this course, to make sure I was doing two hours of learning every day, and my main goal of the course was that I wanted a first.”
She also used tools like Trello/Notion to keep herself on track.
If you have the urge in you, you will have enough time to learn it and take it forward.”
Connecting the dots in the Employer Project
That balance between structure and flexibility also gave Polly the chance to apply her learning in the real world through the Employer Project – a six-week live brief with an industry partner where everything she’d learned came together.
We worked with Sky. We were talking to their product team as well, and that’s exposure that I’ve never had before in a real-time setting.”
She really liked how organised her group was. They worked across time zones, met regularly and shared the workload in a way that played to everyone’s strengths. Together, they built a clear, strategic presentation for Sky’s product team.
For Polly, this wasn’t about gaining basic product experience. She already had plenty. It was about making her thinking visible, seeing how a major corporate product team operates and testing her approach with real stakeholders.
And the impact was immediate. She began framing decisions more clearly and stepping more fully into the strategic leader she wanted to be.
The “secret weapon” she didn’t expect: career coaching
Interestingly, the element Polly describes as “probably the most impactful part” of the programme wasn’t a module or assignment. It was career coaching.
She’d never worked with a career coach before, and was initially expecting a “light therapy session”. But as a senior leader, having a dedicated space to think out loud, plan her next moves and problem-solve proved invaluable.
Career coaching was probably the highlight of me doing this course.”
Coaching helped her navigate challenges in her COO role, get honest about what she wanted next, and move from vague ideas – like “I’d like to consult one day” or going all-in on her startup, Life in Product – to concrete plans.
That clarity paid off: she signed her first three clients in January.
For her, the coaching came “just at the right time” and supported her both in her day-to-day role and throughout the course. It pushed her to scale her impact in product, both inside her organisation and on her own side projects and businesses.
You don’t always need a new job to reignite your purpose
Polly didn’t switch companies or roles after finishing the programme, but how she approached her work changed dramatically. She reconnected with a sense of purpose and possibility that had been dulled by routine.
I loved every week of learning. I felt like I had this regained purpose, which sometimes, when you work day-to-day in a nine to five, it’s really hard to find.”
Polly’s journey shows that you don’t need to change jobs to experience real career progression. Sometimes, the biggest shift comes from how you grow, how you show up and how you think.
Ready to explore your next level in product? The King’s Product Management Career Accelerator helps experienced product professionals like Polly move from capable to truly strategic – with flexible learning, real-world projects and dedicated career coaching designed for working PMs.
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