Coaching for leaders in innovation and product ownership
When decisions carry for years and the basis stays uncertain.
I work with leaders who are responsible for products, portfolios, development or innovation. In this responsibility you decide on things whose effect only becomes visible years later, and you decide on a basis that is rarely complete. At the same time sales, production, engineering and the management board want reliable statements. I know this tension from my own responsibility: as a founding partner at Lichtvision, building a luminaire portfolio for a Korean electronics group at INTEGRATED Innovation & Design, leading through the technology shift in the lighting industry at Philips, and as Chief Digital Officer at Waldmann with responsibility for IoT and digital products. You therefore do not need to explain to me what a roadmap conflict is. I work with you on your leadership in this role. The product and technology decision stays with you.
Technology from first-hand experience
During my time at Zumtobel, I was a co-inventor of European patent EP 3 352 534 B1, together with colleagues from Zumtobel and Technische Universität Berlin. This technical origin still shapes how I look at product ownership, innovation and leadership in technology-driven organisations.
Product ownership is leadership with an open future
Anyone who owns a portfolio carries two time horizons at once. The current business demands reliable delivery, the coming business demands investment without a secured return. Prioritisation becomes a permanent task, and every decision disappoints someone who has good reasons. On top of that, innovation runs across the lines: you need commitments from areas you cannot instruct. From my own roles I am familiar with how this position feels when a portfolio has to be built, a technology shift carried or a digital product brought into a classic organisation. I sort with you which decisions are genuinely yours, how you take them in a way you can justify and how you make them hold inside the company.
- Lichtvision, founding partner, responsible for planning and technical concepts
- INTEGRATED Innovation & Design, built a luminaire portfolio for a Korean electronics group
- Philips, leadership through the technology shift in the lighting industry
- Waldmann, Chief Digital Officer with responsibility for IoT and digital products
What product and innovation leaders bring to me
Prioritising when every initiative is justified and capacity falls short. Deciding although the data stays thin, and standing behind the decision later. Securing commitments from sales, engineering and production without authority to instruct. Leading a team through longer phases without visible success. Clarifying your own role when you are the strongest expert in the room and still have to lead. And adjusting your own standards so uncertainty does not turn into a permanent load.
Leadership has a level, product ownership a context of its own
I work with heads of division and development, with product and portfolio owners and with managing directors for whom innovation is part of overall responsibility. Depending on the situation the focus is personal sparring, clarifying the role or preparing difficult decisions. In Berlin in person or online.
Product and portfolio decisions often arise in digital change. The related page: coaching for leaders in digital transformation.
A piece from my Insights that fits this field of experience: When you cannot decide: choose to wait
Questions about the field of innovation and product ownership
- What experience with product and innovation ownership does Thomas Knoop bring?
- Thomas Knoop carried product, portfolio and innovation responsibility himself for over twenty years: as a founding partner at Lichtvision, building a luminaire portfolio for a Korean electronics group at INTEGRATED Innovation & Design, leading through the technology shift in the lighting industry at Philips, and as Chief Digital Officer at Waldmann with responsibility for IoT and digital products.
- Does Thomas Knoop have his own technical background?
- Yes. Thomas Knoop holds a doctorate in engineering (Dr.-Ing.) from Technische Universität Berlin. His dissertation on daylight-dependent lighting systems became part of the technical basis for how daylight-related energy savings in buildings are calculated today. This technical origin was followed by more than twenty years in industry and technology, including at Philips, Zumtobel and as Chief Digital Officer at Waldmann. In coaching he does not work on technical content. His own technical experience helps him quickly grasp the leadership situation in technology-driven organisations.
- Who is the coaching in this field of experience intended for?
- For leaders responsible for products, portfolios, development or innovation and for managing directors who carry innovation as part of their overall responsibility. The work is on prioritisation, the ability to decide, collaboration across boundaries and your own role, not on the technical product decision.
- Does Thomas Knoop also advise on product strategy and technology choice?
- No. Product strategy, technology choice and roadmap content stay with you and your specialist partners. Thomas Knoop works on the leadership side: how you decide under uncertainty, justify your decisions, gain agreement without authority to instruct and carry your team through long phases.
Does my background fit your situation?
In a free thirty-minute orientation call we clarify what is currently at stake in your responsibility, what support you are looking for and whether the collaboration fits both sides. In Berlin in person or online, confidential.
Book an orientation call