Personal 1-1 Coaching with Adrian Howard

Hi — I’m Adrian Howard. If you’re reading this you’re interested in what coaching with me is like, and whether it would be useful for you. Don’t worry, this won’t take very long!

Who am I?

I’ve been helping people solve problems in the messy spaces where strategy, research, and delivery overlap for more than 25 years. You’ll find me wherever those problems show up — from startups to Fortune 100s — working across product, engineering, and design.

If you want to get more of an idea of me personally feel free to check me out on Mastodon, Bluesky, or Linkedin. I also have an inconsistently updated blog, and some talks you may find interesting.

I'm currently focused on coaching senior practitioners and leaders one-on-one. Helping people like you get unblocked, grow, and continue to build great products & effective organisations. The goal is to get you back to a place where work can be enjoyable and productive again.

Who are you?

You probably began your career in product, research, engineering, or design. Now you’re a leader or senior practitioner juggling complicated ambiguous work across multiple disciplines.

Your work has changed recently:

• You’ve been promoted, moved to a different role, or a different company.
• Your company is growing fast, shrinking fast, or otherwise being reorganised.
• The company strategy has changed radically, is failing, or is upsettingly absent!
• You’re having to deal with AI, or the Product Operation Model, or ResearchOps, or Agile, or some other transformational push that is supposed to change everything.

What used to work well for you has stopped working — and it’s starting to cause problems:

• Work has stopped being fun.
• You’re feeling overwhelmed — there’s not enough time in the day to get everything done.
• Your old work relationships & processes are starting to fail.
• You’re having to work with new people and different disciplines in new ways — and nobody seems to be understanding or listening.
• Your product — the one that made your company what it is today — is not performing as well as it used to and nobody seems to know why.
• People seem to be blaming each other rather than working together.

You’re not sure what to do next. The things you usually do to get unstuck — research, talking to friends & peers, engaging in online communities, reading, etc. — aren’t helping.

You want things to feel under control again, and to be better prepared for the next time everything changes.

What will you get from me?

• A work coach, not a life coach.Somebody who has been helping people successfully deliver digital products & services for decades — and doing 1-1 coaching with people like you for more than ten years.
• Somebody who is on your side and is going to enjoy helping you become happier and more effective.
• Somebody you can be completely honest and open with. You are my client, even if your company pays for the coaching. No talking behind your back.
• An excessive number of annoying dumb questions to help you see blockers and opportunities you may have missed.
• The objectivity you need to understand and address your problems — backed up practical advice from decades of experience across product, user research, and delivery.

What won’t you get from me?

• A sales pitch for the One True Process / Framework / Canvas that will solve all your problems (because at this point in your career you know anybody peddling this is lying!)
• A focus on job searching & interviewing, resume tweaking, finding your dream job, etc. (because you want to get better at the work you're doing now.)
• Somebody to do the work for you (because you want to be able to do the work yourself.)
• A fixed curriculum or programme (because your needs are unique and we’ll use anything that works.)

How does it work?

• You get a personal coaching board where you can add topics at any time, and prioritise what you want to talk about during each session in advance (it’s also fine to show up to sessions with new topics to discuss!)
• We’ll work together to come up with a schedule that works best for you — the default is a scheduled session every other week, with occasional ad hoc sessions when needed.
• You also get access to a booking system where you can schedule ad hoc sessions at any time if needed — and you can always email me.
• Once we’ve agreed on a schedule I’ll send you a few framing questions to help you get set up for the first session.
• Coaching sessions are run in Zoom by default and generally last about an hour (but I’m not going to watch the clock if we need to run a little long.)
• Each session aims to leave you with an action to take, which we review in the following session and (if you want) track on the coaching board.

How much does it cost?

Yes, I’m going to tell you up front — I find hidden pricing as annoying as you do!

Ongoing coaching is £885 per month which includes:

• Two scheduled sessions per-month
• + prioritised access to a pool of ad hoc sessions for just-in-time sessions / emergencies
• + async support via email

Alternatively, if you dislike monthly pricing:

• Single ad hoc session is £395 — For when you need another head to talk through a short-term immediate problem. (e.g. “Review my strategy deck before I present it to the C-suite”.)
• Block of 6 any time sessions is £2310 — When you need help with larger problems as and when, or want to have some sessions in the bank. Pay now. Get three months of async support. Use the sessions any time.

I’m based in the UK, but work with clients worldwide (if you need to invoice in different currencies we can work something out.)

What are the next steps?

1. If you have questions you can send me an email (I’ll normally get back to you within a working day) or just…
2. Schedule a free conversation with me (To meet, say “hello”, and check we both feel we can work together productively. If we’re not a good match I can often recommend another coach who might be helpful.)
3. If you decide to proceed I’ll set you up with a coaching board — and you can book your first session as soon as payment has been received.

Book a call free no-commitment call with Adrian

(or email me at adrianh@quietstars.com if that’s simpler.)

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