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Beyond Training: How NKD Agility’s Mentorship Model Transformed a Product Management Team Across Borders

TL;DR; A UK insurance software company overcame misalignment between UK product managers and Polish engineers by adopting NKD Agility’s mentorship model instead of standard training. Through hands-on coaching, clearer roles, and real-world practice, teams improved collaboration, decision-making, and problem-solving, leading to higher engagement and better product outcomes. Development managers should consider immersive mentorship to drive lasting change and agility across distributed teams.

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https://nkdagility.com/resources/L7cngB1uzW9
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Client Context

A mid-sized UK-based insurance software company serving platforms like ComparetheMarket found themselves at a critical inflection point. Product management teams in the UK and engineering teams in Poland struggled to align. The challenge? Building products for a UK market that Polish engineers had no context for—combined with a broader confusion around roles, strategy, and delivery.

They had five product owners and a senior product manager, but no clarity on how to move away from top-down leadership to an agile, outcome-driven approach. Communication gaps, context loss, and fractured collaboration were stalling progress.

The Ask: Product Owner Training

The initial request was standard: product owner training. But Martin Hinshelwood, Founder of NKD Agility, saw a bigger opportunity. He proposed a Product Management Mentorship Program—an immersive, work-integrated model rooted in deliberate practice.

Diagnosis: A System Problem, Not a People Problem

Martin quickly identified systemic dysfunction:

This wasn’t about introducing a new framework. It was about re-engineering how learning, decision-making, and leadership happened day to day.

Approach: Mentorship as Infrastructure

Over 8 weeks, Martin delivered a customized mentorship experience combining:

Instead of theory in a vacuum, teams got support applying change where it mattered: inside their system of work.

One week, two sub-teams were given the same assignment. One said, “We can’t do this here.” The other succeeded. Same org, same resources. That contrast sparked peer learning, reflection, and creative problem-solving—real agile in action.

Outcomes: Engagement, Capability, and Real Change

Within 8 weeks:

The CEO later remarked:

“After a full day of training and a time zone shift, they were still engaged, still asking questions, still figuring out how to make this stick. That tells me we’ve got something special happening here.”

Strategic Impact for CTOs and Tech Leaders

This case demonstrates what every CTO is seeking:

Martin Hinshelwood doesn’t deliver courses. He delivers transformation—in context, in flow, and in partnership.

Final Takeaway

Immersive mentorship is not a luxury. It’s the only path to sustainable, scalable change in complex environments.

Smart Classifications

Each classification [Concepts, Categories, & Tags] was assigned using AI-powered semantic analysis and scored across relevance, depth, and alignment. Final decisions? Still human. Always traceable. Hover to see how it applies.

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