01Land
You are
Looking for your next role, or deciding whether to move
Your Next Move
The right role, landed faster and with confidence.
Scale your leadership with the org
Thrive
under
pressure.
I help senior product leaders in scaling businesses land new roles, succeed in their first 90 days and scale their leadership and impact.
Emma van Dijkum
The CPO coach and advisor
Who you'd be working with
The CPO coach
and advisor.
Executive coach. Experienced leader.
Hi, I'm Emma, CPO coach and advisor. I've spent 18 years building products, teams and operating models in high-growth environments, and six years in the top job.
I scaled product at two unicorns, Funding Circle and Multiverse, latterly as VP Product, including growing a team from 16 to 120.
I've trained as an Executive coach and combine these techniques with my experience from sitting in the seat to help ambitious leaders achieve their goals.
18
years in product
200+
individuals coached
75+
clients
2
unicorns scaled
Who this is for
The role keeps changing under you.
I work with the most senior product leader in the company: people aspiring to be, or stepping into that role for the first time, whatever the title.
Your title
Head of Product, VP Product, Director of Product, Chief Product Officer or Chief Product & Technology Officer. Or the person on their way there.
Your company
Usually a scale-up, from Series A to E, or a fast-moving part of a larger business.
Your team
Anywhere from 3 to 120 people, whether you're building it from scratch or scaling it fast.
You're expected to set strategy, build the team, keep the CEO and board aligned, and ship. Often with nobody above you who has done the job.
I've sat in that seat, so I can help with both the human challenge and the structural one.
Most of the leaders I work with are already high performers. They usually recognise themselves somewhere in this list.
- 01
New in the top seat
Maybe the company's first product leader, with nobody above you who has done the job. You need clarity and credibility fast.
- 02
The role has outgrown the job description
The team is bigger, the org is more complex, and what worked before isn't working now.
- 03
Your influence isn't landing
You're not reaching your CEO, peers or board the way you should. The wrong calls get made, or they get made without you.
- 04
A big people call
You've inherited a team, need to restructure, or have to decide who stays. You want to get it right first time.
- 05
Product isn't your first career
You came from engineering, data, commercial or ops, or you've only done product in one company. You want the craft and confidence to match.
- 06
Planning your next move
Your next senior product role, or whether to stay or go. You want clarity, a story that lands with CEOs and recruiters, and support to secure it fast.
- 07
Nobody to think it through with
Your boss isn't a product person, and your team and peers all have their own agendas.
- Book a discovery call
If two or three sound familiar
That's usually where our first conversation starts.
30 minutes. No pitch. We work out which offer fits, or whether you need one at all.
Work with me
Land. Succeed.
Scale.
Three stages of the top product job. Pick the one you're in, and we'll agree the right fit on a 30-minute first conversation.
02Succeed
You are
Starting a new role, or just started
The 90-Day CPO
Credibility, a CEO-backed plan and early wins.
03Scale
You are
Six months or more in, and it's growing
Lead at Scale
Grow with the business and lead at the next level.
For your team
Support for the entire product organisation
Coaching and workshops for your product teams, from an organisational perspective: structure, decision-making and how product works with the rest of the business.
More about team coaching Advisory & Fractional work: advisory, investor due diligence, hiring, or stepping in as CPOCase studies
What changes,
in real teams.
Names held back. The situations and the outcomes are real.
01
Scale
CPO
Series A fintech, ahead of a growth round
Built the narrative that helped secure a term sheet, then rebuilt the operating model and roadmap.
02
Succeed
CPTO, first time
PE-backed insurtech
Pressure-tested the board presentation. The CEO and operating partner aligned faster than expected.
03
Scale
Product leader
Rapidly scaling fintech
Moved from over-involvement to delegating and contributing strategically within three sessions.
04
Land
VP Product
Ready for their next AI-native step
Landed a senior product role at a fast-growing software company within a few sessions.
In their words
Hear it from
my clients.
"Emma's coaching is not just about achieving success: it's about evolving into a leader who is true to themselves."
Jonathan Gall
Managing Director, BBH
"Her empathetic approach creates a trusting environment, allowing for open and honest discussions that are crucial for growth."
Caroline Ewerton
SVP Product, DAZN
"The strategic direction, support and ideas we got from her were amazing. She helped us focus and build the right narrative."
Olga Porro
CPO, Fundcraft
"Her positivity and helpful insights significantly improved my skills as a product and people leader."
Rūta Šeškauskaitė
Director of Product
"Emma's experience and impartial position was invaluable: we now have a product function in place that is fit to scale and drive value for our customers."
Jamie Hunter
COO, Aveni
FAQs
Product leadership coaching, explained.
- What is a product leadership coach?
- A product leadership coach works one-to-one with Heads of Product, VPs and CPOs on the things a course can't teach: executive presence, strategy under ambiguity, stakeholder politics, hiring and team design. Unlike a training programme, coaching is built around your live situation, not a curriculum.
- How is coaching different from a product management course?
- Courses like Product School, Reforge or Mind the Product teach frameworks to large cohorts. Coaching is individual and situational: we work on the decisions in front of you this week, with accountability between sessions. Most senior leaders have already done the courses, the gap is applying it under pressure.
- How is product leadership coaching different from a CPO coach and advisor?
- Product leadership coaching can mean coaching anyone in product, from PMs upwards. As a CPO coach and advisor, my 1:1 coaching focuses on the top job: the most senior product leader in the organisation, or the person stepping into it. That means coaching on the human side of the role and advising on the structural side, from strategy and org design to the CEO and board relationship, drawing on having sat in that seat myself. I also coach teams, but from an organisational perspective: how the function is structured, how decisions get made and how product works with the rest of the business. So the individual work is about you in the seat, and the team work is about the system around you.
- Who do you coach?
- I typically coach the most senior product leader in an organisation, whether that's a Head of Product, Director, VP, CPO or CPTO, in Series A to E businesses, plus FTSE 100 companies with departments undergoing rapid scale or transformation. I also help coach their teams.
- What are the different ways of working with you?
- Four: 1:1 executive coaching for individual product leaders, team and enterprise product coaching programmes, product advisory alongside your existing leaders, and a fractional CPO engagement where I own the function outright.
- Are you a qualified coach?
- Yes. I'm a trained ICF coach and have 18 years of product experience, including senior product leadership roles at Funding Circle, Multiverse, Naked Wines and Octopus. I've coached and advised more than 200 product leaders.
- Do you coach remotely?
- Yes. Coaching runs over video with clients across the UK, Europe and the US, with in-person sessions and workshops available for team and enterprise engagements.
- How do we start?
- A 30-minute discovery call. We talk through where you are, what's in the way and which format fits. No pitch: if I'm not the right coach for you, I'll say so.