NextLeap — LxD Lab

How NextLeap motivated
new managers to make the shift from doing to leading

Learner

New Managers in Tech (engineering, product, design) with 3-5 years of overall experience

Topic

People Management

Format

Online Program, 5-week Cohort Based Course

NextLeap is a learning platform for emerging talent in tech. They provide online programs (known as fellowships) to help college students and early-career working professionals accelerate their careers.

We live in an age where cookie-cutter leadership models have proved helpful to no one. As a result, new managers often struggle to craft their own leadership style.

In this case study, we explore how NextLeap tackled this problem through 4 key components - Coaching, Sandbox, Mentor Labs & Manager's Playbook.

What’s Inside

Problem (2 mins read):
Understanding pain points of a new manager

Process (5 mins read):
Designing a learning structure for the program

Implementation (5 mins read):
Breaking down the four components

Impact (3 mins read):
A culture of reflection & vulnerability

Problem

Understanding pain points of a new manager

In late 2021, NextLeap observed a clear need & demand for up-skilling for new managers and decided to solve that problem through a structured offering in the form of a program - People Leader’s Fellowship.

Recognising the nuances and subjectivity in the management field, NextLeap took a fresh approach to provide these managers with an avenue to craft their personal leadership journey. In the early phases of exploration through tons of conversations, expert interviews, and user research calls - they focused on one key question:

What are the biggest challenges any new manager faces?

They were able to identify a few common patterns from the learner discovery phase:

Every managerial style is unique, shaped by a combination of personal traits, experiences, values, & context.

Managers were stellar individual contributors but lacked key skills when promoted to a leadership role.

Generic content on ‘how to be a great manager’ is not actionable and proves counterproductive and meaningless.

New managers were influenced by their own managers' approach to situations, lacking a sense of authenticity.

Managers grappled with high stakes, fearing errors, and had limited room to discuss personal challenges while being leaders.

While these insights were unique, how could they use them to create something tangible?

What did they do next? Let’s find out.

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Process

Designing a learning structure for the program

Here is how NextLeap approached this -

Based on the problems that they had identified, they came up with a set of hypotheses. An example of such a hypothesis they came up with - “Making managers self-aware will help them discover their unique managerial style.”
- Learning Outcomes: What are the fundamental knowledge, skills, and mindsets should a new manager have to succeed?
- Duration of course: What was the minimum required time to deliver these outcomes?
- Time Commitment: How did a new manager’s schedule look like, and how much time could they realistically commit?
- Format: What form of interaction and activities do these topics require, and what tactics, tools, and technologies can best support them?
- Cohort Size: What is the ideal size of a group to balance intimacy with diversity?
Sure, making managers self-aware could help them discover their unique managerial style. But what would it look like in the context of a program? Hence for each of these hypotheses, they came up with a solution. Here’s an example:
- Initial Hypotheses: Making managers self-aware will help them discover their unique managerial style.
- Potential Solution: Coaching.
- What would this entail?: A Psychometric Test at the beginning of the fellowship and a 1:1 Coaching session to understand the results of the test.
But how would they know if this worked or not? They came up with some success metrics for each of these experiments and the overall program. These included both:
1. Self-reported data: base-line and end-line assessments, feedback, polls, etc.
2. Observed data: Attendance, activity completion rates, etc.
Here’s an example of a couple of questions they asked at the end of the fellowship to see whether coaching would contribute to self-awareness and impact their managerial styles.
- “I felt that the coaching session helped me understand new things about myself.”
- “I felt that the coaching session helped me discover my managerial style.”
At the end of this process, they came up with a detailed list of solutions and ideas. They prioritised them by weighing their impact against the effort required. After extensive discussions, the final solutions included:
1. Coaching: Psychometric Test followed by 1:1 live coaching based on the results.
2. Sandbox: Weekly live sessions with peers discussing cases and role-playing real-life scenarios.
3. Mentor Labs: Weekly live sessions with industry-specific mentors addressing topical questions.
4. Manager’s Playbook: A combination of content, reflective exercises, and weekly projects that could be applied practically in their own settings.

Arriving at a framework that tied these together

They identified three main themes from the solutions. Although there were 4 broad solutions, some could be broken down even further, making it a total of 8 distinct units.

Finding the right balance

In parallel, they also decided to use a simple 2x2 matrix for decision-making based on two questions.

What was the balance between content and application?
Which solutions were self-led vs. those involving interaction with others?

Sequencing them in a logical manner

Now that the design and balance seemed in place, how would these components work together? What would the learner’s journey look like across the 5 weeks?

Now, did that feel like an arduous process? It probably was.

So, what did all of these components look like in action? How did they exactly work?

Time to double-click.

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Implementation

Breaking down the four components

1. Coaching

“1:1 coaches from the industry helped me personally a lot as we discussed many areas where I was stuck and we worked on it together at a micro-level.”

(Source: A Design Manager with 3+ years of work experience)

What did they learn?

The coaching element was personalised to each individual, helping learners work on specific goals with the help of a professional coach. Due to this flexibility, learners were excited and motivated to be active.
The psychometric test and coaching were also included so that learners reflect on patterns in their own behaviour using the results, what to prioritise, and how to tackle them at a strategic level.
The coaching session also created a safe space for learners to introspect deeply and discuss issues they might face when they apply the concepts in their contexts - through tools like role plays, discussions and visualisations.

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2. Sandbox

Here is an example of a role play exercise and the workbook from one of the Sandbox sessions -

“The sessions were great and the peer learning was the best part as I got to learn ways how leaders handle similar situations in other contexts.”

(Source: A Product Lead with 5+ years of experience)

What did they learn?

To make peer discussions more meaningful in breakout rooms, it was helpful to define the scope of the conversation. One way to facilitate this was through workbooks that provided clear prompts for discussion.
There was no ONE correct answer to the breakout room activities - just different ways to look at the same problem, ensuring equal participation.
Role-plays worked well for situations commonly faced by all managers - irrespective of their function. It helped create an ‘aha moment’ - where even people just observing could derive value from the exercise.

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3. Mentor Labs

“When I joined this course, I had a number of people reporting to me and things were chaotic. However, in the Mentor Labs, we worked on simple approaches and frameworks and learned how to deal with people better.”

(Source: Engineering Manager with 4+ years of experience)

What did they learn?

During sessions, it helped to share instances where the facilitator - e.g. a product leader made mistakes and was vulnerable. Both reflection & vulnerability are taught best through showing rather than telling.
Having function-specific leaders helped build relatability, adding to more vulnerability and reflections in the process.

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4. Manager’s Playbook

Here is a sample of a Weekly Project - Building a Team manifesto collaboratively with their team

“The weekly project and the intensity of the program gave me a practical way out to navigate similar issues at work and simplify things.”

(Source: Engineering Manager with 4+ years of experience)

What did they learn?

Having managers reflect on themselves as individuals and managers and what they’ve seen in other managers around them makes them absorb the concepts and improve their understanding.
By bringing in the unique context of themselves, their teams, and their organisations - the learners were forced to take a step back and tie the learnings to their daily lives.

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A culture of reflection & vulnerability

Impact

Culture boiled down to all the little things -

The reflective prompts, shared struggles, and spaces for safe expression, with a bit of humour and fun.

While many of NextLeap’s initial hypotheses got validated, there were some new learnings too:

Learners whose progress was monitored by their organisations were more engaged in the course than those where organisations had no or little role to play.
People with higher managerial experience contributed more effectively to group discussions because they could relate to the topics and share their personal experiences.
While 5 weeks was enough to lay the foundations, managers would require more dedicated opportunities and post-program support to refine their skills and apply their learnings.