Coaching & consulting · Chicago

A FULL PLATE,
NOT A SINGLE DISH.

(this is the whole point, btw)

I'm Caren Young, a Chicago product leader and coach, and I help people turn a stack of ideas (a portfolio career, a team's workload) into a plan they can actually run.

Building your portfolio? → 1:1 coaching, for you Bringing someone in? → Coaching & training, for your team
or watch me build in public →
Caren Young
(all real — no vanity numbers here)
10+ yrs
Product mgmt & ops
Pivotal, HHS, DHCS
Delivered inside
~28 workshops
Since 2022
ICF ACC
In progress
Ways to work together

Coaching for you, training for your team

Everything starts with us having a real conversation.

For you
now booking

1:1 Coaching for portfolio careers

Six months, just you and me. We'll use product-management frameworks applied to your life — structure, not vibes.

Book a free 30-min conversation →
Prefer a group?
The Full Plate: group coaching cohort

Weekly group coaching, 8–10 people, deliberately small.

waitlist! next one's January 2027 → join it
the fancy one
For your team
the engine

Coach in Residence: monthly on-site coaching for your team

One day a month on-site, three months minimum. Six real coaching slots on your team's calendar, plus a working session for the entire team.

Let's talk about your team →
Prefer to start smaller?
Command the Room: team dayfrom $5,000

A team day built on twelve years of stage craft — how to hold a room and not disappear inside it. The easiest way to start.

The Reset: individual coaching for one person$1,500

Individual coaching for one person — structured and expensable, for when the budget's real but small.

See Command the Room and The Reset in detail →
Why me

Why I coach portfolio careers

"A stable job is a single point of failure with a benefits package."

I ran a portfolio career for twenty years without knowing it had a name. In 2024 I did the responsible thing — one job, dropped everything else. Within a year I had nothing.

Read the full story →
Plain answers

Questions people ask

Who is The Professional Adult for?

People who are good at a lot of things and keep getting told to pick one, and the companies that need those people to work well together.

Who's behind it?

Caren Young, a Chicago product leader and coach with 10+ years in product management, including work inside Pivotal, HHS and DHCS.

How do I start?

With a free 30-minute conversation, no pitch. Pick the path that fits: 1:1 coaching for you, or coaching and training for your team.

Book a free 30-minute conversation

Let's design the plate.

Thirty minutes, no pitch, a real conversation.

Book your free conversation →

no jargon, no $10 words, no manifestation talk