C-MAP: how Coupang’s Learning & Development team is supporting the growth of managers at Coupang

Xiaolu: My name is Xiaolu Zhang-Coenen, Director for the Learning and Development (L&D) team at Coupang. The L&D is responsible for enterprise-wide initiatives to grow employees, part of our commitment to “Hire and Develop the Best.” Within the L&D team, we have a dedicated team of professionals including instructional designers, facilitators, and consultants that operate as business partners to our HR and business colleagues. 

Dave: Hello, I'm Dave from the Coupang Learning & Development team. I've been working at Coupang for about 4 years and 4 months. 

Ellie: I'm Ellie. I've been with Coupang's Learning & Development team for about two and a half years. Prior to joining Coupang, I worked at a local conglomerate for around 15 years, where I was responsible for corporate training. At Coupang, my main focus is on designing and developing training programs that enhance managerial capabilities. 

We’re curious to hear more about what started the Coupang Manager Acceleration Program (C-MAP)?  

Xiaolu: In partnering with our Strategic Talent Partners (STP) colleagues, we heard that managerial skills were the key priority for development requests from the business and business leaders. Managers across Coupang, especially new managers, wanted to grow their ability to manage teams and support them to deliver excellence and wow our customers. After conferring with the team, we decided to offer a standalone manager course that would cover the essentials of people management. That way managers from all over Coupang could benefit from this course and we could offer standalone sessions to different businesses depending on their needs.  

Ellie: Coupang is committed to growing our employees, offering different learning experiences for all levels. Our senior leaders are offered executive coaching to support them and the complex challenges they face. And now our managers have the ability to learn key skills to be effective managers and deliver excellence together with their teams. 

Dave: At Coupang, we strive to improve corporate productivity and high performance, which is a key objective to attract and retain talent. One of the important factors in doing so is the competence of our managers. That's why L&D focuses on improving the capabilities of our managers. Coupang, as a company, places great importance on the role of managers and has high expectations of them. C-MAP precisely meets the needs of corporate training to help our new managers grow, as it not only strengthens their capabilities but also helps motivate them. 

Ellie: The feedback for C-MAP has been outstanding. The session is an intensive bootcamp-style design which requires managers to be focused and to interact and engage with each other in groups. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. We’ve trained over 200 managers across Coupang, with an overall satisfaction score of 4.8/5.0 and an NPS (net promoter score) of 81 – one of the best rated courses. But more importantly the feedback in the months following has been really eye-opening.  

"I've applied it and changed the way I communicate and work, I've noticed that team members have started speaking up more frequently in meetings and are now talk more freely about their ideas.” – Attending manager 

Dave: We have received some great feedback from participants as following:  

"I had a lot of difficulties with goal setting and feedback every time, but through this training, I was able to clarify a little more what to do." 

"I think the learning effect is enhanced by the structure including practical training, rather than one-sided training. The examples were specific and very excellent." 

"Coupang's best training. If you are a new manager, you must listen to it without hesitation! I want to listen to it regularly.” 

“It was a great opportunity to listen to the stories of my fellow managers, form empathy with each other, and gain various know-how and insights.” 

Xiaolu: Managers play a vital role at Coupang – and we all know how much of an impact both good and bad managers can have on teams. We want managers to see an uplift in engagement survey scores and a difference in the motivation and engagement of their teams by attending C-MAP courses and applying what they have learned, and we want to invest in them to learn to be the best leaders they can be. 

Ellie: This year, our L&D team is focused on identifying the organization’s key priorities and delivering fast, practical learning solutions that address real challenges in the field. C-MAP marks the beginning of our structured approach to leadership development. Moving forward, we plan to expand our efforts by designing more business-integrated programs that empower managers to solve real-world challenges and grow as impactful leaders across all levels. 
 

Any other exciting projects you could share that the L&D team is looking forward to? 

Xiaolu: The L&D team support learners at all levels and we are excited to offer opportunities to learn at all levels – from our manager courses to an IC curriculum, this year has been about partnering to identify the key priorities and problems to solve in the organization and rapidly deploying quality learning solutions to drive behavior change and growth. Here are some of the other projects our team will have on offer: