Highlights from March’s ProductTank meetups

ProductTanks, created by Mind the Product, are informal meetups that bring local product people together and provide a space to new speakers to share amazing product insights. With over 200 cities hosting ProductTanks globally, we're excited to highlight some of these fantastic meetups.

In March, ProductTanks hosted 60 meetups around the world, we also had another ProductTank organiser summit in London. A lot of product management insights were shared from AI to business skills for product managers, and in this article we will spotlight a few.

We were thrilled to welcome over 40 ProductTank organisers to #mtpcon London this year, with many of them joining us for the latest ProductTank Organiser Summit! 🙌 This time, we hosted a World Café-style workshop with thought-provoking topics and discussions centered around how we can make an even bigger impact with our local communities.

One of our regional ProductTank coordinators, Nacho Bassino wrote:

"Kicking off #mtpcon with an amazing ProductTank organizers gathering! 🎉

Such a joy to finally meet in person so many people I usually see online! 😍

We had a fantastic evening at the Mind the Product office, exchanging ideas on how to keep our product communities thriving:
🔥 Engaging beyond events – how do we keep the conversation going?
🎭 Experimenting with new formats – what’s working and what’s not?
🌍 Fostering diversity – making sure everyone has a voice.
🚀 Hot topics for 2025 – what's next for product people?

So many great insights, and this is just the beginning!'

Our organiser Claudia Pereyra shared:

"Thrilled to announce that our first ProductTank Lausanne event took place yesterday! 🎉
A heartfelt thank you to our generous host, Nexthink, for providing an excellent venue, and to our great speakers for sharing their invaluable insights:

Zita Rovó: “AI for Product Design: Lessons, Pitfalls and Best Practices”

Skye Legon, and Terry Courtney: "Product Operations: what it is, and why it is vital for Product success"

The event brought together a vibrant community of product enthusiasts, creating a space for engaging discussions and meaningful connections. We look forward to many more such enriching gatherings in the future!"

Shanza Khan wrote about attending our meetup:

"Big thanks to Alex Kavel, Sophie Davies, Tom Preston, Jamie Meredith and Elliot Gardner for an insightful gathering!

One of my favorite moments was the slide on "What PMs do to get promoted vs. what they're actually supposed to do", navigating that balance is a skill in itself! Hilarious yet painfully true slide. Shoutout to Thor Mitchell for the data-driven insights and for sharing his experiences on navigating this balance and doing what’s right while also growing. Also loved hearing Jason Knight's take on product culture, the bottom-up approach to ideation, and truly empowering teams.

Curious to hear: How do you see AI impacting product management in the next few years? Maybe a topic for the next gathering? ProductTank Cardiff."

From ProductTank Newcastle page:
"What a fantastic evening at last week’s ProductTank Newcastle meetup! 🎉

We had the privilege of hosting Viktoria Korzhova, COO and VP of Product at Product People, who delivered an insightful talk on essential business skills for Product Managers.

Here are some key takeaways:

🚀 𝗞𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀: As PMs, understanding the commercial side of your product is critical. Viktoria emphasised integrating business cases into your process to make informed decisions and avoid costly mistakes.

🧳 𝗕𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝘀𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲: Using a personal case study (planning a trip to Japan), Viktoria illustrated key concepts like raising finance, cutting costs, managing risks, and understanding fixed vs. variable costs in a relatable way.

💡 𝗔𝘃𝗼𝗶𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗳𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘀: A solid grasp of your product’s financial and operational impact helps prevent decisions that could lead to product faults or missed opportunities.

It was inspiring to see how developing business acumen doesn’t have to be daunting—it’s about applying what you already know in a structured way!

A huge thank you to everyone who joined us, and special thanks to Viktoria for her engaging session.

Stay tuned for our next ProductTank Newcastle event in April! We can’t wait to see you all there!"

One of our organisers, Thomas Vidaurre wrote:

'Last week, we kicked off the 2025 season of Product Tank Santiago ✨
The first meeting of the year was held at the offices of Simpli and brought together more than 50 people from the product community for an evening full of ideas, experiences and good conversation 💬.

We talked about the real challenges of building products in Latin America 🌎, shared learnings, made new connections and, above all, strengthened a community that does not stop growing.

Thanks to Simpli for opening the doors for us with such good vibes and the speakers Felipe Sepúlveda Echeverria, Verónica Soto Olguín and Juan Paulo Madriaza for their generosity and to each attendee for contributing with their energy and passion 🙌.

😎Join the movement that is transforming the product ecosystem in the region 🚀"

Simonetta Batteige summarised the meetup:

"Learning about B2C product challenges works best from people who have been there. Feeling lucky we got to host 🧩 Raluca Bujoreanu as our speaker at ProductTank Cologne last night. Here is what we learned:

🚀 How powerful it is to speak about "de-risking" rather than discovery to stakeholders who care about the business success of your product work

🚀 The magic of thinking beyond the obvious solutions into something that is at this point fictional and aspirational, but setting you up for a continuous improvement of your product towards something great. Involving stakeholders in that exploration does a lot of the alignment selling by default.

🚀 Getting to "yes" from all kinds of stakeholders (your team, your peers, your managers, your executives) can go both bottom up as well as top down. Bottom might start with a clear vision rooted in discovery insights. Insights and visions that get the team, peers and your managers to excitedly sell your direction into senior leadership. Top down might start with a strategic decision that aligns well with a customer problem and gets the right incentives in place. It's less important which way this goes and more important that everyone arrives at an excited yes.

It's been our honor to host this event in the beautiful location of lise GmbH, who generously opened their doors to us on their 26th anniversary. Thank you so much for your support!

And super fun to host another Mind the Product ProductTank event here in Cologne together with Alkaios Bournias Varotsis PhD, Dominik Rose, Tim Klein and Shehrina Kamal."

From ProductTank Triangle LinkedIn page:

'Wow! Our first speaking event of the year was GREAT!

Todd Olson made a special guest appearance! He inspired our community and made them feel part of something bigger by explaining the relationship between Pendo.io / Mind the Product, and how ProductTank connects folks not only within our local communities, but all around the globe! 🌏

Lee Jacobs covered his unique path into product management, and helped folks understand how to evaluate their own PM skills in order to help them reach the next level. One of our favorite parts from his talk was a venn diagram showing "Bloom where you're planted" and "Plant yourself in the right place at the right time." 🌱

Stephen Cosme brought some very enlightening statistics on the current hiring market, and extremely helpful tips on how to make yourself a competitive candidate. He really emphasized the value of live case exercises in interviews taking precedence over STAR behavioral questions - better get practicing! ☺️

Thank you to all who came, and a BIG thank you to Pendo.io for hosting us!"

Check out a ProductTank near you to join in the celebration.

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