Highlights from June’s ProductTank meetups (and more)

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, in this article we will highlight a few of the past month activities.

In June, our Amsterdam, London, and Berlin ProductTanks were busy supporting our European Roadshow with Pendo. We even had ProductTank organisers grace us on stage as emcees ateach event, so a special shout out to Aleksandra Smelianska, Kunal Miyani and Lana Khimka.

All three of our roadshow stops had space to talk all things product community with our ProductTank booth. Our incredible organizers from the hosting cities and other European communities inspired others to join ProductTank meetups to form meaningful connections and learn from the wider product community in their local area.

In Berlin, the morning of the Roadshow, ProductTank Berlin organisers, Lana and Dimitri led an insightful workshop to a full room of product people on Advanced Communication Skills for Product Managers, which addressed three critical communication scenarios: articulating roadmaps and priorities to various stakeholders, navigating feedback in conflict situations and for growth, and storytelling to promote ideas, visions, and initiatives.

Beyond that, 30 ProductTanks met throughout June, and here are some highlights:

Valeria Khokhlova, Product Community Lead at Mind the Product, summarises Edinburgh meetup:  ‘And that’s a wrap on our June ProductTank Edinburgh meetup! Such an incredible lineup of speakers for our community to learn from - all about how to jump the chasm from IC to people leadership.

We learned about the jump from an agency perspective from Tim Johnson, making the jump from IC to C-Suite from Mirela Mus, and talked about non-linear paths from Andrew Lobban. Thank you to our speakers for sharing your experiences with us!

Huge thank you to the team at FreeAgent for being incredible supporters for ProductTank, by sharing your incredible space (and view) with us and keeping us fed and watered.

Angela Fleming, Angus Allan, Gianna Illenseer and Jamie Chung - thanks for being such a dream team!’

From ProductTank Bangalore's LinkedIn page:

'ProductTank Bangalore's 5th Edition! 🚀

We wrapped up our fifth successful ProductTank Bangalore event on July 29th at Walmart Global Tech, and it was nothing short of amazing.

Focused on #ProductExcellence: Building Core Competencies," this event brought together over 100 product enthusiasts, professionals, leaders, and aspiring PMs/PMMs from across the city.

The day kicked off with a captivating talk by Praveen Udupa on Business Storytelling. His real-world examples and engaging anecdotes showcased the power of storytelling in securing stakeholder buy-in and deeply connecting with customers, setting a remarkable tone for the day.

Next, Deepak Krishnan delivered a masterclass keynote on "Building Product Sense by Deconstructing Products." His expertise and passion for product intuition resonated with our audience, offering invaluable insights that left everyone inspired.

Post lunch, Vikas Uppal led a dynamic workshop on "Crafting Effective Product Roadmaps," energizing the room with practical exercises on strategic vision and outcome-driven planning. His interactive approach fostered collaborative learning, making a lasting impact on all attendees.

A heartfelt thank you to our exceptional speakers, enthusiastic attendees, and dedicated core committee for making this event such a resounding success! 🌟

Here's to many more milestones ahead in our journey of product excellence! 🚀'

Susan Stavitzski, one of the organisers, commented the event in a LinkedIn post:

'Your network is powerful 💪 I've grown in my career because I've been around amazing people.

The jobs I've gotten were thanks to my network. The skills I've learned too.

Last night's ProductTank RVA event was an amazing reminder of the power of network.

We had almost 60 product professionals from across RVA and NOVA join us for a customer discovery workshop.

The session and tools were awesome but my favorite part was the open conversation sharing best practices, challenges and favorite go-to tips.

Whenever you bring PMs together, you're bound to learn a ton!

Thanks CarMax for hosting and our amazing workshop speakers Matthew Halpern and Lee Wilson! 

Mahdi Barkhordari, one of the ProductTank Birningham organisers, shared the key takeaways from the meetup, where they hosted Abisoye F.

Abisoye shared his journey and strategies scaling products from concept to one million users and above.

Here's a brief of this event and key takeaways:

🙏🏻 Thank you to all those who participated in this event and also looking forward to see more product enthusiasts in the upcoming events.'

Read what Julia Loose, one of the ProductTank Munich organisers, has to say about the event they held in June:

A huge shoutout to Julia Bastian for her outstanding presentation on how product people can leverage GenAI to tackle previously unsolvable customer problems. Truly eye-opening insights! 🔑'

Bernhard Hecker also captivated us with his engaging talk on the pros and cons of "CPO +1" roles. His perspective was both entertaining and enlightening. 👥

A special thanks to RIO | The Logistics Flow for being such a fantastic host! Your support made the evening even more memorable. 🙏

Stay tuned for updates on our upcoming meetups – you won't want to miss them!'

Was a full house for tonight's event featuring the fantastic 👋 Ross Stanley - What Questions should Product Manager Ask ? ! Big thanks to Igor Portugal and Blacklock Security for sponsoring the event tonight, and BizDojo and Barbie Anne Panganiban for hosting us.

And of course massive thanks to the organising crew of Anthony Marter, Zachary Wong, Vera Q., Ann Kim and Rahul Singh for making this event happen.

Read Holly Donohue, one of the ProductTank Manchester organiser, summary of their June meetup:
'Why are so many products terrible?

Wrap up from 3 great speakers at ProductTank Manchester. A huge thank-you to Maxwell Bond for sponsoring and hosting the event.

James Pels 🐘 Chief Elephant Spotter shared, it starts off so well. There's a clear vision for the product. The target market is understood. So where do things go so wrong?

The gap between the product vision and the implementation of that vision can be vast.

The VMOST (Vision, Mission, Objectives, Strategy, Tactics) model bridges that gap. It takes a top down vision and forges an environment of collaboration and negotiation. This gives direction to teams.

Jason Knight reflected, there are so many books, articles and podcasts on Product Management. Where do you start? And when we do read those books, they often describe an ideal world which doesn't reflect the reality of our daily work.

This can lead to PMs feeling like they are failing or not doing the right things.

Books are there to inspire. The book is not your boss.

Use books to inspire you for how to make progress in your role, teams and organisations.

Apply product management to product management. Use a 2x2 to prioritise doing the things that you can do and need to do. Build a backlog for change and don't die on every hill.

Kate Leto shared the biggest challenges people have are the stories in their head. Our self-narratives show up in our behaviors and actions. Ultimately they show up in our work and the products we build.

Our stories have patterns. Often they fall into the Karpman drama triangle and we cast ourselves and others into the roles of hero, victim and villain. We constantly move between those roles.

Our storylines are features. They're not bugs, but they are buggy. Our stories aren't always true. There are there to keep us safe, but sometimes they are not that helpful.

You can invent new possibilities. If your stories are unhelpful you can create the story you want to live and work on creating your narrative. Write down what you want your new story to be as if it was a newspaper headline.'

Another eventful month, filled with insightful meetups and shared knowledge from ProductTanks around the world. We've had great speakers who shared their journey and experiences with the community.

Don't miss out on these community events! Check out a ProductTank near you.