If you’re wondering how the 5 hours before the match went, come with me and I’ll tell you all about my experience at the Pendomonium + #mtpcon roadshow event.
Diving into the conference itself, the format of keynotes, panel discussions and roundtables were clearly successful as it kept us informed, engaged and entertained throughout the day. I've seen a few write-ups of the event already, so I thought I'd give my personal highlights here:
The role of product is varied and continues to evolve - we should nurture and embrace it!
Let's face it - all of us product people get the question, “so what do you do exactly?” from those who work outside of our practice. Whilst some have a stock answer at the ready, a lot of us clumsily waffle on, pointing to value and outcomes-focused user experience. I think this was reflected in one of the conference slides that showed the numerous names by which Product Managers may be labelled...
So, I’m going to invent one of my own and will now be asking for people to refer to me as a Value Ninja.
Jonty Sharples covered many things, but primarily spoke about embracing change as a product manager. What particularly resonated with me was the focus on retaining talent: "If you want to retain people for more than a year and half you have to show that they have a future."
Unsurprisingly, AI continues to be a dominant theme, and rightly so, BUT we shouldn't drop our product approach, ensuring first that there is a valid problem to solve.
A group of panelists talked about their views around aligning their businesses in a more AI-centric way. Whilst there was a lot of great discussions around using AI to relieve tasks that may otherwise be cumbersome, I came away with the stark warning from Frances Ibe:
"We're jumping into AI, but we need to give some thought around what problems we’re trying to solve" and that "we need to focus on problems, business goals and outcomes" to really ensure that we use AI in the right way.
We had great insights into the use of AI from Lindsey Jayne, CPO at the Financial Times, who reiterated that instead of being overly focused on the technology behind AI, we first need to be clear on what we’re using it for.
Once we understand the need, we can then go and deliver it or talk to people about it.
Create a STRATEGY + SHIP the product + COMMUNICATE was the mantra that I came away with here.
Joining the varied Roundtable discussions
I was happy to get a seat at a few roundtables, where we talked about:
It was a great way to break up a day of talks and panel discussions by chatting to likeminded people about common problems. As great as it was discussing hints and tips, it was reassuring to hear my fellow product managers share some of the same challenges. Anyone else lost count on how many times they've had to explain that a roadmap is not a project plan?
Coming away from the event, I'm glad to know that with the way 2024 is going, March 2025 is just around the corner!