From humble beginnings with 25 people in the back room of a pub in London in May 2010 looking for a group therapy session, the ProductTank meetups have grown to over 180 cities with hundreds of thousands of people signed up.  We grabbed co-founder Martin Eriksson and Dallas organiser Emily Tate (now also US General Manager for Mind the Product) for a chat about developing the community, what makes it special, and why you – yes, you! – should get up on the stage and give a talk.

Quote of the Episode

What’s easiest for someone who’s getting started to talk about is just to come and share a story from their job.  Some of the best stories are  actually where someone’s just tried something, they and their team ran head first into a brick wall, it failed miserably… and what they learned from that. That’s the kind of talk I love seeing. Martin

Even if it’s been talked about before, no one’s heard your perspective, your example.  Everyone, if they’ve been doing the job for more than a couple of months, has something they’re passionate about talking about. Emily

Hosts

The Product Experience is hosted by Lily Smith and Randy Silver.

Lily enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. Lily has spent 13 years in the tech industry working mainly with startups in the SaaS and mobile space. She has worked on a diverse range of products – leading the product teams through discovery, prototyping, testing and delivery. Lily also founded ProductTank in Bristol, the Product Managers’ meetup with regular events and talks on Product now with 800+ members and growing. This year Lily will be launching ProductCamp in Bristol and she joins the MTP team as co-host of The Product Experience podcast.

A recovering music journalist and editor, Randy has been working as an interactive producer and product manager across the US and UK for nearly 20 years. After launching Amazon’s music stores in the US and UK, Randy has worked with museums and arts groups, online education, media & entertainment, retail and financial services. He’s held Head of Product roles at HSBC and Sainsbury’s, where he also directed their 100+-person product community. He’s spoken at Mind the Product Engage (Hamburg and Manchester), at a number of ProductTanks (London, Zurich, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Oxford,  and Brighton… so far!) and at conferences across the US and Europe.

Music

Our theme music is from Hamburg-based Pau, featuring ProductTank Hamburg’s own Arne Kittler on bass. Listen to more on their Facebook page

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