What is Product Anonymous?
It’s an opportunity for Melbourne folk to get together and discuss product management topics and meet others in the industry – or related industries like UX.
If you are responsible for a product – be it your own at a startup or one that’s been around for years at a large company – come share experiences and knowledge at our meetings.
The general idea is to gather Melbourne based product managers & people who are interested in product mgmt for a monthly (or so) meetup.
There may be speakers, roundtable discussions, chinwags, workshops… this is to be decided & depends on what you’d like to do.
Jen & Liz met at the first Melbourne Product Camp in 2010. At the second Melbourne camp in 2011, discussion really started on having get-togethers on a regular basis (instead of yearly!). Product Anonymous is the result of those conversations.
What is this ‘anonymous’ thing?
Liz & Jen brainstormed on the name over several drinks so by the time we hit on ‘product anonymous’, we thought it was very funny.
BUT there is a reality to the ‘anonymous’ name…
- Product managers often work alone. You work closely with your cross functional team, your stakeholders but it’s rare to practice your craft with other PMs. It’s hard to see how other PMs manage parts of the work, what’s best practice – or even any practice.
- At ProdAnon sessions, we value the ability to share & tell stories in a safe space. We very rarely recorded sessions in the almost 10 years of doing this until covid hit. We give all our speakers options around the recording now that we’re zoom-ified. We also never post the audience questions part of the talk.
Who are we?
Jen Leibhart is a huge fan of online communities, especially communities of practice.
Having co-founded e-mint (a community of practice for community managers) in 2000, Jen knows how valuable that group has been for sharing knowledge, educating people around the role & industry and lots more. It’s also been incredibly rewarding personally – helping to connect people, providing a space for growth, job development, etc. is great to watch. Plus she made wonderful friends in the process.
What is product anonymous? It’s what we make of it.
Liz Blink needs to chat with other product managers to stay sane.
A born and bred academic who asks why at every opportunity. Liz has fallen in love with product management because it challenges the individual in the role and the company when they choose the right individual. It is neither a place for complacency or acceptance. It is a place for dreaming the dream and understanding where the day-to-day can take you… and then it is rising above and asking for the dream anyway.
What is product anonymous? A group of people trying to figure out if the rest of the world is as sane as we are!