We have 2 more events before the end of the year so hope to see you – at least once!!

This month’s evening event is our annual social. There’s no speaker, no specific topic – it’s just all about chatting, catching up, talking product management (or not) and getting to know each other better. It’s also Product Anonymous’s 2nd birthday!!!!

This year our end of year social is Thursday Nov 21st at the Sahara bar on Swanston st. Sign up here: 

And then we’ll finish off the year with an afternoon coffee on Thursday Nov 28th, 2-3pm, City Square by Brunetti’s. Drop in any time when you can, we will be there the whole hour. Sign up here: 

For those who don’t know, I’ve been overseas the last few months – mostly in Shanghai. Being in a new city with such a different culture to my own (even my adopted cultures), I found I was constantly asking ‘why’ on a very regular basis.

I was taking mandarin classes learning how to ask ‘what’ and ‘where’ but what I really wanted was to ask ‘why’. I kept seeing all sorts of scenarios where I wanted to ask ‘why’! For example, why do some foods need to be wrapped in layer upon layer of plastic wrap when meat was available for sale unrefridgerated on a cardboard table?

Although even after I learned the word for ‘why’ – wèishéme – I knew I wouldn’t be able to understand the answers (my mandarin has improved but it’s very much a work in progress!). I became a little obsessed with wèishéme and it got me thinking about asking the question in product management.

Whether we’re talking with a customer or end user, determining which feature to build next or how to market our product, understanding the ‘why’ is needed to help us connect, make our products great and create success. Understanding ‘why’ uncovers the value and explains why we care, what the context is, influences us and focuses on the problem (not the solution).

We can integrate ‘why’ into our existing tools like positioning statements, interviews & research, and even agile stories.

Some of the references include:

Simon Sinek’s ‘Start with Why’ TED talk & the golden circle

Bill DeRouchey’s ‘Power of Why’ deck on slideshare

Steve Portigal’s Interviewing Users: How to Uncover Compelling Insights

I’d also recommend The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business. It didn’t make it into the deck but is an excellent read.

At Thursday’s meeting, it was suggested we host a monthly coffee so we’re giving it a go this week.   Thursday Oct 3rd from 2-3pm in the CBD.  Location details below.

The idea came as an alternative for people who can’t attend in the evening and/or want more than just 1 time a month to talk about product management.

Our evening events have time to meet people & chat although we always have a topic for discussion.  With the coffee session, it’s purely all coversation on whatever topic you want.

We hope to see you there!  We’d love your feedback on this idea too!

Thursday Oct 3rd at Captains of Industry at 2 Somerset Place Lvl 1 from 2-3pm.   We’ll have some sort of signage to indicate Product Anonymous (ie showing our logo).

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Hi everyone,

Some of you know I’ve been in China for the last several months – but I’ll be back next month & presenting at the next #prodanon on Thursday Sept 26th!     Will be great to see everyone!!

I’ll be talking about:

(that’s ‘Why’ in mandarin)

Whether we’re talking with a customer or end user, determining which feature to build next or how to market our product,  understanding the ‘why’ is needed to help us connect, make our products great & create success.

Come hear why it’s the most important question & how you can get to ‘why’ faster.

Speaker:

In case we don’t know each other, here’s the backstory…

After several months in China, Jen Leibhart will be back in Melbourne for the September meeting.   Jen is a co-founder of Product Anonymous,  co-organiser of Product Camp and has been a product manager for mobile & web products including games, recruitment software, ecommerce, news, communities & more.

Location:

As usual we’ll be at the Mail Exchange Hotel on the corner of Spencer & Bourke St.    Go down the escalator, head to the left side of the bar where the restaurant is then look to the left where the function rooms are.  That’s where we are.

We’ll be there for 6pm onwards & the talk starts about 6:30p.

At last month’s Product Camp, Aaron Wallis had put forward a topic on Uservoice but then wasn’t able to attend camp so we’ve asked him to come along to this month’s Product Anonymous.

His topic?  ‘Employing Social Data for Passive Insights’

Social data offers more than just whats hot, and what’s not. Lets have a look at how social data offers a unique insight to product development and strategy.

Aaron Wallis is the Founder of Lexer. Lexer is a data driven consultancy that’s passionate about the value behavioural technology can bring to all aspects of business.

Liz has posted a re-cap of Product Camp Melbourne over on their site – http://pcampmelbourne.com.

If you missed the day or want the slides to review some sessions, go check it out.

Our next meetup is Thursday August 22nd. We’re confirming the speaker now & will let you know soon.

In case you’ve missed our messages on Twitter, Linkedin and this site, there is no Product Anonymous session in July because Product Camp Melbourne takes place on Saturday the 20th.

Go register now! It’s going to be a great day because product camps are always inspiring, fun and rewarding. Read my take on why you should attend and Nick’s summary of the Product Camp Sydney he attended last month.

If you’re still wondering what the experience is like, check out the list of suggested topics. These topics will be voted on online & at camp. If you want to give a talk or lead a round table discussion on a specific topic, please add it to the uservoice listing.

There will be 2 keynote talks as well. We’re finalising the detail so watch for them soon!

And feel free to ask us any questions about camp as Liz & I are on the organising committee.

Product Anonymous will return to its regularly scheduled meetups in August. Thursday August 22nd to be exact!