If you are looking to change jobs or looking to hire, right now is an interesting time! We’ve been hearing ‘product is in demand’, there’s an impact on salaries and OMG! It’s the ‘great resignation’.

But what is really happening out there? We have a panel of folks in the thick of it to help understand what’s really happening.

Join us to hear what’s really affecting how they hire, what’s the same and what is changing and ask your questions! This is an Ask Me Anything (AMA) format. This is for both folks looking to hire and those looking for work or ‘open to opportunities’. We’ll be using slido for questions (#hiring) and it will be a hybrid session – so folk are welcome at our host location and online. RSVP now.

Our Speakers

Megan McDonald, Head of Product & Experience Design at World Vision Australia.

Megan has been working in Product roles for over 15 years, and over this time has experienced first-hand the exciting transformation of the role of product in organisations. She’s very ashamed to admit that in her early days as a fin services Product Manager she built products that were designed to extract revenue by limiting customer value .. yep, on purpose! But, in the years that followed, she’s also super proud to have been involved in the evolution of product into the truly human-centred practice it is now. 

Megan is a passionate believer in the value that good Product Management can deliver to organisations and their customers, and is busy putting “my money where my mouth is” as a council member of the Association of Product Professionals, working hard to advance the product profession. 

Day to day, Megan leads the Product & Experience Design function at World Vision Australia, and an amazing team focused on delivering Australia’s favourite charity experience. “I feel so lucky in this role because I get to solve real customer problems by building sh*t that works, all in the service of eliminating global poverty. And at the same time, I’m helping to create the next generation of product and design thinkers and practitioners.”

Georgia Hart, General Manager, Middleton Executive

Georgia moved to Melbourne roughly 5 years ago with just $200 in her pocket after spending her travelling budget way too soon (oops!). She found myself back in recruitment, learning the Australian landscape and quickly found that there are a lot of very cool start-ups and companies creating a big impact in the world. Georgia had traditionally always recruited Engineers with a little bit of Delivery & Product on the side but wanted more of it so joined Middleton Executive. Middleton Executive is a talent partner of choice for some of Australia’s most eminent tech and product companies and was founded to connect people in the product space. She’s had the pleasure of working with some awesome brands such as SEEK, Whispir, Papercut and is learning from some of the best product leaders in Australia. Big shout out to them for teaching her so much! 

In her own words “There’s no denying that the last 2 years have been a rollercoaster. In March, all my clients stopped hiring, people were losing their jobs, it was sheer panic. I found myself out of a sales role and in more of a position to support people navigate through the unknown. 2 years on and here we are, in the busiest market I’ve ever found myself in and having to learn new skills to attract the most in demand talent.”

Shiyu Zhu, Group Product Manager, Zendesk

Shiyu is an experienced Product Manager with 5+ years of experience in building product roadmaps and shipping features in an agile environment. She is problem-driven and likes to take a customer centric approach in every product feature to make sure it has an impact and solves for a real customer problem. Currently hiring at Zendesk, Shiyu has some key learnings about how the organisation has had to make adjustments in their approach in the current climate.

Our Host
Intelligence Bank

IntelligenceBank is the leading innovator in digital assets management and marketing operations.  The company helps marketing teams seamlessly manage digital assets, creative content approvals, marketing compliance, and creative project management to ensure brands get to market quickly, stay on brand and ensure regulatory compliance. IntelligenceBank’s beautifully designed platform is used by over 400 brands with 500,000+ users in 55 countries. IntelligenceBank has offices in the U.S., Canada and Australia. Follow them on LinkedIn

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Creating Buy-In: how to foster cooperation and shared commitment to ideas and initiatives.

So much of what we do requires the cooperation and commitment of others. Getting others onboard isn’t simply about getting projects across the line. It’s about harnessing the full creative potential of teams and fostering a culture of shared ownership and accountability. This requires a careful balance of positive influence, while at the same time allowing plenty of space co-creation.

In this practical session, Simon introduces his ‘3M’ framework for generating positive influence and explores the most common pitfalls of building buy-in and how to avoid them.

Our speaker:

Simon Dowling – is a leading thinker on creating and leading collaborative teams and workplaces. As a speaker, facilitator and educator, he works closely with leaders and teams from some of Australia’s most interesting organisations, equipping them with the inspiration and know-how to build strong, highly engaged teams.

Simon possesses a unique blend of creativity and pragmatism – something reflected in his past experience. He began his career as a commercial lawyer, and is also an experienced improviser, regularly performing with leading improvisation company Impro Melbourne. He was a regular cast member on Working Dog’s hit TV show Thank God You’re Here. For the past 20 years, Simon has been working with leaders across a wide range of industries, helping them to tap the collective genius of their people.

His clients include AFL, Bega Foods, Bendigo & Adelaide Bank, BUPA, Envato, Mercedes Benz, myob, SEEK, Telstra Health and University of Melbourne. He is also a member of the Australian faculty of DukeCE – the executive education arm of the internationally acclaimed business school at Duke University.

Simon is the author of Work with Me: How to get people to buy into your ideas

RSVP now!

Thanks to A Cloud Guru for being our online host. A Cloud Guru’s mission is to teach the world to cloud, and they’re hiring!

Have you ever felt like your life has become all about juggling the priorities? And you’re just on this hamster wheel…

Phoebe Peck has been on that wheel – and knows you need to stop. From juggling near term to long term priorities, Phoebe will be share tried and tested strategies for running in a straighter-ish direction while recognising detours, temptations and pitfalls along the way.

She will share her experiences on prioritisation including from a lighter perspective because let’s face it if we don’t laugh we will cry! (or go insane…)

Conversation & sharing of your tips will be encouraged!

See you on Thursday, September 24th RSVP

About Phoebe:
Phoebe Peck is passionate about hospitality, technology, people and leaving positive imprints on the world through the decisions we make and the actions we take.

Phoebe is Head of Product for the industry-leading hospitality SaaS Company, Redcat. Her talents in product and technology have greatly benefited from a strong operational and managerial background in best of breed quick-service restaurants, and fast-casual hospitality business.

Phoebe values teamwork, perseverance, work ethic and honesty. Phoebe attributes her professional success to her internal drive, continuous learning and working with amazing people.

Phoebe lives in the heart of Tigerland, is a mother of 2, is very competitive, always up for a challenge and has ambitions to one day present at TED.

Our sponsor: A big thanks to A Cloud Guru for sponsoring! Our mission is to teach the world to cloud. Find your place at ACG.

This month we will be talking about OKRs – aka Objectives & Key Results!

This is a follow on from our Roadmap discussion in February where some of the frustrations with roadmaps could potentially be addressed by working with OKRs.

OKR’s have been around awhile now, but are somewhat relatively new for product teams here in Oz. We have gathered a few folk who are actively using them, to share the pain and the success of getting started.

Our presenters will be:

• Andrew Knibbe, Head of Product – Direct Hirer at Seek – has over 10 years of product management experience – cutting his product teeth in the early days alongside the ThoughtWorks team at Sensis followed by stints at Carsales and Flippa before moving to SEEK where he has had Head of Product roles across both the Consumer and Business side of the employment marketplace. He doesn’t miss the chevrons-on-a-page days of product roadmaps and remains excited about what OKRs can mean for product teams (and customers!).
• Wayne Allan, Technical Product Manager, REA – A muso turned software engineer turned product manager, I love creating things people love! Currently solving problems at realestate.com.au
• Brad Dunn is the Co-founder and Product Director at OHNO in Melbourne. Before that, he was the executive for Product & Customer Experience at Geo. For 7 years, Brad was the CEO of Nazori, a mobile product development business, where they worked with clients in 12 countries around the world including Samsung, Airbnb and Aesop.

For some pre-reading to get you across the area if you haven’t heard of them or used them yourself then try these resources:

• https://www.oreilly.com/business/free/files/introduction-to-okrs.pdf
• https://www.range.co/blog/are-you-doing-okrs-right
• OKRs for product management (examples)
• How to combine OKRs & agile product management

Thanks to our sponsors Medibank for being our hosts this month. RSVP now.

We are Medibank – an integrated healthcare company providing private health insurance and health solutions to 3.7 million Australians through our Medibank and ahm brands, and complimentary health services.

We also provide a range of integrated healthcare services to our private health insurance policyholders, government, corporate and other retail customers. With over 3,000 employees, our head office is located in Melbourne, Victoria, with operations nationally throughout Australia.

By delivering on our promise, for Better Health for Better Lives, we work better as individuals, better as a team and better as a business.

Welcome to 2019!!!

For our 1st session of the year, we are focusing on the #1 requested topic in our annual survey – roadmaps!

Our speakers will be taking you through their perspective on roadmaps… we won’t give it all away just yet but you will hear that not every roadmap is f**ked, tips on how to unf**k your roadmap, and of course when to tell a roadmap to go f**k itself.

Our speakers will include examples from both personal experience and the way their current organisation navigates their use. Our three great speakers will be:

David Bignell

• Product Lead at SEEK, currently focused on improving the eCommerce space across the APAC region.
• Picked up most of my craft from stuffing things up at least once.
• Current ‘product passion’ would be trying to describe things in verbs and not nouns. Gives an interesting perspective!

Whitney Cali

• GM Product, Audience & Experience, REA Group
• As REA Group’s GM – Product, Audience & Experience, Whitney Cali is responsible for creating smart and compelling experiences in realestate.com.au’s desktop & mobile apps to help change the way the world experiences property. She leads a team of product managers, designers and UX researchers to create intuitive and personalised experiences that help individuals make great property decisions.

Keith Swann

• Lead Product Manager, Origin Energy

There will be lots of time for Q&A and you can submit questions via Sli.do or vote on the questions of others. Details will be shared on the night.

Thanks to our sponsors! Without them these events would not happen!

Thank you to Gather for hosting us. Gather is a brand within United Co. and exists to connect and inspire a community of Melbourne’s bright-minded and open-hearted, exploring complex questions, expanding perspectives and building skills for a thriving future.

Making sure we don’t go hungry or die of thirst..

RSVP now

Join us for a panel discussion on Service Design & Product Management on June 21st. RSVP

Today’s customers demand more than a good product; they expect a great customer experience. Are we being experience led or product led? How do we come together to deliver both?

Most designers have felt the frustration of working on product led projects. Most product managers have felt the inevitable scope creep of designers. If you’ve felt the pain of the design vs product divide, you’re not alone. It’s time we sit down for a chat (& drinks) to work through…

We already have a waitlist for this event but spaces open up so put yourself on the list. Drinks and nibbles will be provided.

Our panelists:

Kate Edwards-Davis, Product Manager, Karista – a start-up helping people who need care to find their ideal community-based care or disability support service.

She stumbled into a career in IT after studying philosophy and classical music performance. Always a strong advocate for the value of spending time listening to customers, it has helped her teams to deliver imaginative and valuable solutions in many sectors including finance, retail, manufacturing, government and education. She should probably say her greatest joy in life is her two young sons – but in all honesty they probably come second to her obsession with the music of Prince.

Daniel Kinal, Senior Product Manager, MYOB

Daniel has been in product management for over 15 years, chiefly working in IT with a focus on B2B products. He gets excited about helping businesses become more effective in decision-making, more efficient in their processes and more engaging with their customers.
Daniel is at his happiest when waving his arms about in front of a whiteboard with a bunch of smart people, exploring problems and weighing up solutions. He’s passionate about product management as a discipline and is intrigued by how businesses, large and small, grapple with the sometimes-elusive concepts of innovation and collaboration.

Our wonderful Service design line-up:

We will use sli.do for panel questions so start prepping your thoughts on what is the difference between service & product? I’ll add more controversial questions closer to the date 🙂

The event will be hosted by SuperSeed / NEXT – The innovation division of the Reece Group.