We’re going to play a game at the next Product Anonymous meeting (Thursday Aug 30th).   No, no… no angry birds! No Fruit Ninja! Not even WOW.   😉

We’re going to get hands on & play a game that you can use with clients/users to help understand and prioritise your market’s needs.   Whether you’ve played one of the Innovation Games before or not,  it doesn’t matter.   The beauty of the game is particpants just need to show up!

So join us on Thursday Aug 30th & have a new tool in your toolkit for Friday that makes prioritising fun (Yes, I know that doesn’t sound fun but it can be!)

NEW LOCATION:  We’ll be meeting at the Mail Exchange Hotel at the corner of Bourke & Spencer St.  We needed a bit of space for this month’s topic so we have one of the rooms off the restaurant.   At the bottom of the escalator, go left towards the restaurant & then left again towards the screened off areas.

We’ll be there from 6pm onwards with the talk starting at 6:30.  RSVP here (it’s free.  we just want to make sure we have enough space for the game).

Hashtag #prod_anon

Last Saturday, Brainmates hosted Product Camp Sydney. This is the 5th Product Camps I’ve attended & as always it’s a great day.

For those who haven’t been to a product camp before, it’s a full day of conversation around the topics we product managers deal with every day. The big difference from any other day though is instead of being deep into the detail of defining that feature or creating a position statement, it’s focused on best practice, thinking about the role at a higher level, sharing experiences & picking up a few new tips! If you haven’t been to a camp before, I highly recommend it!

The Brainmates crew did a great job both in organising this year’s session & pulling together the notes on their blog. You can read a wrap-up on their blog. They’ve also added notes on 2 of the sessions:

• Launch Planning
• Engaging Sales

Melbourne folks – make sure you mark Oct 20th in your calendar as that’s the next product camp down here.

As posted a few weeks ago, May was looking to be a very busy month for both Liz & myself & we weren’t sure we’d have time to organise a May Product Anonymous meeting. Considering it’s the 20th… I think we can safely say we were right! 🙂

So.. June it is!

In the meantime, watch for coverage of the Sydney Product Camp which is on next Saturday (26th May). It might give you some ideas for the Melbourne one (scheduled for October & I know you’ll all be there!). I’ll be attending & will be tweeting.

If you’re looking for a new product management job, there’s been quite a few jobs advertised lately on the usual boards like MyCareer.com.au & with the usual agencies. Maybe it’s time to get your resume & linkedin polished?

Hi all,

Our next meetup is in a couple weeks – Thursday April 19th. Most likely we’ll be at the Bear & Bull again on Flinders Lane – though just confirming that now. (UPDATE: yes, it will be at bear & bull on flinders ln between Elizabeth & Queen. We’ll be in the backroom at 6p & kicking off the topic by 630p)

There’s 2 topics we’ve been floating. Feel free to contact us about these or other ideas. If you have a subject you’d like to present on (the ones below or others), let us know.

Topic 1 – infographics & the product manager – this could go in a couple directions (or maybe both!) as the conversation started about using infographics as job descriptions & what the PM role infographic would contain. it also got me thinking about communication & visual techniques. Has anyone used mindmapping, visually mapped the user journey, used some sort of infographic or visual method to communicate? We could explore a few techniques, stories & create a couple artifacts.

Topic 2 – How do you manage your backlog? wishlist? feature requests? are all those things the same or different for you? What are the best tools out there? Do customers interact with your list? Sharing best practices, frustrations & wins will be the topic here.

Come down & say hi! See you there! Have a great Easter break!

Thursday April 19th @ Bear & Bull on Flinders Ln

First I’d like to thank the spammer who’s work took up several hours of my public holiday today. Sigh….

On a happier note… this Thursday evening (March 15th) is Brainmates‘ 1st Melbourne based Product Talk. Join brainmates’ co-director & lead trainer, Nick Coster, and panellists to discuss communicating product management’s value to the c suite.

Even if you can’t be there in person, make sure you submit questions to the Brainmates’site or tweet @brainmates (hashtag #bmtalk).

Make sure you RSVP too!!!

While you’re marking your calendars, pencil in Thursday April 19th for the next product anonymous meeting. Details to come. If there’s something in particular you’d like to talk about or any guest speakers you think we should invite, please let us know (comment below or tweet us at @product_anon).

Coming up in a couple week’s is Brainmates’ 1st Melbourne based Product Talk. After doing the product talks in Sydney since 2008, they’re expanding across the country.

On March 15th, join brainmates’ co-director & lead trainer, Nick Coster, and esteemed panellists including Paul Albergo, Head of Product at Origin Energy, to discuss communicating product management’s value to the c suite.

Questions for the panel can be added to Brainmates’site or tweet @brainmates (hashtag #bmtalk).

Read more about the event and rsvp

Thanks to everyone who came out Thursday nite!

If you haven’t watched the IDEO shopping cart video, check out the short 8 min video below. It’s chock full of fantastic information around IDEO’s work. Keep in mind this was done in 1999 – way before iterations, prototypes & agile were buzzwords (or having bar code scanners on our phones/self serve checkouts!)

Afterwards, we talked about the research IDEO did, the artifacts they collected during that research, their work environment & more. We discussed the elements of their process which we’ve used with our projects including having multidisciplinary teams working in different groups to develop solutions, the competitition that arose from those teams, the artifacts we’ve gathered.

There’s a great quote early on in the piece:

‘We’re not actually experts at any given area… we’re experts in the process of how you design stuff’

which goes right to the heard of the domain knowledge argument

In March, there’s a Brainmates sponsored Product Talk in Melbourne – their first Product Talk evening in Melbourne! You can check their schedule of events. While you’re at it, mark October 20th in your calendar for the next Melbourne product camp! See you at the Product Talk!

Hi!

We trust everyone has had a great Xmas, Hanukkah, New Years, Australia Day, time away (& whatever else you’ve been up to in the last month or so).

We’re organising the next Product Anonymous for 6p Thursday Feb 23rd.   Location TBC though definitely Melbourne CBD.

At our last meeting, the subject of IDEO’s product process was raised & some folks had never seen the fabulous IDEO shopping cart story – so this time we’ll view the video along with a couple other short IDEO videos & then chat, drink & eat.

The videos are short & we’ll announce firmer times once we’re close to the date.

Also, our friends at Brainmates are cooking up something Melbourne based for mid March.  Details to come.

Please RSVP for the evening on eventbrite. 

It happened.  It was surreal.  It had the start up size that says we have something here, but with December not providing enough weekends for Xmas celebrations, it was a smaller crowd than we might have had if not for Xmas moving into November!

Anyway a good night where intentions and ideas for purpose of the Product Anon group were discussed.  Burning issues like how I hate to see bad product design in my everyday life (Melbourne connex trams!) to the ideal place to work (IDEO) other than Google. So what is next? – a session in feburary next year.  Some thoughts and ideas are gathering as we iterate and evolve, like any good product that responds to market demand! And we are just generally enjoying the warm response we got from those we invited who couldn’t make the night!!

Have a fabulous festive season you brilliant people! Liz

Yes folks, Liz has confirmed our location for next Tuesday.

C’mon out to the Bull and Bear at 347 Flinders Lane between Elizabeth & Queen in Melbourne CBD.

No charge at the door, no charge to chat, buy your own food & beverage at the bar.

It’s about meeting other product managers & folks interested in product management.

Liz & I would love to hear your thoughts about what you want product anonymous to mean to you.

Update:  We’ll be in the front bar from 6-8p.  (Bear & Bull is bigger than I realised!)  If you have any problems finding us, tweet us at @product_anon