October at ProductTanks: AI, impact, and big lessons
ProductTanks, created by Mind the Product, are informal meetups that bring local product people together and provide a space to new speakers to share amazing product insights. With over 200 cities hosting ProductTanks globally, in this article we will highlight a few of the past month activities.
In October, ProductTanks held 67 meetups around the world with fresh launches, bold ideas, and powerful conversations. From Cambridge’s inspiring debut on AI-driven prototyping to Edinburgh turning creativity into action at its Lovable Hackathon. October was a reminder that wherever product people get together, energy, insight, and connection always follow.
Cambridge
One of our organisers, Akash Tyagi wrote "What an incredible kickoff for ProductTank Cambridge last night! 🚀
A huge thank you to everyone who joined us for our very first event and made it such an engaging evening of learning and connection. Special appreciation to Anna Popova for delivering an inspiring talk on AI-driven prototyping—a topic that sparked curiosity, rich discussion, and fresh ideas across the room. 👏
I’m also especially grateful to my co-organizer Prashantha Rao whose energy and partnership made this launch possible. 🙌
And of course, a big thank you to Roku for being such a gracious host, and to the amazing team—Shannen Talbot, Mitch S., Tim Granger and others—for making the evening seamless and welcoming 🙌. I feel truly proud to be part of Roku, an organization that supports and invests in building communities like this. 💜
It was energizing to see so many product minds come together in Cambridge—we’re just getting started, and this is only the beginning of building something special.
Excited for what’s ahead and can’t wait to welcome you to the next one in and around Cambridge Science Park!
London
Another week, another great product event in London, this time exploring Wise’s product culture with Gadi Weiszlovits Lahav, Director of Product.
As I look to grow into product management, I found his perspective on what makes a strong PM insightful: understanding customers, embracing ambiguity, executing with speed and attention to detail, creating impact, and staying curious. These principles are also central to how I work as a project manager.
One takeaway for me was Wise’s approach to customer service. AI has a role in workflows, but real customer understanding still relies on people. That balance felt important.
The discussion also left me thinking about the kind of environment I’d thrive in: autonomy, intellectual challenge, and great people.
Grateful to have joined this session, hosted by Mind the Product, and to hear from Victoria K. on the qualities they look for in new hires."
Porto
ICYMI…
Last night’s Action 2 in Evolving the Product Operating Model for a Changing World was:
NO PET PROJECTS!
That’s purr-fect advice. 😽🚀
Ever been in a “mission-critical” digital/agile/AI transformation that’s quietly treated like a side project?
Yeah… us too!
At ProductTank Porto (a Mind the Product meetup), Martina Hodges-Schell, PCC and Teresa Leighty shared hard-won lessons from the trenches — spanning local startups, meteoric scale-ups, and Fortune 50s — hosted by our friends at Mindera in central Porto.
A few gems:
✅ "Insist on investment of time in learning core principles and practices for leaders."
➡️ Leadership must lean in and actively participate in — not just orchestrate/sponsor — the change.
✅ "Highlight and share positive behaviors and 'wins'."
➡️ Make positive behaviors and wins visible — sharing is caring!
✅ "Create a shared view of approach and definition of success"
➡️ Intentionally define your transformation outcomes — align on the “how” and the “win.”
✅ "Allocate realistic time and resources."
➡️ Transformation doesn't happen in a month, a quarter or even a year. It's continuous and everyone has a role in it.
If you joined us, what resonated most?
If you couldn’t make it (⚽ 🙌), what questions do you have for our speakers?
Drop your ahas! — or your best “cat fights” 🐈 — in the comments.
Photos in the carousel!
P.S. Martina (co-author of 'Communicating the UX Vision') is writing a new book on purposeful AI, if you have a story to share, drop a comment or DM her for a chance to be included in a case study."
Lisbon
Janna Bastow shared: “You guys have zero idea how important you are for the business… and that’s dangerous.”
That one from Ricardo Luiz at ProductTank Lisbon tonight made everyone stop. He walked us through how teams lose purpose.. and how to get it back. he also said: “It really helps to have an artifact to ground the conversation and add to the narrative.”
Couldn’t agree more. Purpose needs something tangible behind it, something that keeps the story alive.
Huge thanks to the ProductTank Lisbon crew Luis Trindade Kinga Magyar Michelle Grandville Crosignani Paulo Garcia for putting together a great event. Sorry to miss your talk, Bruce McCarthy! Had to run off to dinner, but really lovely to catch up 😁
Amazing crowd, great energy. Lisbon’s product people get it ❤️"
Cologne
Tim Klein wrote: "It's your job to understand that 𝘵𝘩𝘦 business is 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 business. That, or something like it, was Matt LeMay's quote yesterday at the wonderful ProductTank Cologne Meetup at our location sponsor RTL Group
What a great and entertaining speaker! Not only due to cat content. 🙀
What a great topic: 𝗜𝗠𝗣𝗔𝗖𝗧𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝘁𝗲ams
You have to draw a line between your team's day-to-day work and the business impact your company wanna reach. Everything else is "the middle" - also important practices. But if a team cannot see and know it's work DIRECT impact for the business it will deliver low impact work (walking down the "𝗱𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗵 𝘀𝗽𝗶𝗿𝗮𝗹").
𝗠𝗮𝘁𝘁 advised us: Ask yourself "Does everybody on your team know 𝘦𝘹𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘭𝘺 what success looks like without having to point to a deck or board?"
IT's about the very close connection of the team with the overall goals and objectives of the business you're working for. Don't cascade goals structures, OKRs or what ever - better build your orbit around these core business goals... to find the 𝘥𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘵 leverage point of your team.
What an honor to provide such cool speakers like Matt to the Cologne Product community by organizing the ProductTank Cologne meetups as volunteers ttogether with my valued co-hosts from the organization team: Shehrina Kamal, Dominik Rose, Simonetta Batteiger and Alkaios Bournias Varotsis PhD
Special thanks and kudos to our location sponsor 𝗥𝗧𝗟 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆 with Axel Weber as lead contact and organizer. Look out for their job opportunities - a great place to work in the heart of media production."
Columbus
Lisa Parsons shared: "Huge thanks to everyone who joined us last night at the ProductTank Columbus event!
Our Halloween-themed discussion, "Feature Graveyard Stories: Lessons from Features that Didn't Make It," was a real treat… queue the candy! Pun intended! While that joke was light, the content was occasionally heavy, and we shared a few laughs along the way. We split off into roundtables and shared personal stories of features (and sometimes fully built products!) that didn't make the cut, regardless of whether they were built by one person or hundreds. Product Managers, UX Designers, and Developers shared lessons learned while we collectively sighed in pain when the feature didn't go as planned.
Getting together to share successes and failures is a great way to learn, grow, and build better products. If you have a story that you'd love to share, I'd love to hear it!
---
A few notes of thanks - I'm grateful to have officially joined the Mind the Product community as a Product Tank Co-Organizer. Kim Woods cheers to a successful first event together! Thank you to Switchbox for hosting.
Follow along on our page for info on our next event."
Edinburgh
Steve Carroll summarised the meetup: "Great to be part of the Lovable Hackathon in Edinburgh last week with ProductTank Edinburgh!
It was great to collaborate with so many other product minds, exploring how AI and product thinking can come together to create a working app in under an hour.
The challenge? Build a tourism app for visitors to Edinburgh.
Our team went full Scottish with an app for "Those who think they’re Scottish!"
A few of our favourite features:
🏴 Pick your clan - MacLeod, MacGregor... if you are reeaaally Scottish, then you know your clan, right??...
🥃 Choose your Scottish level - from Level 1: “Just here for the castles and shortbread”... up to Level 5: “Reciting Rabbie Burns over haggis and whisky at sunrise.”
One takeaway - even in an AI-first world, collaboration is still key. Taking time to shape the user problem and ideate on how best to solve it instead of one-shot prompting and hoping for the best, helped us rapidly get to an experience that aligned with our vision.
All round, a lot of fun and a great showcase of what happens when product people and AI come together."
Bentoville
ProductTank Bentoville: "Last week marked a special beginning for Bentonville’s Product community. 🎉
With our very first ProductTank Bentonville meetup, we set out to create a space where product minds can connect, exchange ideas, and grow together, and the energy in the space made it clear we’re off to a strong start.
Over 30 Product and Program professionals joined us for conversations that truly mattered — from fractional product roles and evolving product strategies to how AI is reshaping the craft . What stood out most wasn’t just the topics, but the thoughtful perspectives, curiosity, and openness that filled the room. 💙
ProductTank Bentonville aims to be the platform for meaningful conversations and shared learning— where product managers, designers, and builders can come together to discuss challenges, share wins, and explore the future of product thinking in our region.💡
This was just the first step — and what an encouraging start it was. 🙌
Stay tuned for more meetups, deeper discussions, and hands-on sessions as we continue building this vibrant product community in Bentonville, NW Arkansas.
Sujay Annareddy, Felix O. , Diggaj Vyas, Montana Deavila, Curtis Michelson"
Don't miss out on these free community events! Check out a ProductTank near you: ProductTank meetup page.
About the author
Steffi Crivellaro
Steffi is a Communications Manager at Mind the Product.