Four years ago I founded ProductTank with the simple goal of gathering a couple of product managers together in London to share our experiences and lessons learned. Product Management can be a lonely and sometimes frustrating job – especially in a start-up – and I wanted a group of peers I could kvetch about it to while also learning to be a better product manager.
At that first meetup in London – exactly four years ago today – around thirty intrepid product people joined me to hear Dan Peters and Jonathon Moore speak, share a few beers and further our craft. And I would have been perfectly happy if that’s where ProductTank stayed – a small irregular group that met every few months.
Fast forward four years and it’s clear that I underestimated the hunger we product people have for learning and sharing. By a lot.
I’m thrilled to announce today that with the most recent additions of Stockholm, Washington DC and Sydney we’ve not just gone international – we’ve gone global. ProductTank is now in 21 cities around the world, with over 6,000 members meeting regularly. The London meetup alone has over 2,500 members and gathers over 300 product people every single month.
This wouldn’t be possible without the local volunteers that pick up the ProductTank baton and run with it in their cities. These amazing organisers, whose passion is unrivalled, do all the hard work of finding venues, sponsors and speakers to create a strong local community that continues that original vision – of sharing knowledge and experience to make us all better product managers, designers and developers.
And we’re not done yet. We’d like to find more local organisers who share that passion and want a local community in their city. So we’ve started a program where we can help you do just that, by sharing all our experience of running a ProductTank and product community, by supporting you with our brand, tools and access to sponsors, and by connecting you with the burgeoning international ProductTank community. If you’re interested – drop us a line at producttank@mindtheproduct.com.
If you’re interested in supporting this amazing community of product people, whether by featuring your brand or showcasing yourself as an employer of choice, get in touch at sponsor@mindtheproduct.com to hear about our sponsorship opportunities.
Here’s to another 4 amazing years – I wonder how many cities ProductTank will be in by 2018?
Until then – join your local ProductTank meetup and join us at our annual conference.
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