September at ProductTanks: Culture clashes, AI in product, and cutting through strategy noise
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.
From Birmingham to San Francisco, and beyond, September was packed with fresh perspectives across 66 ProductTank meetups worldwide. Communities dove into the toughest challenges facing product teams today: Navigating company culture and team tensions, balancing quick wins with long-term vision, and exploring the evolving role of AI. Add in a quiz, and a hands-on workshop, it’s clear our global community continues to push the boundaries of product thinking, all while making connections.
Birmingham
ProductTank Birmingham shared:
'What a night at ProductTank Birmingham! 🚀
Monday evening, we welcomed Matt LeMay, product leader, consultant, and author of Impact-First Product Teams and Product Management in Practice.
It was an Ask Me Anything format and the questions from our community were 🔥 covering:
● Navigating company culture & team tension
● Moving beyond “Scrum theatre”
● Driving real impact with limited resources
● Balancing quick wins vs long-term vision
● The role of AI in evolving product teams
Big thanks to everyone who joined us, asked thoughtful questions, and stayed for the pizza & networking 🍕.
🙌 Shoutout to our sponsors x+why Foundry (venue), AND Digital (pizza & drinks), and Intel Stream Studio (capturing our event) for making the evening possible.
Want to give a talk, sponsor us or host us at your company or venue? DM us, or one of our co-organisers:
Matt Vercauteren | Janice Feighery | Nohit Arora | Mahdi Barkhordari
Manchester
Michael Palmer wrote a great summary:
'🔥 What a night at ProductTank Manchester!
We had two product legends on stage:
Jason Knight tackled the overwhelm of too much product content. He reminded us that:
- Product is messy and always shaped by context
- The product books aren’t your boss (and your stakeholders aren’t reading them!)
- Confidence and pragmatism matter more than sticking rigidly to theory
- Success comes from figuring out your job in your setting.
Martin Eriksson cut through the noise on strategy.
He talked about how..
- Most people in organisations don’t actually know the company strategy — which means everything becomes a priority
- A real strategy is a coherent set of choices about how to achieve your vision
- Once strategy is clear, strong principles help teams make better decisions and say no with confidence
Both Martin and Jason also took brilliant questions from the community — sparking some lively, honest discussions that made the night even more special. 🙌
Huge thanks to our sponsors and hosts Worldpay my co-hosts Andy Birds Holly Donohue and our brilliant community for another packed, energising evening.
📢 We’re also on the lookout for:
- Speakers who want to share their product stories
- Venues/sponsors who can host 90+ people and provide food & drinks
If you’re interested, DM me, Andy, or Holly — we’d love to chat!'
Barcelona
Nacho Bassino wrote: 'Last week's ProductTank Barcelona was truly inspiring. 🙌
We explored the super-relevant topic of Product Ops with two fantastic local speakers, Katie Hudson and Marielle Velander.
They shared actionable insights on building sustainable velocity and a single source of truth. 🧠
Because, as we discussed, someone is performing the Ops job, whether or not they hold the title.
A couple of takeaways?
💡 Velocity isn’t about burnout. It’s about building systems that protect your team's focus.
🐲 We learned how to tame the "dragons" of information—like inconsistent formats and backlogs lost in limbo—to create clarity.
And as always, the energy in the room was electric! It's incredible to see our community come together to learn and connect.
It’s moments like these that remind us how talented and vibrant the Barcelona product scene is.
Ready to be part of it?
🔔 Follow ProductTank Barcelona here on LinkedIn for updates.
🎟️ Join our community on Meetup to be the first to know about new events!
A big thanks to our great host for this event, eDreams ODIGEO 🦾'
Sǎo Paulo
Newton De Paula shared his experience 'I had the pleasure of joining ProductTank São Paulo (Mind the Product ),a global community of product professionals present in more than 200 cities around the world, with the mission of sharing the daily lives of those who build digital products.
It was great hearing from Eduardo M. and Amanda Miotto share their experiences applying AI in their products. I had been missing this type of exchange for a while, and it was truly energizing to connect with people who are driving this movement forward.
Congratulations Leonardo Pabon, Lucas Felicio and the entire team of volunteers and partners!'
San Francisco
'Our first-ever live workshop was a hit!
On Wednesday, the ProductTank SF community came together at Cribl HQ for an engaging, hands-on evening of building.
Some folks teamed up, others worked solo, and in just about an hour of build time on Lovable, we saw all kinds of neat ideas come to life!
Along the way, we picked up some powerful lessons for PMs experimenting with AI tools, and our favorite was:
“Think big, act small” — Give the system full context, but work in small phases with clear acceptance criteria.
A huge thank you to Jorge Alcantara (CEO, Zentrik) for leading us through product thinking + prototyping fundamentals, and to all our mentors for all the help :)
A huge shout out again to our amazing sponsors who keep us going! Cribl Lovable Magic Patterns
Jerry Young Utkarsh Pandey Betty Margulies Melissa Hsu Glenn B.
Delhi
Mohit Chandna shared: 'Wrapping up an amazing experience on the Product Leadership Roundtable panel!
The "no slides, no scripts" format allowed for truly honest insights into the future of product management in the age of AI.
Thank you to ProductTank Delhi NCR, Atlassian Community - Delhi Gurugram, and Nagarro for creating the space for this crucial discussion.
To the lively audience—your engagement was outstanding. I learned as much as I hope I shared. Let's keep the conversation going!'
Hamburg
Petra Wille wrote: What a wild ride! 🎢
Last night I had the absolute pleasure of speaking at ProductTank Hamburg - but not in the way you'd expect!
Instead of delivering my usual talk, the brilliant organizers turned it into a quiz show format.
Picture this:
❓ The audience fired questions at me.
⏱️ I had to answer on the spot.
⭐ The answers got rated live.
Talk about being in the hot seat! I really felt the pressure to make sure people walked away with useful, relevant takeaways — and it turned out to be a lot of fun. There even was a raffle at the end.
A huge thanks to the PT crew Tobias, Lisa, Jan, Anja for the invite and the creative twist, to the Netlight team for hosting - and to everyone who joined and played along.'
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.
