The story of the first ProductTank – held in the back room of a London pub, arranged by Martin Eriksson, attended by a handful of people – has been told many times. And so, to celebrate the 10th anniversary, we wanted to hear from someone else who was there, in the room, when it all began.
Our first guest is, therefore, Selena Hadzibabic, VP Product at The Knot Worldwide, who was one of those original attendees.
Our second is Arne Kittler, Director of Product, Xing, who helped found and organise both ProductTank and MTP Engage in Hamburg.
Together they joined us (remotely of course) to discuss the past decade in product, the day ProductTank began, and everything they’ve learned along the way.
Quote of the Episode
At the very first (ProductTank), the biggest thing we all learned was just how much we needed each other.
-Selena Hadzibabic
Listen if you’d like to learn more about
- ProductTank
- How Product Management has changed in the last 10 years
- Predictions for the future
Links mentioned in this episode
- Follow Selena on Twitter, LinkedIn and Medium
- Follow Arne on Twitter, LinkedIn and Medium – and listen to his band, Pau! They loaned us one of their songs to use as our theme.
- Mind The Product Product Tank page
- The Knot
Hosts
The Product Experience is hosted by Lily Smith and Randy Silver.
Lily enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early-stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. Lily has spent 13 years in the tech industry working mainly with startups in the SaaS and mobile space. She has worked on a diverse range of products – leading the product teams through discovery, prototyping, testing and delivery. Lily also founded ProductTank in Bristol, the Product Managers’ meetup with regular events and talks on Product now with 800+ members and growing. Now the Head of Innovation at Go Compare, Lily also runs ProductCamp in Bristol and Bath.
A recovering music journalist and editor, Randy has been working as an interactive producer and product manager across the US and UK for nearly 20 years. After launching Amazon’s music stores in the US and UK, Randy has worked with museums and arts groups, online education, media and entertainment, retail and financial services. He’s held Head of Product roles at HSBC and Sainsbury’s, where he also directed their 100+-person product community. His book, What Do We Do Now? A Product Manager’s Guide to Strategy in the Time of COVID-19 is available now, with all profits going to COVID-19 relief efforts.
Music
Our theme music is from Hamburg-based Pau, featuring ProductTank Hamburg’s own Arne Kittler on bass. Listen to them on Spotify and follow them on Facebook
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