Tag: conference networking

Staying Sane as a Product Leader: Practical Strategies I’m Using from Teresa Torres & Petra Wille

The world can feel like it’s spinning, and as a product leader, I feel that pressure acutely—juggling customer needs, stakeholder expectations, and the relentless news cycle. I recently listened to a powerful conversation with Teresa Torres and Petra Wille about staying grounded when everything feels “bonkers,” and it offered a practical, human way to keep showing up without losing yourself.

What resonated most was the invitation to live my values through small, consistent actions. Rather than waiting for grand gestures or perfect solutions, I’m leaning into the mindset of “Something is better than nothing.” It’s the same spirit we bring to continuous improvement in product: make a change, evaluate impact, iterate.

“Create the world you want to live in” has become a daily prompt for me. I’m applying it to how I spend my attention, time, and platform—three scarce resources for any product management leader. I’m not going to do everything perfectly, but I can make better trade-offs this week than I did last week, and I can keep improving.

Practically, that looks like reconsidering which speaking invites I accept, especially when representation is skewed. If a stage is heavily male, I now ask organizers about their plan for balance before committing. I also question travel expectations for short talks when a high-quality virtual experience is possible—good for sustainability, budgets, and energy. These choices compound, just like product roadmapping and sprint planning decisions.

Petra’s “under-complexity” lens was a wake-up call. In product, oversimplified narratives—whether a single KPI, a vanity metric, or a forced binary—usually increase fear and bad decisions. The same is true in civic discourse. To counter that, I’m seeking more nuance on purpose: reading multiple sources on the same story, listening for who’s not in the room, and noticing how the same facts can carry different meanings depending on who’s telling it.

One simple habit helps: I’ll read The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal on a headline, then follow up with Tangle by Isaac Saul, which lays out “what the left says / what the right says / editor’s take,” sometimes including perspectives from affected communities. It’s a lightweight form of personal knowledge management that improves my product judgment and my citizenship.

Another idea that stuck with me is swapping media proxies for human connection. In product, we don’t ship based on secondhand opinions—we run customer interviews, co-create with users, and build empowered product teams. The same principle applies in community: talk to someone directly affected, ask real questions, and stay curious. When conversations get heated, I try to build bridges, reduce proxies, and look people in the eye.

I’m also reflecting on platform responsibility. Even a “small” platform can snowball through weak ties inside a company or community. I’m asking: When should I speak up? Where should I draw lines? And when is “staying in your lane” actually a way to avoid necessary leadership? These are the same stakeholder management questions we navigate in product strategy—assess impact, clarify intent, and act with integrity.

Local grounding matters, too. I’ve found energy and clarity in community-level action: voting, attending public protests when it feels right, mentoring, and supporting nonprofits like World Pulse. I love the framing of “don’t mess with my neighbors”—it keeps me focused on tangible care when the internet starts to feel like reality. I’ve also seen leaders use angel investing in agriculture-related efforts as a counterbalance to “internet reality,” channeling resources into durable, real-world outcomes.

If you want to experiment this week, pick one small lever you control: where you spend money, time, attention, or your platform. Add nuance by reading at least two different perspectives before reacting. Replace proxies with people by talking to someone with lived experience. Reduce polarization by asking, “what shaped that view?” before judging it. And go local—connect with neighbors or a community group and let small actions compound.

If you’d like to hear the full conversation that inspired these reflections, you can listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Here are the direct links: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1sxEFquu73ZB9fL9gGk6Om and Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/kh/podcast/staying-sane/id1794203808?i=1000755696295

Resources I’m exploring and recommend: World Pulse (https://www.worldpulse.org/), The New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/), The Wall Street Journal (https://www.wsj.com/), and Tangle by Isaac Saul (https://www.readtangle.com/ and https://www.readtangle.com/author/isaac-saul/). For builders and writers, I also appreciate Ghost (https://ghost.org/) as an open-source publishing platform. If you work in or with the MENA ecosystem, take a look at MENA Product Summit ’26 (https://www.prdkt.plus/summit26). Colleagues like Jeff Merrell (https://jeffdmerrell.com/) and grassroots efforts such as No Kings Protest (https://www.nokings.org/) offer additional perspectives and ways to get involved.

If this resonates, share it with a teammate who’s been feeling the weight of the world. I’d love to hear one small, values-aligned action you’re taking this month—what “something” will you try next?

Inspired by this post on Product Talk.

March 17, 2026
Pendomonium 101: Insider Tips, Proven Strategies, and Why This Product Festival Is Can’t‑Miss

Every year, I circle Pendomonium on my calendar because it reliably delivers the perfect blend of strategy, execution, and community. It’s where product leaders, builders, and operators compare notes on what actually moves activation, adoption, and retention—and where I pressure-test my roadmap and go-to-market assumptions against real-world data and peer experience.

Pendomonium is a product festival by Pendo in downtown Raleigh. Get answers to all your questions about the best product festival of the year.

From a product management leadership lens, the value is clear: Pendomonium is a concentrated learning loop for product-led growth. I come to deepen my craft around in-app guides, onboarding flows, user activation, and product tours—then translate those insights into roadmap bets and experiments my product trios can execute immediately.

Why attend? First, signal over noise: the sessions focus on measurable customer behavior and practical playbooks, not vague inspiration. Second, community: the hallway track and roundtables are some of the best conference networking moments in our field. Third, clarity: I leave with sharper product strategy, a prioritized backlog, and a short list of experiments to validate with customers.

If you’re a first-timer, arrive with intent. Define two or three outcomes you want—such as improving onboarding completion, increasing feature adoption, or tightening product roadmapping and sprint planning—and build your agenda around those goals. Star sessions on product discovery, product strategy, and hands-on Pendo use cases like in-app guides and product tours so your notes translate into immediate action.

Make the most of the community. Treat the hallway track like a scheduled session: set a goal to meet ten peers, bring a crisp introduction, and ask concrete questions such as, “What measurable behavior change did your in-app guide drive?” or “Which activation metric mattered most for your last launch?” Swap templates and dashboards, and follow up within 24 hours while context is fresh.

Logistics matter more than most people admit. Downtown Raleigh is walkable, but high-demand sessions fill quickly—arrive early, wear comfortable shoes, and keep a portable charger handy. Schedule buffer time between talks to debrief, review notes, and have serendipitous conversations with the Pendo team and practitioners who can deepen your approach.

Capture, then operationalize. I use a simple note structure: Insight → Hypothesis → Experiment → Metric. Turn session takeaways into tests (for example, variations of onboarding checklists or empty-state prompts) and define success criteria in advance. Align those experiments with your OKRs and use QBRs to review outcomes, ensuring what you learned at the festival translates into measurable product impact.

Post-event, run an internal readout within a week. Demo two applicable ideas, propose a 30-60-90 day experiment plan, and tie each initiative to a customer behavior metric such as time-to-value, daily active usage, or feature adoption. This is how Pendomonium goes from inspiring to invaluable—by turning insights into shippable, testable work that advances your strategy.

If this is your first Pendomonium, expect high energy, candid conversations, and a wealth of practical tactics you can apply immediately. I’ll be there comparing notes, learning from peers, and sharing what’s worked—and what hasn’t—in scaling product organizations. If you spot me in a session on activation or onboarding, come say hello.

Inspired by this post on Pendo – Best Practices.

January 23, 2026
Inside Product at Heart 2026: Bold Single-Track Vision, AI Everywhere, Deeper Connections

I just tuned into the latest conversation on the upcoming Product at Heart 2026, and it hit on the exact challenges product leaders are navigating right now: curating meaningful content in a world where AI moves faster than our agendas, designing formats that create real connection, and ensuring every minute earns its place. Listening to Petra Wille and Teresa Torres map out the speaker lineup, workshops, and structural shifts, I found myself nodding along—this is the kind of thoughtful curation we need if we want product teams and product leaders to walk away with practical value, not just inspiration.

Listen to this episode on: Spotify | Apple Podcasts

What stood out immediately is the bold move to a single-track conference for 2026. In an era of gen ai hype and endless breakouts, this choice signals clear intent: tighter curation, a shared experience, and less FOMO. The team isn’t carving out a separate AI track—and I love that decision. Their stance is simple and sensible: No AI track—AI will show up everywhere, but not as a siloed topic. The team sees it as part of the everyday toolkit. That mirrors how high-performing, empowered product teams actually work today—AI Strategy and AI workflows are part of the operating system, not a side show.

The keynote lineup is already compelling. Christian Idiodi (SVPG) brings storytelling that turns product principles into habits you can actually use on Monday. Elaine Kasket, cyber-psychologist, exploring digital afterlife and AI replicas, will push us to think more deeply about the human side of our systems. And Teresa Torres will be sharing what she’s learning about AI—exactly the kind of continuous discovery mindset we need as we integrate LLMs into product discovery and delivery.

I’m also thrilled to see roundtables become what they’re calling an “alternative track.” That’s a smart way to deepen learning without fragmenting attention. The best conference ROI I’ve had often comes from targeted small-group conversations—where product trios compare approaches, swap metrics frameworks, or challenge each other’s product strategy assumptions. It’s a design choice that rewards curiosity and builds communities of practice.

We also get a behind-the-scenes look at Teresa’s Maker Studio workshop, where participants will build personal AI workflows. That’s exactly the hands-on, practitioner-first approach teams need right now—less demo theater, more systems that stick. If your roadmap includes integrating LLMs into continuous discovery or augmenting your team’s decision velocity, this kind of guided practice is gold.

The broader workshop slate looks deep and balanced. Expect returning favorites and practical frameworks: Rich Mironov on the realities of product leadership in complex orgs; Büşra’s metrics workshop translating outcomes into action; and an overview of additional workshops from Rich Mironov, Büşra Coşkuner, Marcus Castenfors, and Özlem Yüce. From success metrics to toolkits for product managers, the content spans IC to product management leadership—ideal if you’re stepping into new roles or scaling empowered product teams.

One of the most exciting evolutions is the Product Leadership Event, now a 1.5-day retreat. The format blends talk sessions, mini-workshops, dinners, and small-group excursions (boat rides, improv, etc.), giving leaders time and space to exchange playbooks, stress-test decisions, and build real relationships. It’s capped at 60 attendees (all in product leadership roles) to keep it intimate and useful. As someone who believes in outcomes vs output OKRs and first principles decision making, I appreciate how this structure encourages depth over breadth—and real accountability among peers.

Here are the core takeaways I’m carrying into my own planning: single-track means tighter curation, so every talk has to earn its place. Roundtables are growing into an “alternative track,” offering more ways to engage beyond stage talks. Workshops go deep and meet you where you are—IC, manager, or executive. And the leadership retreat expands to maximize learning from peers, not just from the stage. If you care about product discovery, product strategy, and conference networking that leads to actual business impact, this program looks thoughtfully engineered.

If you’re planning your 2026 calendar—or just curious how conferences evolve alongside the craft—this is a thoughtful walkthrough of what to expect. Come say hi to Teresa and Petra—on stage, at a roundtable, or somewhere in the hallway conversations that make these events memorable.

For more context and resources mentioned, explore: Product at Heart, Arne Kittler, Mind the Product, Christian Idiodi of Silicon Valley Product Group, Elaine Kasket, House of Beautiful Business, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, Rich Mironov, Marty Cagan, Claude Code, Codex by OpenAI, Marcus Castenfors, Büşra Coşkuner and her Success Metrics: A Playbook for Product Managers, Özlem Yüce’s Essential Toolkit for Product Managers, Petra’s Product Leadership Wheel (PLwheel), and Netlight.

Follow Teresa Torres: https://ProductTalk.org

Follow Petra Wille: https://Petra-Wille.com

Full transcripts are only available for paid subscribers.

Inspired by this post on Product Talk.

January 20, 2026
New Year, New Product Habits: AI Workflows, Coaching Culture, and Community in 2026

Happy New Year! I’m kicking off 2026 with a behind-the-scenes look at what’s changing in my product practice, the experiments I’m running with my teams at HighLevel, and the trends I’m most energized by—especially around continuous discovery, AI workflows, and building stronger coaching cultures.

If you want to listen to the conversation that sparked many of these reflections, you can find it here: Spotify | Apple Podcasts.

Why Teresa sunset the live deep-dive cohorts—and how on-demand and the new Discovery Habits Toolbox better support real behavior change. This pivot resonated with my own experience: some skills, especially discovery habits, only stick when they’re reinforced in the flow of real product work, not just in a time-boxed cohort. In my org, we’re leaning into on-demand learning paired with manager coaching to drive durable behavior change.

What leaders actually need to coach interviewing, assumption testing, and core discovery habits inside their orgs. I’ve found that empowered product teams thrive when leaders have lightweight coaching tools, practical prompts, and clear expectations for product trios. This is less about one-off training and more about building communities of practice where deliberate practice and feedback loops become routine.

Why training is shifting toward ongoing, leader-supported learning (and how AI will accelerate the shift). AI Strategy isn’t just about tools—it’s about learning systems. For LLMs for product managers to create leverage, we need eval-driven development, privacy-by-design, and clear guardrails. I’m building AI workflows that enable managers to review interviews, spot anti-patterns, and nudge teams toward better decisions—without replacing critical thinking.

Teresa’s move into paid subscriptions and why AI content doesn’t fit the classic “design once, run for years” course model. I see the same reality in my content roadmap: the half-life of AI guidance is short. That pushes us toward subscription models, tighter feedback loops, and a more adaptive go-to-market strategy for education products.

A sneak peek into the AI tools Teresa is building for discovery work—from interview coaching to near-ready interview snapshot generation. I’m particularly excited by tooling that scaffolds better interviews, sharpens assumption testing, and speeds up synthesis without skipping the human judgment step. These capabilities map directly to where I want my teams investing time: spending less energy on admin and more on learning from customers.

Petra’s plans for the year: community building with Product at Heart, a new product leadership email course, her Product Leadership Wheel, and workshops launching in Cairo. As someone who believes in conferences as high-quality “energy wells,” I’m inspired by how these programs create momentum for leaders who are upgrading their coaching muscles.

The role of conferences and retreats in staying grounded, inspired, and connected. I treat these gatherings as strategic resets—spaces to test ideas, confront blind spots, and deepen my network for future collaboration. The best outcomes often come from serendipitous hallway conversations and hands-on sessions where you can pressure test frameworks with peers.

How Teresa is staying on top of academic research (and why “synthetic users” aren’t ready for prime time). I agree: while synthetic data can be useful for scaffolding, it’s not a substitute for direct customer contact. Combine academic rigor with real-world interviewing and strong data governance—especially when operating under General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The shared challenge of evaluating vendors and conference speakers making questionable AI claims. My heuristic: ask for clear problem statements, reproducible evaluations, grounded benchmarks, and a path to safe deployment. If a pitch can’t show measurable uplift or ignores compliance, it’s not ready for empowered product teams.

Key takeaways I’m carrying into 2026: delivery models matter; leaders need coaching tools, not just training; AI is reshaping how we teach and learn; experimentation is the theme of 2026; and community still energizes. That’s the blueprint I’m using to strengthen continuous discovery, refine our AI workflows, and sustain high standards in product management leadership.

What about you? How are you integrating AI workflows into your discovery practice, and what coaching tools are helping your managers reinforce the right habits? Share your approach—I’d love to learn what’s working in your context.

Resources & Links:

Follow Teresa Torres: https://ProductTalk.org

Follow Petra Wille: https://Petra-Wille.com

Teresa’s website: Product Talk

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

Product Talk Academy

Deliberate Practice – ATP episode where Teresa talked about the ending live cohorts for Deep Dive classes

Teresa’s Discovery Habits Toolbox program

Petra’s A 52-Week Transformation Journey

Teresa’s Product Talk subscriptions (AI workflows + discovery content)

Claude Code

The Interview Coach by Teresa

Product at Heart Conference (Hamburg)

Petra’s Coaching Packages

Petra’s Ways We Can Work Together

Petra’s Product Leadership Wheel (PLwheel)

Petra’s Product Manager (PMwheel)

Prdkt+ MENA Product Summit 2026

World Beautiful Business Forum by House of Beautiful Business

Melissa Suzuno

Vistaly (Teresa’s integration partner for some upcoming AI tools)

Teresa’s Just Now Possible podcast

Inspired by this post on Product Talk.

January 13, 2026
Inside PendomoniumX London: AI’s tipping point and what product leaders should do next

I walked into PendomoniumX London energized by a simple question: are we finally past the AI hype cycle and into real product impact? From the hallway conversations to the main stage, the momentum was unmistakable—and deeply practical.

PendomoniumX’s sixth stop brought 350+ software leaders together for a day of AI transformation, real-world stories, and product innovation.

That scale and focus say a lot. Across the dialogues I joined, the center of gravity has clearly shifted from experiments to execution: building an AI Strategy that aligns with product roadmaps, turning promising prototypes into production-grade AI workflows, and measuring value in ways that reinforce product-led growth. It’s the inflection point where Generative AI moves from isolated pilots to cross-functional capabilities.

My biggest takeaway for product leaders: treat AI like any other durable capability. Start with sharp problem framing and customer outcomes, run continuous discovery to validate use cases, and sequence delivery through product roadmapping and sprint planning. Pair this with privacy-by-design and sensible governance so your teams can move fast without cutting corners.

Operationally, I’ve found it essential to design experiences that accelerate user activation—think thoughtful onboarding, in-app guides, and product tours that reduce friction while teaching new AI-powered behaviors. For teams adopting LLMs for product managers, keep your evaluation loops tight, instrument the journey end-to-end, and make sure every iteration maps to a clear value proposition customers can feel.

Events like PendomoniumX London remind me why community matters: they compress learning cycles. If you’re steering an AI portfolio, now is the moment to translate vision into repeatable systems—prioritize the right bets, make adoption effortless, and let data tell you when to double down or pivot. That’s how we turn AI transformation into durable product innovation.

Inspired by this post on Pendo – Perspectives.

January 3, 2026
Why I’m All-In on INDUSTRY 2025: 5 Powerful Reasons For Product Leaders at The Product Conference

INDUSTRY 2025: The Product Conference is circled on my calendar for good reason. In my role leading product management at HighLevel, I look for events that sharpen strategy, accelerate learning, and connect me with operators who ship. This one consistently delivers on all three, and 2025 promises to raise the bar for product management leadership.

Join Pendo at INDUSTRY in Cleveland, Ohio.

First, I expect deeply actionable product strategy insights—beyond platitudes. I’m prioritizing conversations on outcomes vs output OKRs, product roadmapping and sprint planning, and how great teams articulate a crisp value proposition while maintaining points of parity that matter. I’m going in with specific questions on product-market fit lessons and how to systematize strategic bets without stifling discovery.

Second, the surge of AI in product work is too important to observe from the sidelines. I’m comparing approaches across AI Strategy, LLMs for product managers, prompt engineering, and eval-driven development—especially in retrieval-first pipeline patterns. My focus: where AI genuinely improves product discovery, in-app guides, and customer support ai strategy, and where it risks adding complexity without outcomes.

Third, the community is unmatched for conference networking and pragmatic learning. I’m intentional about meeting product trios who run continuous discovery at scale, as well as leaders who’ve cracked stakeholder management under pressure. These are the moments where competitive differentiation is born—through candid stories of what didn’t work and why.

Fourth, I’m eager to stress-test data practices that power product-led growth. I’ll be exchanging notes on retention analysis, unified analytics platform decisions, user activation, and how teams integrate qualitative feedback with event data to inform roadmaps. I’m also interested in how practitioners leverage platforms like Pendo, Amplitude analytics, Intercom, and HubSpot to reduce time-to-insight and craft effective product tours and in-app guides.

Fifth, I treat INDUSTRY as a checkpoint for leadership growth. I’m looking for fresh takes on empowering product teams, first principles decision making, organizational development, and the IC to manager transition. The best sessions don’t just inspire; they give me two moves I can apply with my team on Monday.

To make the most of the week, I’m applying a continuous discovery mindset: arrive with clear learning goals, capture portable frameworks, and translate at least two insights into experiments before wheels-up. If you’re focused on product strategy, product discovery, and product-led growth, we’ll have plenty to compare and build on together.

I’ll be in Cleveland ready to learn, share, and connect with peers who care about craft and outcomes. If you’re attending, let’s compare notes on what’s working, what’s stalled, and how we can raise the bar for product management leadership in 2025 and beyond.

Inspired by this post on Pendo – Perspectives.

January 3, 2026
Plan Your 2026 Product Conference Calendar: Top Events, Locations, and Insider Tips

I’m curating a living list of 2026 product conferences to help product managers, product leaders, and empowered product teams plan ahead with confidence. I use this calendar to align my team’s discovery work, roadmapping, and go-to-market strategy—and to prioritize conference networking and learning that moves the needle on product-led growth.

This list is not exhaustive. If there’s a product conference missing that should be here, please send it to conferences@producttalk.org. I’ll keep updating this as new events are announced so you have a reliable guide throughout the year.

I’ll be teaching a workshop and speaking at the Product at Heart conference in June in Hamburg, Germany. If you plan to attend, be sure to say hi.

Are you looking for the 2025 Product Conferences list? Find it here.

How I use this guide: I map events to our quarterly OKRs (outcomes vs output OKRs), focus on sessions that sharpen product discovery, stakeholder management, and product roadmapping and sprint planning, and bring a clear plan for takeaways I can apply the day I’m back. If you’re exploring AI Strategy and LLMs for product managers, you’ll find several strong options below.

January

Jan 28 — Product-Led Summit — Washington, DC, USA

Jan 30–31 — Prdkt+ — Cairo, Egypt

February

Feb 1–4 — WebSummit — Doha, Qatar

Feb 2–20 — DeveloperWeek Hackathon — San Jose, CA, USA & Virtual

Feb 4 — DDX Innovation & UX Conference — Tokyo, Japan

Feb 4–5 — UX360 Virtual Summit — Virtual

Feb 7–8 — DDX Innovation & UX Conference — Dubai, UAE

Feb 18–20 — DeveloperWeek — San Jose, CA, USA

Feb 18–20 — ProductWorld — San Jose, CA, USA

Feb 24 — ProductCon — London, UK

Feb 24–25 — axe-con — Virtual

Feb 24–25 — Product-Led Summit — Austin, TX, USA

March

Mar 9–10 — Gartner Product Leadership Conference — Grapevine, TX, USA

Mar 12–18 — SXSW — Austin, TX, USA

Mar 23–26 — The Annual ACM Conference on Intelligent User Interface — Paphos, Cyprus

Mar 26 — Chief Product Officer Summit — New York, NY, USA

Mar 26–27 — Product Operations Summit — New York, NY, USA

Mar 26–27 — Product-Led Summit — New York, NY, USA

April

Apr 1–2 — Product-Led Summit — Denver, CO, USA

Apr 11 — ProductCamp — Phoenix, AZ, USA

Apr 13–14 — Business of Software — Cambridge, UK

Apr 13–17 — ACM CHI — Barcelona, Spain

Apr 14 — Chief Product Officer Summit — Palo Alto, CA, USA

Apr 15–16 — UX Nordic — Aarhus, Denmark

Apr 15 — AI Product Summit — San Jose, CA, USA

Apr 20–21 — Product at Heart Leadership — Hamburg, Germany

April 22–23 — UX360 NA — Atlanta, GA, USA

May

May 7–8 — ProductWorld 2026 — Opatija, Croatia

May 9 — DDX Innovation & UX Conference — Munich, Germany

May 11–13 — UXDX — New York, NY, USA & Virtual

May 11–14 — Web Summit — Vancouver, Canada

May 12–13 — Product Operations Summit — Amsterdam, The Netherlands

May 12–15 — UXLx User Experience — Lisbon, Portugal

May 13 — Leading the Product Leaders Forum — Melbourne, Australia

May 13–15 — SaaStr Annual — San Mateo, CA, USA

May 14 — Leading the Product Conference — Melbourne, Australia

May 19 — La Product Conf — Paris, France

May 20 — Leading the Product Leaders Forum — Sydney, Australia

May 20 — ProductCon — New York, NY, USA

May 21 — Leading the Product Conference — Sydney, Australia

May 27–29 — UXDX EMEA — Berlin, Germany & Virtual

May 22 — La Product Conf — Madrid, Spain

May 27–28 — Dublin Tech Summit — Dublin, Ireland

May 28–29 — Chief Product Officer Summit — Amsterdam, The Netherlands

May 28–29 — Product-Led Summit — Amsterdam, The Netherlands

June

Jun 8–11 — Web Summit — Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Jun 15–16 — #mtpcon: A Mind the Product conference — London, UK

Jun 16 — Growth Minded Superheroes — Frankfurt, Germany

Jun 17–18 — Product-Led Summit — Seattle, WA, USA

Jun 22–26 — UXPA International — Las Vegas, NV, USA

Jun 23–24 — UX360 EU — Berlin, Germany

Jun 24–25 — Product-Led Summit — London, UK

Jun 26 — Product at Heart Conference — Hamburg, Germany

July

Jul 2–3 — Agile on the Beach — Falmouth, UK

Jul 26–28 — Agile2026 — Washington, DC, USA

Jul 26–31 — HCI International — Montreal, Canada

August

Aug 5 — ProductCon AI: Online Edition — Virtual

September

Sep 16–17 — uxcon — Vienna, Austria

Sep 16–18 — Hatch Conference — Berlin, Germany & Virtual

Sep 17 — DDX Innovation & UX Conference — San Diego, CA, USA

Sep 17 — Chief Product Officer Summit — San Francisco, CA, USA

Sep 22–23 — Product-Led Summit — San Francisco, CA, USA

Sep 22–23 — Product Operations Summit — San Francisco, CA, USA

Sep 28–30 — B2B Summit EMEA — London, UK

Sep 30–Oct 2 — GOTO Copenhagen — Copenhagen, Denmark

October

Oct 14–15 — Product-Led Summit — Berlin, Germany

Oct 16 — Just Product 2026 — Munich, Germany

Oct 26–27 — Y Oslo — Oslo, Norway

Oct 28 — Product-Led Summit — Sydney, Australia

Oct 28–29 — Product-Led Summit — Boston, MA, USA

November

Nov 9–12 — Web Summit — Lisbon, Portugal

Nov 11–12 — Product-Led Summit — Toronto, Canada

Nov 11–12 — Leading Design — London, UK

If you’re attending any of these, let me know—conference networking is always better with a plan and a friendly face. And if you’ve got a must-attend event on your radar, send it to conferences@producttalk.org so I can keep this guide comprehensive for the community.

Inspired by this post on Product Talk.

December 17, 2025
Design Your Community of Practice: Proven Strategies for Continuous Learning and Growth

When I think about how I stay sharp as a product leader, one principle anchors my approach: design your learning system—don’t leave it to chance. Communities of practice are that system. They turn curiosity into a habit, accelerate product discovery, and strengthen product management leadership across empowered product teams.

I recently dug into a powerful conversation on the All Things Product podcast that explores how product people can intentionally design their own communities of practice—and why that matters for long-term learning and growth. The insights apply whether you operate as an independent coach or you’re scaling continuous discovery inside a product org.

I appreciated the contrast in learning styles. Teresa shares an introvert-friendly approach to continuous learning: curating a personal learning network (PLN) filled with people she wants to learn from. Petra contrasts that with a more collaborative style—learning with others through small peer groups, hackathons, and local meetups. Together, they unpack how each approach supports curiosity-driven development, how to find your “definition of good” when starting something new, and the habits that make learning a deliberate practice.

In my own practice leading product trios and shaping outcomes over output, I rotate between these modes. When I need speed or depth on topics like product discovery or stakeholder management, I learn from people: I curate a tight set of voices, reverse-engineer their decisions, and study how they frame trade-offs. When I need new patterns or accountability, I learn with people: I form small peer circles to review experiments, pressure-test roadmaps, and critique discovery plans. Both paths create momentum—one by focus, the other by feedback.

Key takeaways I’m acting on right now:

– What a “community of practice” really means in modern product work: the infrastructure that makes continuous discovery sustainable—and keeps empowered product teams aligned on craft.

– The difference between learning from people vs learning with people—and when to use each depending on whether you need depth, breadth, or accountability.

– How to find like-minded peers for collaborative learning: start with one person you respect, ask who they regularly spar with, attend one local meetup with a clear learning goal, and follow up with a structured exchange.

– Building your Personal Learning Network (PLN): set a theme (e.g., pricing, product roadmapping and sprint planning), prune it quarterly, and track “who I’m learning from” with the same rigor you track stakeholders.

– Personal knowledge management as a product skill: treat notes, highlights, and artifacts as a system, not a junk drawer—so insights compound and are easy to retrieve when you need them.

– Why curiosity-driven learning builds stronger product intuition: schedule time for curiosity and socialize it with peers so it scales beyond individual motivation.

– How committing to talks, books, or courses drives deeper learning: public commitments create productive pressure and force you to clarify your thinking.

Here’s the simple playbook I use with my team: define a quarterly learning theme; curate a small PLN aligned to that theme; assemble a peer circle (PM, Design, Eng) for monthly critiques; commit to shipping one artifact publicly (a talk, guide, or internal workshop); and close the loop with a short write-up on what changed in our decisions, discovery cadence, or bets. It’s lightweight, measurable, and fits neatly alongside product-led growth priorities.

Two quotes from the discussion capture the spirit perfectly:

“Nobody on that list knows they’re in my personal community of practice.” — Teresa Torres

“Sometimes you don’t know your new definition of good until you start learning.” — Petra Wille

If you’d like to go deeper, you can listen to the episode on your favorite platform:

Listen to this episode on: Spotify | Apple Podcasts

Prefer video? Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jimuRg_Q_k

Resources & Links I found useful:

Follow Teresa Torres: https://ProductTalk.org

Follow Petra Wille: https://Petra-Wille.com

Communities and references mentioned:

Product Tank Hamburg

Product at Heart conference

Mind the Product community

Curation – All Things Product with Teresa & Petra episode

Hamel’s Blog

AI Evals for Engineers and PMs course by Hamel Husain (get 35% off through Teresa’s link) on Maven

Harold Jarche’s Personal Knowledge Management workshop

Petra’s book, Strong Product Communities – The Essential Guide to Product Communities of Practice

I’d love to hear how you’re designing your own community of practice. What’s your learning theme this quarter? Which peers are you building with, and what commitments are helping you go deeper? Drop your thoughts—I’ll share my own PLN stack and peer-circle cadence in a future post.

Inspired by this post on Product Talk.

November 25, 2025
Inside PendomoniumX London: AI Transformation, Real-World Wins, and Product Innovation

Walking into PendomoniumX London, I could feel the AI revolution hitting its stride. The conversations were sharper, the demos more grounded, and the outcomes more measurable—a clear signal that AI Strategy is moving from slideware to shipped value in modern product management. PendomoniumX’s sixth stop brought 350+ software leaders together for a day of AI transformation, real-world stories, and product innovation. What stood out to me was the shift from hype to execution. Teams compared playbooks for gen ai and Generative AI, shared lessons from LLMs for product managers, and showed how they’re threading AI into product discovery, product roadmapping and sprint planning, and go-to-market motions. The focus was pragmatic: drive adoption, accelerate time-to-value, and make better decisions with cleaner signals. On the product-led growth front, I saw compelling examples of using Pendo’s in-app guides and product tours to increase user activation and reduce friction in key onboarding moments. When AI-enhanced experiences are paired with clear guidance and behavioral analytics, customers don’t just try features—they build habits. What I appreciated most were the leadership narratives: empowered product teams aligning around outcomes, candid retros on where AI prototypes missed the mark, and crisp frameworks for prioritizing the highest-leverage bets. The conference networking felt purposeful, with operators trading hard-won insights on experimentation velocity, data governance, and building trust into AI-infused experiences. My takeaway: AI is no longer a side project—it’s a core capability in product management. If we anchor our AI Strategy in clear customer problems, instrument for learning, and iterate with discipline, we can consistently turn innovation into impact. And with the right mix of PLG mechanics, in-app education, and thoughtful design, those gains compound across the product lifecycle.

Inspired by this post on Pendo – Perspectives.

November 17, 2025
Your Ultimate ProductCon San Francisco 2025 Guide: Best Hotels, Eats & Drinks

Heading to ProductCon San Francisco 2025? I approach conference travel the same way I approach product strategy: optimize for outcomes, reduce friction, and invest in high-signal experiences. Here’s the playbook I use to choose the right hotel, find memorable meals, and make the most of every hour in the city.

For lodging, I prioritize walkability, safety, and quiet rooms so I can focus during sessions and recover at night. If you want to be steps from most venues and meetups, SoMa and the Yerba Buena corridor are ideal. InterContinental San Francisco, W San Francisco, and The Clancy (Autograph Collection) are reliable, business-friendly picks with strong Wi‑Fi and ample lobby space for impromptu one‑on‑ones. If you prefer classic energy and transit access, Union Square hotels like Hotel Nikko and The Westin St. Francis work well. For waterfront views and a calmer vibe, Hyatt Regency Embarcadero puts you by the Ferry Building with easy BART and Muni access.

My booking checklist is simple: reserve early, target a high floor away from elevators, and request early check‑in or late checkout around your session schedule. Loyalty programs often unlock better rates and quiet‑room preferences. If you need heads‑down time between talks, ask about day‑use meeting rooms or find a corner of the lobby with stable bandwidth. I also pack a compact power strip and a long USB‑C cable—two small upgrades that routinely save a day.

Coffee is the fuel of great product conversations. Near SoMa, I rotate between Blue Bottle (Mint Plaza), Sightglass (7th Street), and Philz (Front Street) for pre‑session caffeine and quick stand‑ups. If I’m on the Embarcadero side, the Ferry Building’s roasters are perfect for early starts, and morning lines move faster than you’d expect if you arrive just after opening.

For efficient lunches, I favor fast‑casual spots that can handle volume without sacrificing quality. Mixt, Souvla, Sweetgreen, Super Duper Burgers, and The Grove are dependable within a short walk of most downtown venues. When I need a higher‑signal lunch with a partner or prospect, I book a table slightly off the main corridor to avoid the rush—think Mourad for elevated Moroccan in SoMa or Boulevard along the Embarcadero for a polished, quiet conversation.

Dinner is where the best networking often happens, so I plan for atmosphere, acoustics, and a menu that works for mixed dietary needs. Kokkari Estiatorio (FiDi) excels for executive dinners. Liholiho Yacht Club is a creative, memorable choice for cross‑functional teams. Waterbar or Angler near the waterfront pair great food with views that impress visiting colleagues. For something more casual but still conversation‑friendly, Nopa or Sorella deliver consistently.

When it’s time for drinks, I think in terms of groups and goals. For panoramic views and small group catch‑ups, The View Lounge (Marriott Marquis) is a classic. For wine‑forward conversations with a quiet ambiance, Press Club near Yerba Buena works well. If you’re hosting a more energetic crew, Charmaine’s (SF Proper Hotel), Dirty Habit (Hotel Zelos), or 25 Lusk offer space, good music, and reliable service. For craft cocktails, Pacific Cocktail Haven and ABV are standouts if you don’t mind a short ride.

Transit and timing matter. From SFO or OAK, BART is often the fastest, most predictable route downtown; rideshare is convenient late at night. I walk whenever possible, but I time routes along well‑lit, busier streets and avoid sprinting between neighborhoods tight on time. Microclimates are real—bring layers, comfortable shoes, and a compact umbrella. I schedule 15‑minute buffers around key sessions to handle inevitable friend‑of‑a‑friend introductions.

If you need a professional setting for a quick working session, many hotels will extend lobby seating to guests and their visitors. For dedicated space, day passes at coworking operators like Industrious, CANOPY, or Regus are worth it when you’ve got a client briefing or board prep. For a more casual backdrop, Sightglass and Blue Bottle locations typically have reliable Wi‑Fi and just enough outlets if you arrive off‑peak.

Finally, a word on intent: I set a simple goal for each day—one meaningful connection, one surprising insight, and one concrete action to bring back to my team. ProductCon San Francisco 2025 is a catalyst if you design your experience with the same rigor you apply to your roadmap. If you spot me in a session or at a nearby cafe, say hello—I’m always up for trading notes on product strategy, pricing experiments, and what’s working in the field right now.

Quick note: restaurants and hours can change quickly—make reservations where possible and double‑check opening times the week of the event.

Inspired by this post on Product School.

November 3, 2025