After posting Are Product Camps Missing the Mark, I received a large number of comments, ideas, suggestions and thoughts that appeared on Twitter, LinkedIn, this blog and even an email. When you raise an issue that’s near and dear to product management and product marketing, you get responses.
First, I want to thank everyone who took time to provide insights, recommendations and raise points that I hadn’t thought about or missed. With over 60 comments, I tried to answer each one.
One questions that was asked was, “Are you going to consolidate the ideas and recommendations so we can use them?” Yes, that’s what this post is all about. Also, I’m offering these tidbits for participants and organizing committees everywhere.
The Biggest Challenge
Bertrand Hazard was the first person to share, “I think the bigger challenge is to continuously attract some new participants that are willing (and have the skills) to deliver some really good presentations on the PM/PMM topics – whether at an expert or entry level.”
Depending on the location, frequency and maturity, product camps are always looking for people who are willing to share their experiences and present. Plain and simple, WE NEED YOU!
We want to hear your war stories, success stories and challenges. If you feel you don’t have enough experience to present or lead a discussion or session by yourself, find someone to work with.
As an example, in 2009, Michael Hopkin and I collaborated and presented a session on Market Sensing. The session was a lot of fun, had great interaction from participants and it was supported by research we had conducted. Mike and I benefited from each other strengths, experiences and skills.
Steve Robins shared, “To attract quality content, you do need to have some organized sessions. i.e., you’re going to get expert speakers who know their subject, speak on it widely, and come with prepared presentations. But we also need to encourage anyone to lead a discussion – especially when they DON’T know the answer.”
How will you contribute at the next product camp?
The Un-Conference Style
As you might expect, there were numerous comments about the “Un-conference” format of Product Camps. Rich Mironov, often recognized as a catalyst for the first Product Management Camp has often shared, “Product Camps follow an un-conference format. Participants propose their own topics, run discussions and panels, and network with peers.”
However, as Product Camps continue to grow and become larger, the agile format may not work. How can Product Camp organizing committees maintain some, if not all of the open feel?
Geoffrey Anderson confides, “Clearly, the larger events have reached a critical mass where the un-conference concept just isn’t going to work. The chaos, and uncertainty will drive away both presenters as well as attendees, and growth in size will begin to reverse” He continues, “Additionally, a group of 1000 is a pretty small organization to have the star filled gazes of complete newbies, to grizzled industry veterans all find sessions that make their day worthwhile.”
How can Product Camps keeps that unconference feel and meet the needs of participants?
Retrospectives and Feedback
For many of us who have participated or volunteered, as soon as the building is clean, the last conversations complete and the last goodbye uttered, we’re headed for home, or an adult beverage to celebrate a successful event. While we take time to exhale, do we take time to conduct a retrospective or solicit feedback with some formality?
Larry McKeogh, founder of the Rocky Mountain Product Management Camp shared, “After RMP-camp we did an in person debrief and got a lot of feedback. We also sent out a survey. Based on what we saw and heard we are looking at minor modifications to our next event.”
In the spirit of product management, how well do we discover and understand the acceptance of the P-Camp release? As Prabhakar Gopalan shared, The key is to deliver ProductCamp itself as a great product.”
Recommendations… There Are Many
There were some exceptional recommendations provided by a lot of people. Hopefully, these will add value to your next event.
- Plan some general Q&A sessions, panels and open sessions like “How to Kill a Product“
- Bench Racing (Defined as a serious BS session after a day of racing. Usually telling tall tales, near misses, and heroic saves.) Product Management can relate to this.
- 5-Minute Talks similar to the Ignite style.
- One-on-One mentoring sessions. (This is my idea. How often do you get calls or emails asking for advice?)
- Discussion or sessions organized around themes such as Agile.
- Dedicated Powerpoint and No Powerpoint sessions.
- Variable length sessions (Some participants want deep dives on topics and these are double time periods.)
- Tracks offering categories for a wide range of participants. Suggestions include:
- Product Management Strategy
- Product Marketing Strategy
- Product Management 101
- Product Marketing 101
- Product Leadership
- Marketing (May be a category based on location/participants)
Next Steps for Me
From my perspective, Product Camps are a great avenue for social interaction and networking, and a great place for product management and product marketing to exchange ideas and grow. While no venue is perfect, Product Camps are a must for our profession to surface its limitations, find new ways to increase value and have a fun time while doing so. In reviewing the comments and suggestions, I am personally am committing to:
- Roll up my sleeves and volunteer
- Attend product camps as often as I can and contribute more (I won’t be a sponge.)
- Contact my network in product management and product marketing asking them to join in the fun.
- Encourage others to contribute and help them where I can.
I look forward to meeting more of you face-to-face in upcoming product camps. If you enjoyed the post, please share the following:
Product Camps: Where Do We Go From Here? – a new post for #prodmgmt #prodmktg #pcamp http://wp.me/pXBON-2sE