Product Tank
Supporting people to find their way to product management with Product Tank
Helping more people from more diverse backgrounds into digital careers.
Impact measured against UN Sustainable Development Goals
Intention
Digital product management is a generalist job field where many feel they do not have the skills to contribute when compared to specialist roles such as development or design. Product Tank helps people in this situation by providing skills, networks and inspiration.
William Joseph helps to organise, curate and deliver these events. Over the last year we have run a mixture of in person and online events. Interestingly most people have decided not to return to our in person events - with attendances around 20% of what they were pre-pandemic.
We want to improve access to product management from a wider variety of backgrounds so have pushed to ensure that speakers and organisers are more representative of these communities.
We have been particularly focused on showcasing women and those from a BAME background who are experts at their craft. Despite a large number of both being involved in the industry, it is often white men that take centre stage at these kinds of meet-ups.
We have attempted to address this without discriminating against those with interesting stories to tell. The organising team has also worked hard to reach out to different networks to find speakers with the experience people want to hear from, but with a different perspective to what they’ve heard before.
Results
6,500
people have viewed Product Tanks across the world in 2022
54%
of talks were given by women – up from 40% in 2020
37%
of talks were given by people from a BAME background, up from 19% in 2021
Over the last year, we have helped to deliver ten product tank sessions, reaching over 6,500 people across the world. Session topics include:
Leading product managers
Making product management work remotely
Product in large enterprises
User research & Discovery methods
How to create product-centric organisations
Getting design and development working well together
Sales, Customer Service & Product Management
Outcome based roadmapping
Product Management & Crypto
Internal Products
54% of sessions were given by women, 46% by men. Compared to 2019, where 60% of sessions were delivered by men.
37% of sessions were given by people from a BAME background, up from 19% in 2021.
What’s next?
We want to improve the diversity of perspectives that we hear from at the sessions – looking for inspiration from outside the product management echo chamber.