When AI Breaks Your Strategy + How Real Teams Leverage It to 20M Users
Details
Welcome to the Software Renaissance. Everyone is asking how to use AI to do what they already do, faster and cheaper. But when anyone can build anything, the advantage is in knowing exactly what to build, and why.
On 21st October, as a fringe event on the Wednesday of Birmingham Tech Week, ProductTank is bringing you an unmissable double bill exploring the intersection of high-level AI strategy and ground-level execution at scale.
### What You’ll Take Away
- The New Bottleneck: Why clarity is now more important than execution.
- Real AI Scale: Practical lessons from deploying AI features to millions of active users.
- Product Craft: How AI is actively changing the day-to-day work of product teams.
- Community: Drinks, networking, and debates with Birmingham’s top product minds.
- Book Giveaway: A chance to take home a free copy of Martin's latest book The Decision Stack
SPEAKER
Martin Ericksson
The Talk: Welcome to the Software Renaissance. Your Strategy Isn't Ready.
Talk Description:
When anyone can build anything, the advantage isn't in building. It's in knowing what to build, and why. Everyone's asking how to use AI to do what they already do, faster and cheaper. It's the wrong question and it's quietly shrinking your ambition at the exact moment it should be exploding. Because when the cost of development drops, the bottleneck doesn't disappear. It moves. From execution to clarity. From "can we?" to "should we?” Most teams aren't ready for that shift. This talk is about the bigger question, the one that turns AI from your biggest threat into your biggest opportunity.
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SPEAKER
Max Borodin
The Talk: What AI Innovation Actually Did for a 20M-User Health App
Talk Description:
Everyone is talking about AI strategy — this is a story about putting one into practice. In this talk, Max will show how innovating with AI helped Simple, a US weight-loss app with over 20 million users (part of Palta, the group behind Flo), grow user engagement by over 50%. He'll cover Coach Avo, an AI health coach used by millions; Blinky, an animated mascot with a personality, built with generative AI; and how AI reshaped not just the product, but the craft of building it and the way teams work day to day.
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SPEAKER BIOS
Martin Ericksson
Martin Eriksson has spent three decades helping organisations figure out why they're stuck and what to do about it.
He's been building digital products since 1994, built SaaS before anyone called it SaaS, and worked his way through companies of every size and stage: The Financial Times, Monster, Huddle, Covestor, Cazoo, and most recently as Product Partner at EQT, one of the world's largest private investors. Along the way he's advised over 150 companies on the thing most of them were missing: not better tools, but the connective tissue between their strategy and the people doing the work.
Today Martin works as a board member, strategic advisor, and leadership coach, helping founders, CEOs, and product leaders build the clarity their organisations need to move at pace. His most recent book, The Decision Stack: How Strategic Alignment Unlocks Organizational Momentum, distils everything he's learned about aligning an organisation from vision to execution.
As founder of ProductTank, co-founder of Mind the Product (together the world's largest product community, active in over 200 cities), and co-author of Product Leadership (O'Reilly, 2017), he has helped define the product management discipline and shaped the practices of a generation of product leaders
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/martineriksson/
Website:
[https://martineriksson.com/ ](https://martineriksson.com/)
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Max Borodin
Max Borodin is a product leader passionate about driving innovation with AI. At Simple — an AI-powered weight-loss app used by over 20 million people — he led the teams behind Coach Avo, a two-time award-winning AI health coach, and the gamification system that drove the strongest retention growth in the company's history. He's eager to share the lessons he and his teams learned along the way.
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmborodin/
👥 Agenda
- 6:30 PM - Arrival, Networking & Food
- 7:00 PM - Introductions
- 7:05 PM - Talk - Max Borodin
- 7:35 PM - Break
- 7:45 PM - Talk - Martin Ericksson
- 8:15 PM - Q&A
- 8:30 PM - Networking
- 9:30 PM - Event Ends
🍕 Food & Drinks
Thanks to our sponsor AND Digital, we’ll have pizza and drinks available, and we'll be ready to connect!
🤝 Thanks to our Sponsors
AND Digital – A digital delivery partner helping ambitious companies build world-class digital capabilities and close the digital skills gap.
Four/Four is an AI-powered customer research platform that captures the true voice of the customer. By securely analysing conversations, support tickets, and emails across more than 30 platforms, Four/Four transforms raw feedback into clear, actionable product and business insights. Learn more or start a free trial at **fourfour.ai**
x+why Foundry – A flexible workspace provider combining purpose-driven design with entrepreneurial energy to create impactful workspaces across the UK.
Stablezact – An entirely new payment infrastructure, built with blockchain technology, to simplify global crypto transactions, empowering modern businesses with crypto payments..
IntelStream UK – A Birmingham-based content and storytelling company, providing professional photography, videography and PR content for events.
