About us
ProductTank Manchester provides an opportunity for Product Managers in Manchester and the North to exchange ideas and experiences about Product Design, Development and Management, Business Modelling, Metrics, User Experience and all the other things that get us excited. Events include talks from guest speakers on topics around product management, networking opportunities, and a good old-fashioned chin-wag over a beer or two. We're open to companies big and small.
We also welcome early-stage technology businesses looking to learn how to get their ideas off the ground. We also have a blog and encourage the community to get engaged by commenting on or writing new posts for http://www.mindtheproduct.com.
Featured event
ProductTank Manchester — March 2026
We're be back on Wednesday 11th March for the next ProductTank Manchester with great product speakers and great networking!
Location: Grayce, 1st Floor, Hilton House, Hilton St, Manchester M1 2EH
Speakers:
Igor Ponikarchik: Igor is a Senior Product Manager with extensive experience working with C-level teams to define and launch new strategic B2B SaaS products. He has led multiple greenfield initiatives including AI platforms from discovery through MVP and into post-launch scale, contributing to products loved by enterprise customers including Europcar Group, Harman, and Jaguar Land Rover. With a strong design background, Igor focuses on making complex solutions simple and elegant, translating strategy into products that are usable, scalable, and commercially viable.
Title: Greenfield Roadmaps: 0→1 in B2B SaaS
Talk Description: How prioritization trade-offs evolve: discovery to scale. Launching a B2B SaaS product from scratch demands radically different prioritisation at each stage of the lifecycle. Applying the wrong mindset too early—or too late—can stall momentum.
I’ll share lessons from building a Vehicle Payment app, exploring how prioritisation evolves from early discovery to post-MVP growth. We’ll discuss what changes once real users and revenue appear, the “danger zone” between MVP and scale, and how Senior PMs balance discovery, delivery, and commercial pressure without losing focus.
This talk is for PMs scaling new or evolving B2B products who want sharper judgment and stronger product momentum.
____________
Craig A. Taylor: Craig has an enviable 26 years working in digital, tech and creative sectors, working with brands including Vodafone, GE Baker Hughes, Lookers and The Coop. Having built and exited his own digital agency in the 2000s, Craig has spent the last 16 years delivering a range of digital projects, training and consultancy, now focusing on helping businesses adopt AI.
Practising what he preaches, Craig has now also launched his own startup, Orakly, a unique Q&A-based short-form video content marketing platform that helps businesses with the move from SEO to voice and AI search.
Talk title:
Orakly.com; bootstrapping a digital platform, avoiding investment and remaining relevant
Talk description: In 2023, Craig came up with an idea: could he build a digital platform, to rival Quora or Reddit, but with video and AI-powered scoring without being able to code and without any external investment?
What can you do with a great idea, a little knowledge, some free tools, persistence and an enthusiastic community?
Craig will take us through a three year journey of digital product development, from an AirBnB in Nice to attending Web Summit in Qatar…
____________
Regan Ayyappan: Regan Ayyappan is a Technical Product Manager at London Stock Exchange Group(LSEG). Having navigated the product landscape for over a decade, in both agile tech startups and highly regulated financial institutions, he specialises in guiding products from 0-to-1 incubation through to enterprise scaling. Previously at Atlassian, Regan witnessed firsthand applying Product Thinking to bridge the divide between complex engineering realities and high-level product strategy. Today, he focuses on applying these governance principles to the emerging AI workforce, helping organisations build systems where technology serves strategic intent.
Talk title: Product Thinking as the Governance Layer: Bridging Strategy and Execution for the Agentic Workforce.
Talk description: As organisations integrate autonomous AI agents into their workforce, the risk of widening the "strategy-execution gap" increases, requiring a shift from rigid control to context-based governance. This session explores how to apply Product Thinking principles to manage this new agentic workforce, treating agents as empowered entities that require clear strategic boundaries rather than micromanagement. Attendees will learn to leverage frameworks/tools to synchronise high-level intent with autonomous execution, ensuring that AI initiatives deliver measurable business outcomes rather than just technical outputs.
Why you should come?
Networking with fellow product people 👋
- Great talks from local and national speakers 🎤
- Food 🍕and drink 🍺
- We welcome people from all backgrounds!
We're a friendly bunch, our typical crowd includes:
- senior product leaders
- startup founders
- mid-level PMs
- new PMs
- people looking to get into Product
- engineers/developers
- designers
- people who work with product teams
Whatever your situation, come along and say hello.
Event timings
6:00pm start - Networking (drinks and food)
6:30pm - Talks (3x 20-min talks + 5-min Q&A)
8:00pm - Talks finish - more networking - drinks and food
8:30pm - Close
Upcoming events
1
ProductTank Manchester — March 2026
Grayce, Hilton Street, Manchester, GBWe're be back on Wednesday 11th March for the next ProductTank Manchester with great product speakers and great networking!
Location: Grayce, 1st Floor, Hilton House, Hilton St, Manchester M1 2EH
Speakers:
Igor Ponikarchik: Igor is a Senior Product Manager with extensive experience working with C-level teams to define and launch new strategic B2B SaaS products. He has led multiple greenfield initiatives including AI platforms from discovery through MVP and into post-launch scale, contributing to products loved by enterprise customers including Europcar Group, Harman, and Jaguar Land Rover. With a strong design background, Igor focuses on making complex solutions simple and elegant, translating strategy into products that are usable, scalable, and commercially viable.
Title: Greenfield Roadmaps: 0→1 in B2B SaaS
Talk Description: How prioritization trade-offs evolve: discovery to scale. Launching a B2B SaaS product from scratch demands radically different prioritisation at each stage of the lifecycle. Applying the wrong mindset too early—or too late—can stall momentum.
I’ll share lessons from building a Vehicle Payment app, exploring how prioritisation evolves from early discovery to post-MVP growth. We’ll discuss what changes once real users and revenue appear, the “danger zone” between MVP and scale, and how Senior PMs balance discovery, delivery, and commercial pressure without losing focus.
This talk is for PMs scaling new or evolving B2B products who want sharper judgment and stronger product momentum.
____________Craig A. Taylor: Craig has an enviable 26 years working in digital, tech and creative sectors, working with brands including Vodafone, GE Baker Hughes, Lookers and The Coop. Having built and exited his own digital agency in the 2000s, Craig has spent the last 16 years delivering a range of digital projects, training and consultancy, now focusing on helping businesses adopt AI.
Practising what he preaches, Craig has now also launched his own startup, Orakly, a unique Q&A-based short-form video content marketing platform that helps businesses with the move from SEO to voice and AI search.
Talk title:
Orakly.com; bootstrapping a digital platform, avoiding investment and remaining relevantTalk description: In 2023, Craig came up with an idea: could he build a digital platform, to rival Quora or Reddit, but with video and AI-powered scoring without being able to code and without any external investment?
What can you do with a great idea, a little knowledge, some free tools, persistence and an enthusiastic community?
Craig will take us through a three year journey of digital product development, from an AirBnB in Nice to attending Web Summit in Qatar…
____________Regan Ayyappan: Regan Ayyappan is a Technical Product Manager at London Stock Exchange Group(LSEG). Having navigated the product landscape for over a decade, in both agile tech startups and highly regulated financial institutions, he specialises in guiding products from 0-to-1 incubation through to enterprise scaling. Previously at Atlassian, Regan witnessed firsthand applying Product Thinking to bridge the divide between complex engineering realities and high-level product strategy. Today, he focuses on applying these governance principles to the emerging AI workforce, helping organisations build systems where technology serves strategic intent.
Talk title: Product Thinking as the Governance Layer: Bridging Strategy and Execution for the Agentic Workforce.
Talk description: As organisations integrate autonomous AI agents into their workforce, the risk of widening the "strategy-execution gap" increases, requiring a shift from rigid control to context-based governance. This session explores how to apply Product Thinking principles to manage this new agentic workforce, treating agents as empowered entities that require clear strategic boundaries rather than micromanagement. Attendees will learn to leverage frameworks/tools to synchronise high-level intent with autonomous execution, ensuring that AI initiatives deliver measurable business outcomes rather than just technical outputs.
Why you should come?
Networking with fellow product people 👋- Great talks from local and national speakers 🎤
- Food 🍕and drink 🍺
- We welcome people from all backgrounds!
We're a friendly bunch, our typical crowd includes:
- senior product leaders
- startup founders
- mid-level PMs
- new PMs
- people looking to get into Product
- engineers/developers
- designers
- people who work with product teams
Whatever your situation, come along and say hello.
Event timings
6:00pm start - Networking (drinks and food)
6:30pm - Talks (3x 20-min talks + 5-min Q&A)
8:00pm - Talks finish - more networking - drinks and food
8:30pm - Close150 attendees
Past events
48
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Organizers
Members
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