Managing imposter syndrome and product positioning

We're back with another in-person ProductTank Oxford meetup at the King's Arms in central Oxford. This month, we're delighted to feature two great speakers with talks on tackling imposter syndrome and product positioning.

6:00pm Doors open, drinks, and networking
6:50pm Welcome
7:00pm Caroline Clark - It's not you, it's the system
7:45pm Break
8:00pm Story Tweedie-Yates - Going from "Hot dead birds" to "Kentucky Fried Chicken"
8:45pm Wrap-up
8:50pm Close (but you're welcome to stick around!)

We hope you can join us!

It's not you, it's the system: Exploring imposter feelings in Product people

Many Product people carry a hidden fear of being found out as inadequate. It often surfaces at moments of transition: expanding roles, increasing responsibility, unclear expectations, or when Product’s value needs to be justified rather than simply trusted.

In this talk, Caroline challenges the idea that imposter feelings are a personal confidence problem. Drawing on original research with Product professionals and her experience as an ex-Product Director, she explores why these feelings are so prevalent in Product — and what they reveal about the systems, structures, and conditions Product people work within.

This talk is for Product Managers and Product Leaders who want a deeper, more accurate understanding of imposter feelings — one that moves the conversation away from individual deficiency and towards the realities of modern Product work.

Caroline Clark is a leadership consultant and coach specialising in performance psychology for leaders in tech and space. As an ex-Product Director with more than 12 years in Product, she understands the unique pressures facing product teams. Her work equips product leaders with evidence-based tools to transform leadership potential into performance - and achieve the impossible.

Going from "Hot Dead Birds" to "Kentucky Fried Chicken" with positioning in high-tech

Your product must deliver on the category you tell customers you play in. Your category must match something a customer already knows and understands. So which comes first, product or positioning? The answer for startups in cyber and high-tech B2B is 'both'. In this session we will walk through the Positioning Hypothesis methodology that allows you to get past the chicken and the egg problem with product and positioning.

Story Tweedie-Yates is the VP of Marketing at Geordie, the purpose-built security and governance platform for AI agents. Prior to Geordie, Story spent more than a decade in Product Marketing leadership roles for IT Security unicorns, including FusionAuth, RAD Security, Aqua Security and Auth0. Following an undergraduate degree at Stanford, her early career was defined by professional tennis on the WTA Tour.