Jumping the Chasm - Career Growth in Product

Hi Product People 👋,

Join us on Tuesday, June 11th, for an enlightening session on Product Leadership. In this meetup, we’ll delve into the paths you can take to transition into a product leadership role from various starting points in product and design. This is an exceptional opportunity to connect with fellow product enthusiasts and learn how to advance your product career towards success.

We’re thrilled to welcome three incredible speakers, Tim Johnson, Mirela Mus, and Andy Lobban, who will be sharing their unique insights and experiences on this topic. Learn more about our speakers and their talks below:

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Tim's Talk: Career progression in product: the agency perspective.

Tim will bring a distinctive agency perspective on the product profession, job roles and career progression. What’s different about product in the agency / consultancy context and why? What are some of the typical challenges, essential competencies, and risks and rewards. He’ll touch on thorny topics such as compromise, ‘delivery’ and navigating choices around doing / leading as you progress. He’ll also talk about finding your growth areas, addressing skills gaps and offer some agency survival tips.

About Tim: Tim Johnson is a product leader who’s worked in agencies, consultancies and startups and until recently was SVP Product at Somo in London. His insights are built on the scars of businesses adopting (and sometimes abandoning) product thinking, and a personal compendium of best and worst practices. Current interests include the human side of product management and the evolving role of digital agencies.

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Mirela's Talk: Scaling Your Product Management Career from Individual Contributor (IC) to C-Level

Starting a career in product management might seem like the easy part. But how do you leap from there into Product Leadership, and then ascend to the executive suite? Hint: It's not just about climbing the corporate ladder. This talk dives into the best and worst parts of a career in Product Management, helps you discover how to identify companies that foster an environment conducive to your career ascent, and unveils tactical advice for progression.

About Mirela: Mirela Mus is the Founder & CPO of Product People, the premier destination for Product Management in Europe. Mirela worked with companies like Zalando, Omio, DeepL, and The World Health Organization for over 12 years. Mirela is also a Top Product Management Voice on LinkedIn with 30k+ followers. Check out her intro video here.

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Andy's Talk: Your career isn't a straight line

Most people don't follow a linear career path their whole career. Industries change, interests change, personal goals change, and we discover things we didn't know cared about. Any will talk about his experiences moving around career types, positioning yourself for growth as well as promotion, taking your chances, and transferring skills.

About Andy: Andy Lobban is a design and sometimes product leader. He's been a VP at Cleo, Trustpilot, and FanDuel, leading large teams. He started as a designer working on all types of design from agency to publishing to product, in print, web, and native apps. He’s old enough to have ‘designed’ Myspace pages.

This event promises to be a dynamic and informative session for anyone looking to enhance their career in product management. Come prepared to learn, network, and be inspired by our expert speakers.

Agenda:
5:30pm - 6.15pm - Welcome, food & drinks
6:15pm - 6:35pm - Speaker: Tim Johnson
6:35pm - 6.55pm - Speaker: Mirela Mus
6:55pm - 7.15pm - Speaker: Andy Lobban
7:15pm - 7:30pm - Q&A with Tim, Viktoria and Andy
7:30pm - 8:00pm - Drinks & networking

Thank you to our sponsor:

FreeAgent - Award-winning cloud accounting software designed to meet the needs of the UK’s small businesses and their accountants & bookkeepers. We are delighted to support the product community here in our home city of Edinburgh.

Disclaimer:
Admittance is not permitted once the speakers kick off. Due to security requirements at our sponsor's office we cannot guarantee entry post 6.15pm.
We will take pictures of the event for our LinkedIn page. If you prefer not to be on any of the pictures, please speak to one of the organisers. Many thanks!