The first ProductCamp in Helsinki brought together around 50 product minded people to actively share their experiences in product management and product marketing.

The day started with a keynote presentation about lean product management given by Timo Herttua (Rovio, Finland). He has shared insights and experience on how to create successful products using and adopting lean principles.  Another keynote presentation on a product manager’s career was given in the afternoon by Natalie Yan-Chatonsky (Brainmates, Australia). She has presented ideas on the application of product management principles to the development of personal career as a product manager.

The keynote presentations were complemented by nine sessions given by participants. Some of them were very interactive with active usage of flip charts, post-it stickers and active discussions of the topics presented. The sessions covered the topics of product managers’ roles, right KPIs, getting a product to the market, measuring performance of product managers, support of innovativeness, pricing digital services, trials of product roadmaps, gathering systematic customer feedback, and working as an intrapreneur at a large corporation.

An informal discussion with participants revealed their satisfaction with the event. Interesting topics with an excellent opportunity to meet like-minded people with similar spirit were mentioned as major benefits for participation. However, we still have a room for improvement. For the next ProductCamp we plan to have more time for sessions and pay more attention to make them even more interactive. Getting together and networking are important components of the event and we need to support them by allocating more time for it. Talking about numbers on a scale from 0 to 5, our participants scored they are likely to recommend the next ProductCamp to 4.14 and are likely to come to the next event to 4.07.

Regardless of some identified improvements, we consider the feedback as being positive. This has confirmed our observation that the importance of product management has grown and there is a clear need for a professional community. We appreciate your participation and look forward to seeing you again next time!

The 2014 event program, sessions, presentations and pictures can be found here.

Should you have any questions, requests, or ideas, feel free to contact us at info@05b4ce78c6d14a858ff243da0bdb2c65.testurl.ws

ProductCamp Helsinki Organizing Team
Andrey Maglyas, Lasse Lumiaho, Antti Suvanto and Matti Rossi