THE MAGIC OF GATHERINGS AT PRODUCTIZED

The story starts with a virtual coffee chat with Andre Marquet and the question, do you want to co-curate the conference? I realized in hindsight that he saw me as uniquely qualified because of my experience as a TEDx curator, product leader, and speaker. But I don't want to talk about me.

I want to talk about the magic that can only happen when people come together, forming meaning and connection.

As curators, we put a lot of thought into topics, structure, and storyline; we rehearse and practice. On the day of the event comes the moment when we need to trust and let everything unfold.

A better storyline than designed

We had defined an outline going from Vision to Discovery to Operations. What unfolded through the talks was a much richer and more connected thread. It started with the first session in the morning (which I did my best to capture in the doodle above). Radhika Dutt inspired us to build radical products creating the change to systematically translate our vision into action, Tami Reiss broke it down for us in 3 very simple questions: where to, where from, where next, and Leah Tharin laid out for us who (sales, marketing, product) needs to do what in a time where we need to show value first.

From João Colaco de Freitas, Gonçalo Gaiolas, and Andre Albuquerque we heard about start-up and corporate realities on how change is created to innovate, how systems are built to succeed, and how efficient work and healthy and happy teams contribute to success, once you have set your goals clearly: where to, where from, where next.

Anabela Cesário took over to share her principles for efficient and happy teams, and at the end of the day, Melissa Perri brought everything together from vision, through strategy and operations, giving us a key ingredient for the change we all want to see: empathy, not just for our users, but also for our stakeholders.

A shared experience and setting an example of vulnerability

Reading above, you might have already picked up a theme around the people and teams at the heart of everything. Chiedza Muguti took the stage in the second morning session to invite us to feel awkward and weird together to create equitable teams. Dominique Jost followed courageously, sharing his journey through burnout and giving us a cadence of accountability to manage stress and self-care. At the end of his talk, he shared a quote:

Extract of a slide from the presentation of Dominique Jost

When João Colaco de Freitas took the stage after Dominique, he paused, unrehearsed, to share how important it was to talk about mental health more openly, being one of the people also affected. And Anabela Cesário, as her last principle, asked us to remember that we are also a product and need to check the health of our dashboards.

These leaders setting an example on stage resonated throughout the day, many conversations I had and overheard taking pause to reflect and think more deeply about how we and others are doing.

A surprise connection across space and time

When I saw this picture in the presentation of Melissa Perri with a quote extracted from her new book Hot of the Press, I immediately messaged Stephanie Leue, who was just reading the book, and her name and the Doodle story mentioned in the book far away from Lisbon.

I hope many more such surprise connections were made throughout the day.

And fun

An ingredient that is never amiss, it spontaneously unfolded with Tami Reiss looking for Joao Moita in her morning talk while he had not yet arrived. Moita looking for Tami in the afternoon when she was busy with another engagement and finally finding each other at the end of the day.

All this magic could unfold thanks to the team and volunteers at PRODUCTIZED being wonderful hosts.

p.s. back to the beginning, I connected with Andre to get some insights on the product management community in Lisbon. Tania Freitas put us in touch. Thank you for starting this journey for me!

p.p.s. and now I will go back to everything we can do better for the next conference. If you want to learn more about the Art of Gathering, I recommend reading Priya Parker; she is my source of inspiration.