In the fall of 2017, we decided we wanted to build a special place for product people — somewhere they could turn to for real perspectives from other product practitioners, a place with authentic, and sometimes opposing, opinions. A place that would delight and inspire those who build products to do their job better. And so we launched ProductCraft in February 2018.
This past year we published 175 articles from the best minds in product, design, and growth. The Product Love podcast featured 28 product leaders from the world’s hottest companies. We polled you and debated 45 questions on the site, and we facilitated live debate clubs in six cities.
Great, we did all that. Now we want to take you to an actual, special place for product people. ProductCraft: The Conference.
Yes, I know. There are already a million product conferences. But this one is different.
Different, You Say?
This year I went to a bunch of product conferences, and at every single one, I learned a lot. There were frameworks and workshops, and coffee lines galore. Standing in those lines, I discovered that product leaders were looking for something different, not just a day of lecture, lecture, panel, lecture, ALCOHOL! They were looking for a more elevated discussion about the challenges of growing up enterprise, how to get product a seat at the table, and how to keep innovation a part of your culture. They wanted to learn from practitioners like themselves, and they wanted more conversation.
We’re changing the formula: Lessons, Labs, and Lounges.
Our agenda is going to allow you to choose your own adventure. Yes, there will be stages with people on them. But there will also be concurrent salons happening around the space (the very cool Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco), which will allow for more intimate engagement in less formal settings. There will be labs and lounges, so you can actually hear yourself think while having meaningful conversations with peers. Fear not, at the end of the day there will be alcohol.
The ProductCraft conference is about bringing together product leaders — if you’re in charge of a large product organization, or are trying to figure out how to model your existing organization based on the best businesses out there, this is the place for you.
What’s Actually on the Docket?
We have an incredible line up shaping up of both lessons and labs — Nick Caldwell, CPO of Looker, will tell you why machine learning will make all the difference in your product’s growth trajectory; Maiken Møeller-Hansen, the Head of Alexa Mobile at Amazon, will share tips on how to build products in ambiguous spaces; Benjamin Evans, inclusive design lead, will help you troubleshoot all the brokenness in your already-mature product; Sam Barnett, the CPO of Quantcast, will talk about the reluctance of a C-suite product position. At the end of the day, Jeetu Patel, CPO of Box, will share his top lessons for product leadership. But I’m getting long-winded. Check out the latest agenda here.
Oh, did I mention that our keynote will be Guy Raz? The host of the TED Radio Hour and the “How I Built This” podcast? Yeah, that guy who has spoken to every major founder of a company and will share what they have in common.
We’ll also have a special lounge run by our special content partners, Women in Product. And labs run by our sponsors UserTesting and FullStory. We’ll be announcing more in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.
So, You’re Ready?
Ready for a different kind of product conference? Yes, me too. Head on over to snag your ticket now. They’re still early-bird at $599. Those end next week, so don’t miss out. For an extra $100 off, shoot me an email at [email protected]. See you May 9th in SF.
