We know people come from near and far to attend Pendomonium. That’s why we want to give our attendees every possible opportunity to get as much as they can from this unique experience.
Workshops are one way we can deliver a hands-on, small group training experience. Whether attendees are looking to level up their Pendo knowledge, or get more targeted information about a specific topic like AI, our Monday (10/7) workshops deliver.
Please note: all workshops take place concurrently, so consider which one is right for you.
Product Management Foundations with Rosemary King
About the workshop leader: Rosemary King is a product leader who has specialized in software development, agile enablement, and lean methodologies since 2010. She has worked across diverse domains including government, finance, retail, and enterprise. After starting her tech career in the New York City start-up scene, she moved into consulting and has spent time with ThoughtWorks and Pivotal Labs London. She has done freelance consulting and training with incubator programs like start-up bootcamp, done UX research on four continents and has built and scaled business models for Fortune500 companies as well as start-ups. She is currently Principal Product Manager at illumin, an omni-channel, Demand-Side-Platform for digital marketers. She also does training for Mind the Product and organizes the Toronto ProductTank.
What can people expect when attending your workshop?
A lot of real world examples and stories of both failure and success.
What are three key takeaways from your workshop?
- Understand what you are trying to achieve for the organization
- Help your organization align on goals
- How to make a positive impact on team processes and culture
Take King’s workshop if you want to leave her workshop with something that you can start applying to your work the very next day.
Mapping to Solve Product Problems with Ryan MacCarrigan
About the workshop leader: Ryan MacCarrigan a Lean Startup coach, consultant, and university instructor with leadership experience in product design, marketing, and user experience. He has facilitated workshops across the United States, Europe, and Asia helping thousands of product managers, entrepreneurs, and corporate leaders validate and launch new products faster.
What can people expect when attending your workshop?
Expect a balance of lecture on core concepts, group discussion, hands-on mapping activities, and tons of feedback on your work. You’ll walk away from the workshop with an actionable map that you can continue to refine with your teammates.
What are three key takeaways from your workshop?
- Visualizing complex systems is a form of risk management. We are more likely to be able to identify gaps and blind spots in our understanding of systems and, in doing so, mitigate the risk of negative or even catastrophic consequences.
- Mapping should be a core skill for everyone working in product and engineering, not just product managers. It’s a powerful communication and alignment activity that forces us to collaborate, admit agreement, and better understand the risks we face.
- Mapping is a continuous process. Complex systems with human interaction evolve over time, and we must embrace this as a continuous process within the product function.
Take MacCarrigan’s workshop if you feel like you have a solid footing in product management but want to leverage visual mapping more often.
Communication & Alignment with Trace Wax
After a career in user experience design and research at companies like Microsoft, Apple, and Nuance, Trace then became a developer, product manager, and leader at leading boutique consultancies. He has a passion for emerging technologies, having worked on innovative projects in VR, blockchain, AI, and space exploration.
What can people expect when attending your workshop?
You’ll learn immediately applicable skills for what to say, write, and do to build trust with stakeholders and get them aligned to agree on what needs to be done.
What are three key takeaways from your workshop?
- How to understand your stakeholders’ wants and needs by mapping and interviewing them
- How to select a prioritization framework and to inspire your stakeholders to use it together to align on priorities
- How to create a communication plan and facilitate effective meetings and workshops
Take Trace’s workshop if you want to learn how to get to the crux of addressing communication and alignment challenges head-on.
From fear to future-proofed with Curtis Michelson
Curtis Michelson is a facilitator and growth consultant with a love for product management. His mission is to empower product leaders and teams to unlock their full potential and drive meaningful innovation. Over the past decade, Michelson has supported organizations like NASA, Siemens Energy, and Walmart in envisioning bolder products and business models and transforming their internal processes and culture. His approach is a blend of future casting, design sprinting, plus custom training and coaching.
What can people expect when attending your workshop?
- A common language for conversing about GenAI
- A card deck you can use at your own office for developing GenAI use cases
- A set of additional takeaway online resources mapped to the cards
What are two key takeaways from your workshop?
- AI and GenAI are moving too fast for any of us to be full experts on them. We must experiment.
- Managing GenAI risks and downsides is as important as slapping AI features on your product
Take Michelson’s workshop if you need to lead and facilitate a conversation that supports a positive transformation for AI adoption in your workplace.
Product Roadmaps, Strategy and Alignment with C. Todd Lombardo
C. Todd Lombardo is a product leader and business school professor with over 15 years of experience in the tech industry. He specializes in helping companies build and launch successful digital products that solve real-world problems and delight users. He co-authored three books on product and design, which have helped thousands of product teams around the world create better products faster.
What can people expect when attending your workshop?
- Catharsis
- An “ah-ha” moment or two
- Post-it notes and writing a letter – the analog will be good for you!
What are 2-3 key takeaways from your workshop?
- Roadmaps versus release plans and why they are different but need each other
- Aligning strategy with your roadmap
- Prioritization approaches
Take Lombardo’s workshop if you need to learn tangible skills like aligning business strategy to product strategy to roadmaps and prioritizing feature requests.
Our workshop leaders took time to share their perspectives on the product industry and provide advice for people just getting started. Read their answers here.
