Marketing Director
Product management networking may seem like a daunting prospect at first – how do you enter a crowded room and make conversation with people that you don’t know?
Whilst your first couple of product management networking events can be nerve wracking, the benefits of prioritising networking are clear to see:
- Increased confidence. Networking interactions will build your confidence about starting conversations with new people and help to relieve your anxiety about attending industry events.
- Learning and development. Networking is all about sharing knowledge, intel, and experiences with other professionals with differing points of view. Think of the tips, trends, best practise, and problem-solving advice you can get from this room of people, and what you can give back in return.
- Career development. The old saying of ‘it’s not what you know, but who you know’ comes into play here. Networking can help you stay well connected with prospective jobs, clients, candidates, and partners who will be able to give you a good reference or referral when needed.
So, we are all well versed that networking is important. If you are a Product Manager looking for opportunities, where do you start? Read our guide to 3 ways to build your professional network.
To help further, we’ve pulled together our top 6 product management networking opportunities for you to sign up to today.
Top 6 product management networking opportunities
Women in Product
Intelligent People have been proud sponsors of Women in Product events for years.
Women in Product is a welcoming community where women in product are inspired, connected, and celebrated. The community believe all people have equal opportunities to build successful careers in product, and provide access to tools, networking, podcasts and resources to help facilitate those careers.
In the spirit of supporting the community, Women in Product host many events, both physical and virtual, allowing you access to toolkits and product management networking opportunities from the comfort of your own home. Check out their upcoming events here.
Intelligent People – Product Management Group
Run by us, Intelligent People! A group of over 1200 product managers and leaders coming together to discuss the latest news within the product field.
Content includes:
- latest industry events, webinars, roundtables, talks
- mentorship schemes and introductions to new mentors with different experiences
- latest jobs on the market
- content on product related topics including diversity and inclusion, product discovery, roadmaps and careers.
Be part of our group here: Intelligent People – Product Management Group | Groups | LinkedIn
Mind the Product
The Mind the Product community was founded to bring product people together to share stories, find common ground and learn from each other. The community hosts:
- conferences to bring product leaders together to share knowledge and best practise. Conferences are frequently held in London, and allow product managers to be at the cutting edge of product thinking
- local meet ups called ProductTank designed to bring product managers together to discuss product design, development and management, business modelling, metrics and user experience. The London based ProductTank has over 13,000 members with events held each month
- Slack channels. A dynamic and interactive way to debate product management or get a second opinion from your peers. This channel has over 20,000 members and is a great and easy way to network with the product community
- Training. Whether you’d like an initial skills assessment or access to remote workshops and online learning, Mind the Product has it all. Share this resource with your teams and upskill the whole business too.
Creative Product Managers
Creative Product Managers proudly refer to themselves as the biggest product management networking community in the world, and with over 72,000 members, they are right! The platform has been running for over 12 years and has members and activities in over 100 countries.
Creative Product Managers help product managers to enhance their skills by promoting and sharing Premium Content generated by Group Members, allowing members to stay in touch with top influencers, authors, consultants, and experts in the field. As well as the latest content, the platform gives members over 30 exclusive benefits such as free event tickets, discounts and access to webinars hosted by its expert members.
Soak up all the product management knowledge you can, by reading their premium content section or by networking in an open discussion forum with experts on their Linkedin page.
Product Coalition
Product Coalition market themselves as the world’s largest independent product management networking community, with over 1,000,000 annual readers and 10,000 downloads of their podcast. It’s the largest free community for product managers and publishes Medium’s leading product management online publication, ProductCoalition.com.
To get the most out of this community, you can become a member. As part of this membership, you will receive:
- Access to their Slack channel with over 7,000 members and a private Whatsapp group for leaders
- An opportunity to record a podcast
- Receive a Medium writer invite to publish your articles to our 1,000,000+ users
- Access to all courses and mentoring programmes
Products That Counts
Join the most influential Product Acceleration Platform to learn the craft of product, lead with a Product-Led Growth strategy, and win as a market leader.
Products That Counts provide a way for those in product to join the conversation and gain insights from influential executives at the most innovative companies. Members can access their 100+ events a year, take part in discussions on LinkedIn and sharpen up skills through their product bootcamp, as well as access articles, podcasts, newsletters, webinars, guest speaker events and more.
Products That Counts is product management networking set up for:
- Product managers to learn skills and accelerate careers
- Product leaders to transform skills within the business and gain a competitive advantage
- Chief Product Officers to transform the industry through market-leading products
Product management networking summary
For more advice on product management networking or help finding the next step in your career, contact us at Intelligent People. Follow us on Linkedin and become a member of our Product Management group to gain access to the latest jobs and network with over a 1,000 members.
Looking for product management training courses? Read our guide for our top 5 recommendations.
