Patrick Sauerwein | @virtual_patrick

TL;DR

The Leadership forum was worth participating, several important lessons emerged:

• Networking, networking, networking – getting to know to curious product people at heart is a huge opportunity to connect as it is a smaller group of people where some keynote speakers have been invited. And you’ll meet some of them again during those days which made it easier to reconnect and share learnings.
• Two great actionable exercises that you could use directly that day and beyond which was emptying the box and radical reframing.
• Tipping points, Nemawashi and stakeholder mapping

Continue reading for more details

The day started with a lunch at the Rialto restaurant, which I would recommend anyhow if you’re going to a trip to Hamburg. Petra curated the seats for the attendees and it was the first opportunity to have a lunch meeting with new people to connect and talk about product. After lunch we walked over to the Katholische Akademie to start with the welcome and the first workshop facilitated by Emilie Lindström & Shaun Russell. They introduced two concepts inspired by Nancy Kline’s book “Time to Think”. The two concepts were:

Emptying the box

Emptying the box has two roles, the listener and the thinker. You could do this exercise in 5 minutes and then switch roles. I’d recommend to do this a longer time to be more valuable for you.

The Listener

Gives undivided attention without analysis or comment and asks the following questions step by step letting the thinker enough time to answer everything:

1. What do you want to think about?
2. Is there anything more you want to say?
   Is there anything else you’re thinking or feeling? REPEAT, REPEAT, REPEAT!
3. What would be a good outcome for you at this point?

The Thinker is going to empty out their mind. This is their time! Enjoy the freedom to think out loud messy and unfininshed thoughts.

Radical reframing

Radical reframing is a journaling exercise, which means writing down your thoughts. As it is about assumptions, you need to understand the various levels and types of assumptions. Types with examples of assumptions:

• Fact: I am below them in the company hierarchy.
• Possible Fact: They won’t listen to what I have to say.
• Bedrock Assumption: I’m not smart enough to be listened to or you shouldn’t speak until you’re spoken to.

Now take pen and paper to start the exercise!

First of all it’s collecting your limiting assumptions and find the most hindering for you. Questions to start:

1. What might I be assuming that is stopping me from fulfilling my goal?
2. That’s possible. But what else might I be assuming, that makes that stop me?
3. Of these assumptions, which is limiting me the most?

Now it is about to reframe your limiting assumption(s) with the following prompts:

1. What is my positive opposite of [limiting assumption]?
2. If I knew that [positive opposite], what would I do differently? REPEAT, REPEAT, REPEAT!

These exercises have been the best session that day as it was the most actionable and therefore most valuable for me.

“Maintain a product mindset during challenging times” by Sam McAffee

After the coffee break Sam McAffee shared his thoughts about how to “Maintain a product mindset during challenging times”. Unfortunately, Sam was not able to make it to hamburg due to an expired passport. This might have been one reason why this talk missed out being there in present in person and lacking the view of the audience was harder to make a connection with the audience. Key takeaways for me:

1. Tipping points

• You only need 15% of a population to be on board in order to make a dramatic change.
• Who are your early adopters?
• Treat your change program like a product-test ideas with early adopters and learn from their reactions.

2. Nemawashi

• Nemawashi is a Japanese term that translates to “going around the roots”
• Before any group discussion, go and talk to each person individually first.
• Prepare for each conversation: 3x prep time for each hour of communication time.

3. Map out your stakeholders, their influence and attitude towards change.

Fireside chat and Networking

After another coffee break for networking, Teresa Torres joined Petra Wille for a fireside chat. Petra came up with some good curated questions to start a first conversation about the state of product discovery and habits. Later the audience had the opportunity to ask their questions as well. I’m not the biggest fan of fireside chats as the value moments are hard to accomplish and the structure is naturally more open.

The official part closed at 6:15pm to open up for networking till 8pm. This was great to connect with product people and connect. I met so many incredible human beings during that day, and fortunately had the chance to talk to Teresa for a longer time too, so this was very valuable to me.

Conclusion

Attending the Leadership forum proved to be a worthwhile endeavour for product people seeking deep connections, actionable insights, and personal growth. The forum’s emphasis on networking, coupled with the practical exercises and thought-provoking talks, made it an enriching experience. If given the opportunity, I recommend participating in this forum to expand your network, gain valuable knowledge, and engage with the vibrant product management community. In addition you bump into them over the next days again which made it easier to reconnect and share learnings while growing your network again.

Did you participate too? What did you learn? Share your learnings or connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Thank you for reading if you’ve come so far!

Best,

Patrick ❤️