ProductCamp Austin Sessions

ProductCamp only works if you get involved - that means speaking or presenting, moderating a panel or roundtable discussion, conducting a workshop, or being on a panel. Add your session here with your name in ()'s so we know who you are! Proposed sessions will be voted on by the ProductCamp participants with the most popular sessions getting best scheduling. If you can't think of a session to lead, check out the section below called "Topics I would like to hear about" for ideas, or check out some of the really cool sessions offered by people just like you at ProductCamp Austin in June 2008 and January 2009. 

Session Formats

You can structure a session however you wish, but here are some potential session formats: 

• Presentation - You speak or give a Powerpoint presentation.
• Panel Discussion - You either moderate a discussion of topics by a group of panelists, or you sit on the panel.
• Roundtable Discussion - You moderate a discussion among all of the session attendees.
• Workshop - You lead session attendees as they work through a challenge. 

Tracks

Here are some categories of topics in which registrants have indicated interest:

• Agile (e.g. product owner and product management roles in scrum)
• Marketing (e.g. social media, marketing programs, advertising versus PR)
• Requirements (e.g. elicitation, concepts, documentation, tools)
• Product Strategy (e.g. partnerships, roadmapping, positioning)
• Career (e.g. how to interview, how to be interviewed, big company BS, working with internal stakeholders)
• Other (e-mail your suggestions to roger at cauvin dot org)

The following chart shows how many people have expressed interest in each track (during registration) and how many sessions have been proposed (for each track).

PRESENTERS: The official ProductCamp Austin Summer 09 presentation template will be available soon.  You are not obligated but are highly encouraged to use it - it helps recognize our great sponsors! 

We need to fill ~30 session slots.  Some will be filled by roundtables and will need facilitators; the rest will be offered by you - the ProductCamp participants.   List your offered session here, if we end up with more than 30 offered sessions, than the sessions will be chosen by the participants in the morning.  Please indicate the track that best matches your session.

1. [Marketing] 7 Ps of Successful Product Marketers: Real World Perspectives (Dave Angelow & Bertrand Hazard)
2. [Agile] Impacts of Agile Development on Product Management and Requirements (Paul Brownell)
3. [Marketing] How Buyer Personas justify bigger online marketing budgets (Brian Massey)
4. [Product Strategy] Using the voice of the customer to drive innovation (Steven Haines)
5. [Product Strategy] Getting past the product roadmap to broaden your perspective (Steven Haines)
6. [Strategy] How Product Mgmt. and Product Mktg. Can Drive Company, Market and Product Strategy (John Mansour)
7. [Requirements] The Requirements Value Chain, Using Requirements to Improve the Overall Performance of the Company (John Mansour)
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Topics I would like to hear about

Some of these topics we got to, others we didn't. Consider these topics for a future PCA. 

• Tips for finding and interviewing customers and potentials
• Using low/no cost methods to connect with the Market
• Effective time management for PM's
• Dealing with GUIs in requirements
• Developing a 12 month strategy plan to drive awareness in the marketplace
• How to best align a product management team internally to serve the different target markets. Enterprise, Consumer, SAAS, etc.
• Product EOL planning, concerns
• Product personas; useful methods of assessment, software v. web personas, impact on value proposition, market reach, product usability etc.
• How segment and size markets
• Product Management: Consumer vs. B2B
• Product Management & Business Development
• Product Management and Open Source: Mutually exclusive?
• Just say No: When is it time to end of life a product? How to restrict bad ideas from ever becoming products?
• Ethnography & Product Development
• Effective Collaboration - How product managers are using wikis to share information with customers, developmers and/or stakeholders.
• Build, buy or partner - Beyond the basic business case.
• Does offshoring and outsourcing still make sense?
• Launch strategy - customizing your product launch activities for your market
• What's next? Career management for the product manager
• Managing up: Working with executives vs. working with peers.
• Hit the ground running: What to do in the first 30 days (in a new role, at a new company, with a new product)
• add a topic... 

Lessons Learned from Previous ProductCamps...

There is nothing like leading a session at ProductCamp - it will be the most fun you can pack into a 45-50 minute conference session.  Because ProductCamp is completely user driven, there are no "talking heads" or "keynotes."  There is just you and your peers.  That lends a realism to the sessions that you can't get anywhere else.  Presenting at ProductCamp is fun, and an experience you will remember forever.  Use this opportunity to polish your presentation and facilitation skills in a non-threatening environment, talking about problems that matter with people who "get it."

We learned at the first ProductCamp that certain types of sessions work better than others.  These are guidelines, but feel free to break the mold and bring something new to the table.

Participants Liked:

• Interactivity
• Discussion
• Use Cases/Examples
• Whiteboards
• Roundtables

Disliked:

• Excessive Slideware (>10 slides is probably pushing it for most sessions!)
• Pushing questions to the end
• Anything Sales-y