Wednesday Wine Down: Product Evolution and the Changing Tide of the Market: April 2013

Our April 2013 meeting of the St. Louis Product Management Group was Wednesday, April 24, 2013:

Wednesday Wine Down: Product Evolution and the Changing Tide of the Market — When Do You Go with the Flow and When Do You Remain a Rock?

Meeting are open to everyone — there is no charge to attend. RSVPs encouraged (but not required) on our LinkedIn page.

Wednesday Wine Down is something new we’re trying:

  • It’s on a Wednesday.
  • It’s a chance to “wind down” after work
  • There will be wine (and beer)

Details:

  • 5:00pm: Arrivals, networking, drinks
  • 5:30-6:30pm: Group discussion (see details below)
  • Location: Sendouts/Bullhorn: 200 South Hanley Road, Suite 800, Clayton, MO 63105. The building is on the east side of Hanley. Turn onto Colorado (just north of the building, just south of the car wash) and drive around back to park in the lot behind the building.
  • Thanks to Sendouts / Bullhorn or providing the facilities for this meeting, and thanks to Carol Stennett for providing refreshments!

This will be a group discussion, facilitated by Carol Stennett: As product managers we are at the helm of our product’s destiny.  Regardless of your market, it’s certain to be dynamic and filled with competitors, technology trends and new niches for potential acquisition by your offerings.  How do you use the market place and your customer data to help inform the future direction of your product?  We’ll have a group discussion of our collective experience with this challenging topic, beginning with a quick analysis of BlackBerry (formerly RIM) as a current case study of making product decisions in a quickly-changing market.  The goal is to walk-away with examples of techniques you may be able to employ in your current product thinking and decision-making.

About the facilitator, Carol Stennett (Director, Product Management; Maxsam Partners): Carol has ten years of experience in software development and information systems, with the majority of her experience in Product Management.  She has worked in a myriad of markets developing software solutions for end users including Information Centers, Legal, Web and Pharmaceutical.  Her product management experience runs the gamut from product cradle to grave including identifying new market opportunities, developing business cases, defining solution requirements, developing a solution with her engineering colleagues and taking an offering to market working across organizations with stakeholders in Sales, Marketing, Engineering and Support.  Carol began her career in software training, project management and implementation, gaining a first-hand appreciation in the field for the criticality of quality product management to ensure satisfied end users.  In addition to her field experience, Carol possesses a dual master’s degree in Library Science and Information Science with a focus on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), and  is Pragmatic Product Management certified.  Carol has just relocated to St. Louis from Seattle and is eager to connect with other Product Managers in the area for lively conversation, exchange of war stories and an overall good reason to get out of her pajamas since she is now a remote Seattle employee.

RSVPs requested on our LinkedIn page.