The Product Group, sponsored by Balsamiq Studios, Ryma Technology Solutions, and Sunshine Suites, is an opportunity for Product Managers, Strategists,etc., to come together to meet, interact, and network. It’s an awesome way to meet follow Product People in a laid-back, conversational environment within which sharing and learning can flourish and complement the knowledge base for all on a peer to peer basis.

We meet the first Thursday of every month.

RSVP for our next meetup.

I am looking forward to seeing everyone, new and familiar, at our next meet-up. If you would like to attend our next meet-up, RSVP today!

Thursday, August 1st @ 7PM
NYC

Some past topics we have covered …

Product Development Cycle: tips, challenges, advice

Google Wave: the strategy behind it, Google, and online collaboration

Product Focus & Organization: tips for keeping your product on track and how to avoid the problems of the ‘heads down’ dilemma

Product Management Career: resources people use, how everyone go to where they are, and much more

Yahoo!: the strategy of ‘all in one place,’ and its larger implications for the Internet and companies like Google and Microsoft

Product Positioning: from the ‘what’ to the ‘when’ and ‘why’

Event Planning Product: brainstorming solutions to the chicken-or-egg problem of a real-world startup product with the founder

Credibility Online: establishing, maintaining, and the importance of

Product Management: just what exactly it means to do ‘product management’

On NOT Missing Important Market Trends: learning from the mis-steps of the newspaper industry

Managing Documentation: what people use, why they use it, and what is recommended

Identifying Your Core: understanding who your users are and distinguishing what they need vs. what they want

Requirements Management: from challenges to software and solutions

Featured Product: Postabon: explored the product, its challenges and successes with guest Product Person, Shaneal Manek, Postabon’s Product Person

Product Management & Politics: explored scenarios and challenges and sharing advice on how to obtain buy-in and overcome

Featured Product: LanguageMate: discussed everything from shaping a product culture to improving the user experience with Ilya Blokh, Product Manager of LanguageMate

Virtual Product Management, Virtual Offices, and Outsourcing: delving into the debate of ‘if’ and ‘what’ of product management can or should come from the outside

Featured Product: HomeField: exploring the product, its challenges and successes, from user acquisition and marketing to user testing and social strategy with the whole team, Reece Pacheco, Dan Spinosa, Joe Yevoli

Product Process: from the benefits and challenges of agile to feature prioritization to bug and idea management techniques

Featured Product: Knewton: discussing a variety of topics from dashboard design to effective team management with the Knewton product team, Sara Petry, Brian Fitzgerald

Creating and Building Relationships with Customers: from the customer strategies of popular products, Mint, Zappos, Twine, and others, to the values of surveying

Featured Product: 4Food: exploring the product, exploring the product, its challenges and successes, from managing the supply chain of a restaurant to crafting engaging user stories with the 4Food team: Rex Sorgatz, Matthew Sheppard

What makes a Product Manager Great: from the lacking characteristics of Microsoft product managers to the KPI’s of accountable visionaries

Featured Product: Market Publique: exploring the product, exploring the product, its challenges and successes, from the importance of selling to establishing and tracking key metrics with the Market Publique team: Jonathan Berger, Pamela Castillo

What makes a Product Great: from happiness and usability to community and context

Featured Product: ALOT: exploring the product, its challenges and successes, from the understanding one’s customers to establishing a new business model with the ALOT team: Sean Conrad, Jim Sanders

Pricing Strategies: from models and methodologies to communicating change

Featured Product: Yipit: exploring the product, its challenges and successes, from growing organically to exploring alternate business models Yipit Product Person: Vin Vacanti

Minimum Viable Product: from misconceptions to lean methodology w/ Guest Expert Joe Chin of SourcePad

Featured Product: Switch2Health: exploring the product, its challenges and successes, from building habits to social recognition with Switch2Health Product Person:Goutham Bhadri

Talking to the Tech-side: from transparency and usability to successful planning

Featured Product: Wind Products: exploring the product, its challenges and successes,  from renewable energy challenges in NYC to optimizing usability and price with Wind Products Product Person: Cullen Kasunic

Fostering Innovation: from defining to preparing for failure

Featured Product: Dinevore: exploring the product, its challenges and successes,  from automation to UX with Dinevore’s Product Person: Jeremy Fisher

The Best Product Person of 2010 Awards: Giff Constable of Aprizi

Project Managers … Who needs ‘em?: from the interaction between product and product to product managers’ true value

Featured Product: LearnVest exploring the product, its challenges and successes,  from validating features to hiring the best with LearnVest’s Person: Debbie Wissel

Time Management: from the “Hoodie Method” to HitMeLater

Featured Product: Thomson One exploring the product, its challenges and successes,  from managing a mature product to user research with Thomson Reuters’ Person: Jonathan Weinberg

To Kill a Product: from the challenges of pulling the trigger to inside Google

Featured Product: NearSay: exploring the product, its challenges and successes, from the scaling the product to guiding technical decisions with NearSay Product People Trevor Sumner and Joshua Mack

Product Management Learning: from great books to moderating success

Featured Product: TouchGraph: exploring the product, its challenges and successes, from visualizing connections to reaching new customers with TouchGraph Product Person Alex Shapiro

Product Management for Scale: from accountability to revenue

Featured Product: Journey Bar: exploring the product, its challenges and successes, from identifying the key influencers  to honing the core message with Journey Bar Product Person Marguarette Dau

Being a Good Customer of Mine: from wasting time to communicating vision

Featured Product: LocalBonus: exploring the product, its challenges and successes, from leveraging less to building their base with LocalBonus Product Person Derek Webster

Describing Product: from napkin methodology to establishing the framework

Featured Product: Paperless Post: exploring the product, its challenges and successes, from customer engagement to mobile strategy with Paperless Post Product Person Itai Ram

Accelerating Product: from the immersion week to separating roles

Featured Product: Betterment: exploring the product, its challenges and successes, from retirement to feedback loops with Betterment Product person Anthony Schrauth

Supporting Product: from aligning expectations to product education

Featured Product: Harvest: exploring the product, its challenges and successes, from challenging support to open API’s with Harvest Product people Sri Vemuri and Shawn Liu

The Future: from pervasive offline to the death of XML

Featured Product: Gojee: exploring the product, its challenges and successes, from evoking emotions to preparing those monetization switches with Gojee product people Michael LaValle and Adam Meisel

Managing & Maintaining the Roadmap: from”what” to “how”

Featured Product: Liquid Fare: exploring the product, its challenges and successes, from pivoting the bar scene to success in execution with Liquid Fare product person Jon Zanoff

The Best Product Person of 2011: Chris Sarette of Invisible Children and Mend

Featured Product: BridesView: exploring the product, its challenges and successes, from branding to understanding the market with product people Alex Toplier and Danny Maloney

Managing with Limited Resources: from expanding the pool to driving customer priorities

Featured Product: CityMaps: exploring the product, its challenges and successes, from evolving the business model to going mobile with BridesView product person Aaron Rudenstine

Managing with Market Focused Product Management: from emotional connections to problem solving

Featured Product: CNN Money: exploring the product, its challenges and successes, from reliability to product-as-content with product person Jeffrey Frese

Brand Management: from consistency to reputation

Featured Product: Everyday Health: exploring the product, its challenges and successes, from mobile strategies to pay models with product person Deepesh Banerji

Value Creation: from discovery to measurement

Featured Product: Meetup.com: exploring the product, its challenges and successes, from working task forces to optimizing activity with product person Andres Glusman

Expanding Innovation: from empowering to enacting

Featured Product: Ben Franklin: exploring the product, its challenges and successes, from unique twists to taking action with product person Jack Sherry

Personas: from personifying the consumer to data driven validation

Featured Product: Voltaic Systems: exploring the product, its challenges and successes, from fashion to power with product person Jeff Crystal

Incite-ful Customers: from the duality of passion to growing the advocates

Featured Product: Onepager: exploring the product, its challenges and successes, from fashion to power with product person Matt Moore

Scrum v Kanban: from form to function

Featured Product: Sprint: exploring the product, its challenges and successes, from Broadband2Go to Rate Cards with product person Ty Abonil

Sales and You: from relating to inclusion

Featured Product: Liz Chan Christmas: exploring the product, its challenges and successes, from diversification to focus with product person Elizabeth Chan

Customer Acquisition Strategies: from incentives to community

Featured Product: Weight Watchers: exploring the product, its challenges and successes, from lifestyle to the institutionalization of measuring with product person Jared Raskin

Product Management Know How: from networking to why-ing

Featured Product: Advisoray: exploring the product, its challenges and successes, from service models to promotional messaging with product person Jacqueline Thong

Millennials: from understanding to catering

Featured Product: Vitogo: exploring the product, its challenges and successes, from communication and motivation to subscriptions with product person Arel English

Leveraging Disagreement: from numbers to environments

Featured Product: It’s My Bag: exploring the product, its challenges and successes, from production to positioning with product person Tonia Torrellas

Ideas & Pre-Build: from new idea pitfalls to decision planning, with guest expert Beth Temple

Featured Product: Bizzabo: exploring the product, its challenges and successes, from focus to the motivated experience with product person Alon Alroy

Customer Development Strategies: from the right questions to training the masses

Featured Product: SPUN: exploring the product, its challenges and successes, from Apple to the “inner scoop” with product person Scott Lindenbaum

…and more…

Come and join the conversation.  Visit our group webpage at…

http://meetup.com/TheProductGroup

Enjoy & See You Soon!

Jeremy Horn
The Product Guy