Summary
Design in Product’s Inaugural Conference Chair, Emcee, and Chief Curator Christian Crumlish takes the stage to share the conference agenda, go over important attendee information, announcements and housekeeping guidelines, and introduce the day’s first speaker.
Key Insights
-
•
Product management remains a misunderstood role, leading to ongoing questions in the community.
-
•
Many product professionals worry their strategic influence is diminishing in organizations.
-
•
Marty Cagan's personal career shift into product management gives him unique perspective on both sides of the table.
-
•
Balancing multiple roles related to product management is common but not advisable.
-
•
Open discussions about product management’s challenges are long overdue.
-
•
The community experiences collective anxiety about the future of product management.
-
•
Understanding what is going wrong is the first step to creating positive change.
-
•
Product managers have agency and responsibility to improve their role and impact.
-
•
Workshops and community engagement remain effective ways to explore complex product topics.
-
•
The talk aims to energize attendees with optimism and actionable insight rather than pessimism.
Notable Quotes
"I wrote the book because people have a lot of questions about how to become a product manager or how to work with product managers."
"I feel a lot of pain and anxiety in the community people wondering, you know is our seat at the table slipping away."
"I myself career-wise went over to the dark side and became a product manager."
"I’ve sat on both sides of the table."
"I’ve sometimes held both jobs at once which I don’t recommend."
"This is a topic near and dear to my heart and a really long overdue conversation."
"What is going wrong? What’s the matter? What’s the cause of that? What responsibility do we have for creating the situation?"
"What agency do we have for making it better? And what’s the path forward?"
"I hope you’ll come out of the day feeling energized and excited about the opportunities and the possibilities."
"Rather than demoralized about the state of things today."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"The 1500 are designers, we don't distinguish strictly between UX or visual or industrial—they all bring design to the org."
Adam Cutler Karen Pascoe Ian Swinson Susan WorthmanDiscussion
June 8, 2016
"We don’t get upset when users say one thing and do another, but we freak out when our leadership behaves that way."
Peter MerholzThe Trials and Tribulations of Directors of UX (Videoconference)
July 13, 2023
"In the automotive industry, most safety standards only became mandatory after governments intervened."
Lisa WelchmanCleaning Up Our Mess: Digital Governance for Designers
June 14, 2018
"Investing in sustainability today will yield dividends for future generations."
Vincent BrathwaiteOpener: Past, Present, and Future—Closing the Racial Divide in Design Teams
October 22, 2020
"The greatest sign of success for a teacher is just to be able to say the children are now working as if I did not exist."
Brenna FallonLearning Over Outcomes
October 24, 2019
"We are all experiencing a spatial collapse, a disruption of our mental models of how we navigate physical and virtual spaces."
Tricia WangSpatial Collapse: Designing for Emergent Culture
January 8, 2024
"Marital status mattered because car buying decisions often involve family members, not just the individual."
Edgar Anzaldua MorenoUsing Research to Determine Unique Value Proposition
March 11, 2021
"With proper maintenance, knowledge becomes a vehicle that probes the most hidden spaces of possibility and brings the best decisions to the surface."
Designing Systems at Scale
November 7, 2018
"Conversion design means to create intentional change."
Erin WeigelGet Your Whole Team Testing to Design for Impact
July 24, 2024
