‘Growing into Product’: AT Product Talks — March 2023
On a dark and snowy day back in March we held our second AT Product Talks event at our offices in Manchester. We were joined by some fantastic speakers, panellists and guests from the product community.
The topic for the evening was ‘Growing into Product’, celebrating the uniqueness of journeys into product. We heard a diverse and inspiring range of career stories from our keynote speakers and panellists with loads of valuable takeaways.
Keynote 1 — Atif Ahmed — Head of Product Practice (Consulting)
Opening the evening was the fantastic Atif Ahmed who shared his journey into product from call centre, commercial product to digital product management and his learnings along the way. Atif’s story was an honest and warm reflection on his career so far and he left the audience with some helpful reflections.
Panel Discussion
The panel discussion was hosted by Tor Lever, Product Director at Auto Trader and included Steve Messer, Senior Product Manager (Goverment Digital Service), Yasmin Sidat, Senior Product Lead (Auto Trader UK), Kelly Palmer, Group Product Manager (Booking.com) and Yahya Patel, Business Analyst (Auto Trader UK).
The panellists discussed their squiggly journeys into product roles, what they love about working in product, what advice they’d give for people looking to develop into a product role.
Keynote — Damian Robinson — Principal Product Lead (Auto Trader UK)
We finished the evening with Damian’s keynote. Damian talked about his journey from Data Analyst to Principal Product Lead since joining Auto Trader in 2007, and why he loves his role in Product enough to commute from Southampton to Manchester most weeks! He also talked about the diversity of backgrounds in the Auto Trader product team and how cognitive diversity helps build better products for users.
Overall, despite the weather warnings and snow, we had a fantastic evening talking all things ‘Growing into Product’. A huge thanks to our speakers and panellists for sharing their stories and giving such useful insight to the audience.
We look forward to hosting our next AT Product Talks on 8th June, exploring the healthy tension between Product and Design with guest keynotes from Skyscanner and 4G Capital. If you’re interested, you can sign up here. If you’d like to be involved in future AT Product Talks events, please contact me on LinkedIn.
