The Importance of Community

Here are a few of the top product communities to consider joining.

importance of being part of a community

A few weeks ago, I had a call with a product leader living in a major city in North America. Like many first-time product leaders, their product skills were largely self-taught. And like so many others, they were slugging it out in a silo, working on their problem sets and navigating the function of their craft alone!

I suggested they connect to a community of their peers to benefit from the experiences and learnings of others. I recommended a product community that I know does a consistently great job engaging with local leaders and product talent. A week later, I got this email:

“Just wanted to touch base and say thank you for the recommendations. I attended my first x meeting last night and WILL be attending more.

I had the sense of a real community, one I didn’t know existed here. Hearing discussions and talk around product in a real-life setting was intoxicating, actually. I still have some networking to do, haha, but just listening and taking it all in was a pleasure for the evening.”

Are you connected to a product community?

• Do you have a go-to community to network with for opportunities?
• Do you have a go-to community when you need to hire?
• Are you meeting people who are further along in their careers who you could learn from?
• Are you meeting people earlier in their career who you could encourage or coach?
• How are you developing your skills, knowledge, and perspective on what’s happening in the greater product community?

There are so many amazing benefits of joining a product leadership community. That email from the self-taught leader? It’s basically a love letter to stop going at it alone and start soaking up the lessons, trends and good vibes of a like-minded community.

So, if you’re still doing the lone wolf thing in the product world, maybe it’s time to join a community. Not sure where? While this is not an exhaustive list, here are a few of the top product communities we follow:

1. Toronto Product Management Association
2. ProductTO
3. Product Tank Montreal
4. ProductBC
5. Boston Product Management Association
6. Women In Product (Localized across North America)
7. TechThursdays (Winnipeg / Calgary)
8. Product Calgary
9. Communitech (Kitchener-Waterloo)

Know of others we should add to the list? Comment below or drop a note to our Product Practice Lead: Heidi Ram at heidi@mbassett.com

Author:

Heidi Ram is the Head of Product Practice at Martyn Bassett Associates. She has been a recruiter for the company for 20 years. During that time, she has been instrumental in shaping the evolution of the business, while building high-performing teams for some of the firm’s most valued clients.

Heidi is regarded as a thought leader and trusted advisor in the Toronto Product Management and Design community when it comes to industry insights, recruitment trends, salaries and the current talent landscape. Furthermore, Heidi is a board member of the Toronto Product Management Association (TPMA).