Hello 2023, Product Tonic Community

As we look back on the past year, we are filled with inspiration for all that we have accomplished together. From the successful launch of Product Tonic Lab Cohort 2, the 5th Product Tonic Unconference to the strong bonds we have formed within our community, there is so much to be grateful for.

We hosted a welcome session together with Titansoft Singapore (thank you Chandra, Khim & Jingyi) & German Entrepreneurship Asia (thanks Yitch!).

The evening started with a circle way format setting the intention for the evening and our working agreements. Michael led the centering meditation from a reading of Virginia Satir’s “Intimate Body Connection” to help us bring awareness to our body and the breath that helps us ease into the evening together.

Our check-in question using a 1–2–4-all liberating structure asked participants to think about “What’s Inspiring You Today?”. This brought up a range of topics:

• Dealing with complexity and growth
• Self Realisation
• Opportunities for personal growth
• Social enterprises connecting people (e.g a cafe connecting people and distributing coffee to the neighbourhood)
• Uncles playing chinese chess together
• Experiencing courage to try new things
• Learning from experience and trying new things
• Going deeper beyond the surface to see the wisdom
• Doing better than yesterday

Our next activity was a Draw Together using 5 shapes to symbolise our journey in 2022 heading towards 2023.

The prompts were

• What do we appreciate about 2022?
• What are our hopes and wishes for 2023?

Shapes for Draw Together

Circle = wholeness;
Rectangle = support;
Triangle = goal;
Spiral = change;
Star person [equidistant cross] = relationship

As we formed pairs to share our stories, the storyteller would share from their drawing with listeners using Clean Questions to uncover more:

Starting prompt: Your year’s shape is like… what?
What kind of X?
Is there anything else about X?

Ask the questions in any order, using any of the other person’s words in the “X” spot. Aim to use no other words. Keep going until the time is up!

What we learnt from the stories using clean questions

Listeners

• Felt guided
• Focused
• Constrained
• Better understanding of terms used
• Listening to key points
• Being more precise on understanding

Storytellers

• Trying to keep it short
• Connected
• Freedom
• Expected more questions
• Felt safe
• Curiosity
• Being cared / heard

As we appreciate 2022, let us continue to support and inspire one another as we strive to achieve our goals. Whether it’s through online forums, meetups, or virtual events, let’s make sure to stay connected and continue to learn from one another.

As we look forward to 2023, we have many hopes and wishes for our community. We hope to see continued growth and success in our events and in our meaningful relationships with one another. We wish for a year of collaboration and innovation, where new ideas and perspectives are embraced and celebrated.

To kick off the new year, the participants would like to share some gifts with our community.

• Laughter
• Listening space
• Life experiences
• Tuning into people
• Pizza
• Affirmation
• Brain(power)
• Time
• Bouncing ideas without prejudice
• Provide (positive) triggers
• Be more human

In order to sustain the strong and vibrant community we have built, participants wanted to grow the community by

• Volunteering to facilitate
• Active participation
• Providing a peer network to reach out
• Connecting people to the community
• Share benefits beyond product topics
• Providing inclusive space
• Hosting venues, providing food

Some steps we would take this year in the community

• Find the next generation of community organisers
• We are starting a gathering of minds with the Product Loft (Huishan), Product Management SG (Jay), How Great Products are being built in Southeast Asia (Halynee), Lennys (Shuhang), Agile Singapore (Victor), Singapore Next Level Facilitators (Jerome), Common Ground (Huiying).
• More events across different offices
• Unearth co-creators (not just volunteers)
• Decentralise the group towards different topics (e.g. Opening Space for Sustainability)
• Introduce other community facilitation formats
• Bridge communities, ideas and people

We look forward to an amazing 2023 with a roadmap of activities across the upcoming retreat in Bohol, open spaces and in-person unconference in Singapore.

Thank you for being a part of our product community.

Cheers
Michael

p.s. I shared that this will be my last year as the main steward for the community after a decade of helping to host the learning circles and various events. This would be a year of letting go and joining other learning communities. Thank you for your support and guidance. See you around the sessions!