All Working Products conferences 2016-2023
2 days of sunshine, laughter and learning in Hamburg
With over 120 participants and speakers, 19 presentations and 8 workshops, it was actually just like always :-)
We are still completely thrilled about the great atmosphere, the many laughing and talking people and the many compliments we got.
The change to June was definitely worth it. Two sunny days at 26°, just perfect. Everything took place outside, only for the lectures and workshops we went inside.
We were again in the Goldbekhaus in Hamburg and again with the catering of the Produktionsschule Altona and the decoration of herbs and bee plants.
The special character of Working Products again came through impeccably in 2023: Familiar, intensive exchange of experiences between all participants. We are sure: In 2023, too, everyone talked to every other participant at some point.
We did not change anything in the format. There were two additional workshops and an Afro-Cuban drum circle on the first evening. At the OpenSpace we held two shorter session blocks instead of one long block. This gave everyone the opportunity to participate in two topics. We'll probably keep that up.
But otherwise, it was always about giving as much space as possible for conversation and exchange. The Speakers Corner was really well attended after each presentation and there was always intense discussion right up to the last minute.
Once again this year, the 19 presentations were roughly divided into the two areas of "Product and Team Culture" and "Product Management: Experiences, Tools and Methods". One focus this year was on the topic of "product organization" in larger companies. It was exciting to learn how "product" is organized at Otto (presentation by David Behlich), Tchibo (presentation by Kathleen Theelke and Ulla Klaffs) and at CTS Eventim (presentation by Steffanie Kambach). Anyway, the exchange and detailed questions in the Speakers Corner after each of the presentations was super detailed.
Silke Kanes' plea to value the competencies of colleagues "not yet" working in an agile way was also enriching.
As always at Working Products, there was a Speakers Corner after each presentation. Here the participants could talk shop with the speaker for 30 minutes, ask questions and share experiences. The Speakers Corner was again very well received. Each presentation was packed and we always had to end the discussion because the next presentation was about to start.
Parallel to the lectures and the Openspace we had 8 workshops in the program.
All workshops were very practice-oriented. The range was wide: from Sustainable UX to contract design for agile projects.
On Thursday afternoon, we collected 12 topics for the OpenSpace sessions, ranging from the "classic: product owner vs. product manager" to A/B testing in international services. We were able to cover 8 topics in two session blocks of 45 minutes. This was a change from previous years. The shorter blocks allowed participants to collaborate on two topics.
We started both days in the morning with meditation and mindfulness exercises. In addition, movement exercises during the lunch break. Meditations and movement exercises were led by Beate Schulte Strathaus (Working Products). Beate co-founded Working Products in 2006 and is a co-organizer of the conference.
Climate protection and sustainability are close to our hearts and we tried to make the conference as sustainable as possible. This year, for example, the barbecue on Thursday evening was again purely vegetarian.
On Friday morning we also had a keynote by Ole Langbehn and Martin Grotzke (inoio / Entrepreneurs for Future) about "sustainable business".
Category | Title | Speaker(s) | Year |
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Head of Department Product Management
More about Antonia ManchevaTrainer for mediation and non-violent communication, mediator
More about Armin TorbeckeCoach and mindfulness trainer
More about Beate Schulte StrathausHead of Productmanagement Germany
More about Hanane BouzidiHead of Private Customer Business
More about Rainer GibbertProduct Management Expert Lean, Agile, Scrum
More about Roman PichlerInterim Manager I Experienced Product Manager
More about Thorsten SteinbachThis year live again at the Goldbekhaus in Hamburg
With over 130 participants and speakers, 18 presentations and 6 workshops, we broke all Working Products records this year:-)
We are still quite euphoric about the good mood, the engagement and interactions of all participants and the great feedback we got.
Even though the weather luck let us down a bit for the first time this year, a lot still took place outside.
We were again in the Goldbekhaus in Hamburg and again with the catering of the production school Altona and the decoration of herbs and bee plants.
The special character of Working Products has worked live 2022 again extremely well: Familiar, intensive exchange of experiences between all participants. We are sure that in 2022, too, everyone talked to every other participant at some point.
We went back to the old familiar format of 2 days. This year we held the OpenSpace only on Thursday afternoon and used the second day completely for presentations and workshops.
This year, the 18 presentations were roughly divided into the two areas "Product and Team Culture" and "Product Management: Experiences, Tools and Methods". However, the focus was more on the culture topics. There, the interest of the participants was also very high. The presentations on conflict management, coaching attitude for product managers and empathy were definitely very well attended.
As always at Working Products, there was a Speakers Corner after each presentation. Here the participants could talk shop with the speaker for another 30 minutes, ask questions and share experiences. The Speakers Corner was again very well received. Every talk was full and we always had to end the discussion because the next talk was starting.
Parallel to the lectures and the Openspace we had 6 workshops in the program. Participants could register in advance. There were so many registrations that we had to draw lots for the places. Especially for the workshop on Stakeholder Management the interest was huge.
The workshops covered the entire range of topics, from technical issues (product strategy, stakeholder management, customer value, event storming) to organizational/team issues (dragon dreaming, change through improv theater). In any case, the feedback from the workshop participants was very positive. Let's do it again next year :-)
On Thursday afternoon we collected 7 topics for the OpenSpace sessions ranging from "Ethical products" to "Solutions for hybrid working environments". The participants worked in each session for 90 minutes and presented their results later in the afternoon. We got some good insights for each of the session topics. We publish those results in a (hopefully short) while. Stay tuned...
We started both days in the morning with meditation and mindfulness exercises. Plus movement exercises during the lunch break. Meditations and movement exercises were led by Beate Schulte Strathaus (Working Products). Beate co-founded Working Products in 2006 and is a co-organizer of the conference.
Climate protection and sustainability are close to our hearts and we tried to make the conference as sustainable as possible. This year, for example, the barbecue on Thursday evening was purely vegetarian.
On Friday morning, we also had a keynote by Ella Lagé from TheDive about the responsibility of product managers to promote the path to a renewable economy.
Category | Title | Speaker(s) | Year |
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Teamlead Application Development Web, Mobile, API
More about Arne HopfCoach and mindfulness trainer
More about Beate Schulte StrathausGeschäftsführerin Und Designerin
More about Claudia FriedrichWissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin
More about Elena HermannWissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter
More about Franziska HerrmannFreelance Journalist, Author, Blogger, Project Facilitator
More about Ilona KoglinInterim Chief Technology Officer
More about Johannes MainuschCorona-related again as an online event, spread over 4 days to avoid online overload. We have used the experience from 2020 to further improve technology and processes.
It was another great four days. By choosing Hopin as the conference platform, the exchange among the participants worked really well. The spontaneous Session of Publishing People was fun, because product managers from different publishing houses found each other at the conference.
The special character of Working Products worked well again in 2021 remote: Familiar, intensive exchange of experiences between all participants. We are sure that in 2021, too, everyone spoke with every other participant at some point.
Tweets about #wpkonf
We stuck with the 4 day split. However, we had 10 workshops in the early afternoon and so the 4 days were completely filled after all.
This year the conference was completely remote. No speakers on site with us.
Before each lecture block there were also meditation and movement exercises led by Beate Winter from Working Products. Beate co-founded Working Products in 2006 and is a co-organizer of the conference.
Again this year, the presentations were roughly divided into the two tracks "Product and Team Culture" and "Product Management: Experiences, Tools and Methods". Since we only had one presentation track, each attendee was able to view each presentation.
We found Daniel Neuberger's talk to be very important. Daniel advocated that we all take our responsibility and be mindful of precious design and development capabilities. "Build the right/important products. Work where you have a real impact. Change jobs when you need to."
We recorded the talks and made them available on YouTube: talks WP 2021
On Friday, there was another roundtable on "Developing Sustainable Digital Products". For more than two hours, Karel Golta (INDEED Innovation), Thorsten Jonas and Florian Grote (CODE University) moderated by Beate talked about what responsibility designers and product managers have to make digital products and services as sustainable as possible. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Category | Title | Speaker(s) | Year |
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Product Management Expert Lean, Agile, Scrum
More about Roman PichlerAgile Coach, Trainerin für Agile Coaches, Unternehmensberaterin, Coach
More about Sabine ReineckeAgile Coach, Product Owner, Scrum Master, Transformationsbegleiter
More about Lars KlingelhöferCoach and mindfulness trainer
More about Beate Schulte StrathausA real Corona experiment. Spread over 4 days to prevent digital overload. The great surprise: We could keep up the very special, friendly and familiar atmosphere in the digital world. Ok, the great outdoor experience from the Goldbekhaus is just not there on a flat screen...
It was a great four days. The special character of Working Products also works remotely: familiar, intensive exchange of experiences between all participants. Presumably, in 2020 again, everyone talked to every other participant at some point.
Tweets about #wpkonf
For the remote conference, we stretched the program over 4 days because we believe that NOBODY can watch talks on screen all day. Therefore, we offered the presentations in the morning and late afternoon on each of the four days. This way we could do without the parallel tracks and every participant had the chance to see all presentations live. During the day, there were also a number of workshops.
We had almost half of the speakers live in our office for the presentations. The others were "only" present via zoom. After each presentation, of course, the Speakers Corner. This worked almost better than live, because every audience member could hear and see everything and it was easier to discuss.
Before each lecture block there were also meditation and movement exercises led by Beate Winter from Working Products. Beate co-founded Working Products in 2006 and is a co-organizer of the conference.
Again this year, the presentations were roughly divided into the two tracks "Product and Team Culture" and "Product Management: Experiences, Tools and Methods". Since we only had one lecture track, each participant was able to view each lecture.
Personally, I liked Christian Becker's talk, where Christian presented that user-centricity means taking care of the most important/profitable customers for the company and not fulfilling every user's every wish....
We recorded the presentations and made them available on YouTube: Presentations WP 2020
Since barbecue, music and being outside unfortunately didn't work this year, we did an online game night instead. I didn't think that could be so much fun.
Category | Title | Speaker(s) | Year |
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Product Management Expert Lean, Agile, Scrum
More about Roman PichlerAgile Coach, Trainerin für Agile Coaches, Unternehmensberaterin, Coach
More about Sabine ReineckeAgile Coach, Product Owner, Scrum Master, Transformationsbegleiter
More about Lars KlingelhöferCoach and mindfulness trainer
More about Beate Schulte StrathausZwei Tage mit strahlendem Sonnenschein haben die Working Products 2019 zu einem Open-Air-Event gemacht. Nur die 12 Vorträge waren drinnen, alles andere fand im Freien statt. Dafür war das Goldbekhaus der perfekte Ort. Vor allem natürlich auch mit den Kanus und Bogenschießen.
Die Vorträge waren wieder sehr schön. Nach jedem Vortrag gab es noch intensive Diskussionen und Fragerunden mit den Speakern in der Speakers Corner.
Nachmittags wurde in den Sessions zu den verschiedensten Produktmanagement-Themen gemeinsam gearbeitet. Natürlich im Freien.
In diesem Jahr gab es zusätzlich noch 4 Workshops zu Produktmanagement und Achtsamkeit.
Aber das Wichtigste waren wieder die vielen Gespräche zwischen den Teilnehmern. Vermutlich hat wieder jeder irgendwann mal mit jedem anderen Teilnehmer gesprochen.
Tweets zur #wpkonf
Category | Title | Speaker(s) | Year |
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Customer Success Manager Digital Airport
More about Anne HoffmannCoach and mindfulness trainer
More about Beate Schulte StrathausOrganizational Development Coach, Consultant, Trainer, CBDO
More about Kim DuggenSenior Management Consultant and Coach
More about Michael MerksSolutions Developer Digital Services Line
More about Ronni WildfangHead of Solution Engineering and Go to Market
More about Sebastian TieslerSpeaker, Moderator, Trainer, Schauspieler, Coach, Autor
More about Torsten Voller2 days of sun, being outside, exchange and good talks.
Two days of bright sunshine made Working Products 2018 an open-air event. Only the 12 presentations were indoors, everything else took place outdoors. For this, the Goldbekhaus was the perfect place. Especially of course with the canoes and stand-up paddling.
All lectures were of course great. After each presentation there were intensive discussions and Q&A sessions with the speakers in the Speakers Corner.
In the afternoon, we worked together in the sessions on various product management topics. Outdoors, of course.
But the most important thing was again the many conversations between the participants. Probably everyone talked to every other participant at some point.
Category | Title | Speaker(s) | Year |
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Operations Director Imagine Programme
More about Marcel SemmlerSenior Management Consultant and Coach
More about Michael MerksHead of Private Customer Business
More about Rainer Gibbert2 days with 100 participants, 12 presentations, 14 open sessions and countless conversations and discussions about good digital product development and the everyday life of product managers.
We liked it a lot and also the participants were super satisfied through the bank.
We invited Susanne Kreuz, a UX designer friend, to Working Products and asked her to summarize her personal impressions in a blog post:
Review of Working Products 2017
Category | Title | Speaker(s) | Year |
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Berater Für Organisationsentwicklung, Gründer OrgaNeo
More about Winald KaschProduct Management Expert Lean, Agile, Scrum
More about Roman PichlerHead Accenture Interactive DACH and Chief Executive Officer SinnerSchrader
More about Matthias SchraderBerater Für Zukunftsfähige Organisationen and Kanban Coaching Professional
More about Mathias SchröderOn the first conference day there were 12 presentations in two tracks. After each presentation there was time to exchange with the speaker and other conference topics in the "Speakers Corner".
At the end there were two discussion rounds and afterwards there was some partying. On the second day, the participants were able to discuss product management topics and develop solutions together in 9 sessions in the ProductSpace.
Category | Title | Speaker(s) | Year |
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Helping Companies to Internationally Turbo Scale 🚀💚 I Love to Talk About Self Organisation and the Future
More about Matt HallmannInterim Chief Technology Officer
More about Johannes MainuschDigital Product Design Management and UX Consulting
More about Inken PetersenDirector Group Digital Strategy
More about Jan RombolottoVice President Data Science at Capgemini Invent
More about Christo ZonnevVice President Product and User Experience
More about Patrick RoelofsAuthor The Loop Approach, Co-Founder Blinkist & Neue Narrative
More about Sebastian Klein