Working Products 2024

This was the Working Products conference 2024

With over 14 participants and speakers, 19 presentations and 6 workshops, it was just like always:-)
We are still absolutely thrilled about the great atmosphere, the many people laughing and talking and the many compliments we received.
The date in June was brilliant. Two sunny days at 26°, just perfect. Everything took place outside. The remote workshops the day before made sure that nobody had to miss lectures or the open space because of a workshop.
The atmosphere in the Goldbekhaus was super nice as always. Catering from the Altona production school was great and everyone loved the decorations made from herbs and bee plants.
The special character of Working Products was once again perfectly reflected in 2024: an informal, intensive exchange of experiences between all participants. We are certain that everyone spoke to every other participant at some point in 2024.

The format

We have slightly adapted the format. We already offered the workshops on Wednesday as remote workshops. This made the conference a little more intensive on Thursday and Friday, as all participants were able to attend the presentations, discussions and OpenSpace sessions. At the OpenSpace, we also held two shorter session blocks instead of one long block. This gave everyone the opportunity to participate in two topics. We tried this out last year and it worked well.
But apart from that, it was always about providing as much space as possible for discussions and exchanges. The Speakers Corner was really well attended after every presentation and there was always intensive discussion right up to the last minute.

The talks

Once again this year, the 19 presentations were roughly divided into two sections: "Product and team culture" and "Product management: experiences, tools and methods". One focus this year was on the topic of "Customer Journeys". It was inspiring to talk about whether and how customer journeys can steer product development as a central element. Jens Scharnetzki's presentation was particularly instructive. The exchange and detailed questions in the Speakers Corner after each of the presentations was super detailed on the topic of "Customer Journeys".
As always at Working Products, there was a Speakers Corner after each presentation. Here, participants were able to talk shop with the speaker for another 30 minutes, ask questions and share their experiences. The Speakers Corner went down really well again. It was full at every presentation and we always had to end the discussion because the next presentation was about to start.

The workshops

On Wednesday we had 6 remote workshops on various topics. It was really good not to offer the workshops during the two conference days. We will keep this up. We will probably even offer the workshops remotely on several days during the week of the conference to make it easier to travel to the conference on Wednesday afternoon.

OpenSpace

On Thursday afternoon, we collected 16 topics for the OpenSpace sessions, ranging from the "classic: product owner vs. product manager" to A/B testing for international services. We were able to cover 8 topics each in two 45-minute session blocks. We introduced this back in 2023 and it has proven its worth.

Meditation/mindfulness

We started both days with meditation and mindfulness exercises in the morning. Plus movement exercises during the lunch break. Meditation and movement exercises were led by Beate Schulte Strathaus (Arbeitsfrische). Beate co-founded Working Products in 2006 and is a co-organizer of the conference.

Sustainability

Climate protection and sustainability are close to our hearts and we have tried to make the conference as sustainable as possible. This year, for example, the barbecue on Thursday evening was once again purely vegetarian.
On Friday morning, we also had a keynote speech by Christoph Hassler on "Omnicrisis: Understanding the urgency as an opportunity
".