Past OCPM Events

Orange County Product Managers produces several events each year aimed at educating and connecting product professionals in Orange County. These include networking meetings, interactive workshops and occasional special events. Below is the complete list of events we've produced since 2009.

Peer Solution Workshop
Wednesday, August 14, 2024
@ Centercode in Laguna Hills

Networking Happy Hour
Thursday, July 25, 2024
@ Flight's Mess Hall in Tustin

Product Leaders Lunch
Tuesday, July 23, 2024
@ Flight's Mess Hall in Tustin

15th Anniversary Celebration
Thursday, June 20, 2024
@ Flight's Mess Hall in Tustin

Book & Brew - "Transformed" by Marty Cagan
Wednesday, June 5, 2024 @ 6:00
@ Green Cheek Brewery in Costa Mesa

Peer Solution Workshop
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
@ Centercode in Laguna Hills

Networking Happy Hour Mixer
Wednesday, April 10, 2024
@ Flight's Mess Hall in Tustin

Networking Happy Hour Mixer
Wednesday, March 6, 2024
@ Flight's Mess Hall in Tustin

Peer Solution Workshop
Wednesday, January 31, 2024
@ Centercode in Laguna Hills

Networking Happy Hour Mixer
Wednesday, November 15, 2023
@ Flight's Mess Hall in Tustin

Networking Happy Hour Mixer
Wednesday, October 11, 2023
@ Flight's Mess Hall in Tustin

User Story Workshop
Instructors: Greg White and Alex Natelli
Wednesday, March 1, 2023
@ LCPtracker's Technology office in Orange

Partnering with Your Customer Success Team
Speaker: John Mansour, President of Product Management University
Tuesday, September 28, 2022
@ 1886 Brewing Company in Old Town Orange

How Agile Can Benefit Other Parts of the Company
Speaker: Bob Gnewuch, Agile Coach @ RocketNine
Tuesday, August 16, 2022
@ 1886 Brewing Company in Old Town Orange

Career Networking Event
Live networking event at SYSPRO's office in Tustin
Wednesday, October 27, 2021
@ SYSPRO's office in Tustin

Customer Experience Summit
Virtual event in partnership with Executive Next Practices and CXPA
Thursday, March 25, 2021

Using Video to Drive Product Success
Speaker: Jayson Duncan
Wednesday, February 26, 2020
@ The Assembly at Flight in Tustin

Product Is Hard
Speaker: Marty Cagan
December 17, 2019
@ The Cove in Irvine

Becoming Data Driven
Instructor: Eric Iwashita
November 7, 2019
@ Webster University in Irvine

Becoming Product Led
Speaker: Ryan Goldman
October 9, 2019
@ Bar Louie in Tustin

Slicing the Elephant: Making Large Requirements Manageable
Instructor: Victor Bonacci
September 18, 2019
@ Webster University

Building Better Products with Big Data
Speaker: Amy Graham
July 17, 2019
@ Bar Louie in Tustin

Create a Customer-Focused Strategic Portfolio Roadmap That Lifts All Products
Instructor: John Mansour
June 18, 2019
@ Webster University

Product Executive Roundtable
Facilitated by John Mansour
June 18, 2019
@ Webster University
Each participant shared a particular business challenge they would like some help solving and the group discussed potential solutions and shared outcomes of relevant past personal experiences.

Creating a Product Canvas
Instructor: Steve Johnson
March 27, 2019
@ Courtyard John Wayne Airport
Workshop attendees generated a one-page summary of a product idea, ready to share with executives, developers, marketers, and sales teams.

Prioritizing by Scoring Your Distinctive Competencies
Instructor: Steve Johnson
March 26, 2019
@ Doubletree Irvine Spectrum
Steve introduced the PRIME SCORE technique to inventory our organizations' distinctive competencies and use them to determine which opportunity to pursue.

Creating a Stronger Product Management Organization
Speaker: John Mansour
Wednesday, February 20, 2019
@ Bar Louie in Tustin
John shared what you need to do in order to be a top-notch product management organization.

Wednesday, November 14, 2018
Integrating Customer Validation into Your Product Management Practice
Luke Freiler from Centercode
@ Centercode in Laguna Hills

Customer Validation provides insights that allow Product teams to make market-driven product development and roadmap decisions. Luke shared how Product teams that don't have access to a full-time customer testing team can run quick and efficient Customer Validation tests on new and existing products and features to assure better market acceptance and revenue growth.

Wednesday, October 10, 2018
Building Successful Trial and Customer Onboarding Experiences
Brian Mes from Pendo
@ Webster University in Irvine

This workshop introduced sales trial best practices from top SaaS companies and ways to simplify onboarding to help shorten the time from trial to sale. We went through some interactive exercises designed to help us design the best onboarding approach for our products, including creation of personas, journey maps and story boards.

Wednesday, September 12, 2018
Stop Looking for Customer Problems. There's Something Bigger!
John Mansour from Proficientz
@ Centercode in Laguna Hills

John led us in a game show style discussion of how we can make our product management and marketing jobs easier by focusing on the one key factor which customers care about the most.

Wednesday, August 22, 2018
Introduction to Design Sprint
Jason LaManque, Product Manager

In this hands-on interactive workshop with Jason LaManque of Duro Labs, he introduced us to Design Sprints as practiced by AJ&Smart design studio. Design sprints are typically a 4-5 day process for answering critical business questions, developing prototypes, and testing ideas with customers.

Wednesday, May 9, 2018
The State of Product Leadership
Eric Boduch, Entrepreneur and Software Executive From Pendo

The elusive product manager. Who are they? What do they do? What makes them most effective? Large, seminal studies have been done across various corporate leadership roles, but product management leadership remains a role with much less examination.
We discussed the key findings from a recent survey of 300 product leaders conducted by Pendo and Product Collective.

Wednesday, April 4, 2018
Authenticity in the Workplace: How to Brand Your Career in the Way that Matters Most
Dave Labowitz, Business & Leadership Coach
@ Webster University in Irvine

This workshop was an opportunity to explore our level of authenticity in the workplace. Authenticity is critical for both career happiness and maximum effectiveness, especially in a field as relationship-based as product management. We left having identified the personal values and operating principles with which we connect most deeply. This set of values and principles is a guide to help us bring authenticity to our career as well as a powerful self-branding opportunity.

Wednesday, March 7, 2018
Six Ways Product Management Role is Changing
Instructor: Kirsten Butzow from Pragmatic Marketing and Mike Peach from Pendo
@ JT Schmid's in Tustin

The role of the product management is undergoing a fairly dramatic rethink. Success is no longer measured by just velocity and roadmap delivery; it’s now more about how well your product performs, how much value it drives and the love and loyalty your users have for the product.

We’re evolving from the quantitative “how many things did you ship?” question to a much broader “how much value did your product provide?” qualitative conversation. Product teams that can measure and document value are the ones that are consistently more successful.

Thursday, February 8, 2018
The Art of Writing High-Fidelity User Stories
Instructor: John Mansour
@ Webster University in Irvine

Your product has one goal – to make users measurably better at their job in a way that has strategic value to the customer organization. It all starts with high-fidelity user stories that clearly articulate the WHO, WHAT & WHY before delving into the HOW.

Wednesday, November 8, 2017
Demand Horizon - A Revolutionary Approach to Creating Great Products
Featuring Gerry Campbell
@ Evisions, Irvine, CA

Demand Horizon is a new mental model for understanding and adapting to the demand-driven economy. It’s a framework for making sense of the new rules in product creation, offering both strategic understanding and practical actions for adapting to the new rules of business.

Download Gerry's Slides.

Wednesday, September 13, 2017
Climbing the Product Management Career Ladder
Featuring John Mansour from Proficientz
@ Evisions, Irvine, CA

When the product management and product marketing professions were in their childhood, upward mobility options were few: director and VP. Today, there are far more options on the career ladder for those who don’t have director or VP aspirations. Join me to discuss the new organizational structures and some of the roles that encompass broader responsibilities and get product managers and marketers out of the day-to-day grind.
Learn More.

Tuesday, August 1, 2017
Product Management Madness - A Workshop to Prioritize Your Product Management Efforts
Featuring Steve Gaylor of Pragmatic Marketing
@ Webster University in Irvine

From tactical to strategic, from fighting fires to building roadmaps, there is no end to the tasks that product managers must do. But there is an end to the number of resources we have at our disposal and time in our day. Given that, how do we know where to focus to make the biggest impact on our products, our company and ultimately our careers? In this interactive workshop with Steve Gaylor, we kearned how by pitting the 37 activities in the Pragmatic Marketing Framework against each other, March Madness style.

Wednesday, June 14, 2017
Five Ways to Improve Your Users' Product Experience
Presented by Eric Boduch
@ JT Schmid's in Tustin

The software business has been turned upside down. Major changes, big data, agile development and the rise of the cloud have changed the way we buy, deploy and interact with software. Now, more than ever, it is important to focus on your whole product experience. By getting the experience right, you can significantly impact product adoption, customer retention and most, importantly, revenue.

In this session, we will have detailed discussions about five things you can do today to improve the user experience of your product.

Using analytics to improve functionality and UX
Announcing and measuring usage of new features
Accelerating and improving onboarding for faster time to value and reduced churn
Measuring and improving NPS
Implementing user guidance for support ticket deflection and task efficiency

Wednesday, April 12th, 2017
@ JT Schmid's in Tustin
The Product of You
Kirsten Butzow

Kirsten taught us how we can use the same activities and strategies we use for our products to improve a product closer to home, ourselves. We learned how to use product management and marketing strategies on our own personal brand to change the trajectory of our careers.

Thursday, February 23rd, 2017
@ Webster University, Irvine
User Story Writing Workshop
John Mansour

All user stories are not created equal. They may follow the same format but there are two categories of user stories and two types content for distinctly different purposes. We learned how to use high-fidelity user stories to improve better communicate our requirements and enhance our positioning and sales presentations using the same content!

Wednesday, February 8th, 2017
@ Auld Dubliner in Tustin
Four Product Management Secrets of Successful Software Producers
Joe Junker & Will Ibekwe

Roughly 80% of new products fail in the market, according to Gartner. This statistic is based on standard product management practices, in known business models. What if, as a product manager, you are also faced with shifting customer service demands, dynamic channels, multi-functional product and changing business models internally and externally?

This is the situation brought about by “Software Eating the World”. Product managers at intelligent device manufacturers (Internet of Things) & software firms are facing challenges as their businesses reshape to a modern software business model -- building capabilities for quicker, stronger, more, recurring revenue. Subscription, pay-per-use, Cloud delivery, configurable product – all play havoc on the traditional discipline of product management.

Come join us at OCPM to learn:

Why a software business model?
How a software business model differs from other business models
Basics of operational readiness
Typical business impacts
Product management & organizational best practices (The Four Secrets)

Tuesday, January 24, 2017
@ Webster University in Irvine
Customer Onboarding Design Workshop
Michael Peach of Pendo

User onboarding is becoming more and more important. With the shift to SaaS delivery and recurring revenue models, engaging customers rapidly and delivering ongoing value is critical. What product teams need to consider is that onboarding isn’t just a process owned by their sales for customer success teams, nor is it addressed with a one-size-fits-all overlay in the user experience.

This workshop will share some of the onboarding insights and best practices gleaned from a recent survey of software companies - including the importance and value of contributions from the product team – and will take you through several interactive exercises designed to help you think through onboarding from a product & UX approach.

Topics included:

Onboarding objectives and measurement
Onboarding personas and the narrative voice of your “tour guide”
Storyboarding key aspects of the onboarding experience

Wednesday, October 12, 2016
@ GigaSavvy in Irvine
Using Video to Demonstrate the Value of Your Products
Jayson Duncan of Miller Farm Media

Video is a great way to engage your customers and demonstrate the value of your products. With 300 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute, you need to find a way to create strong value stories that stand out. At October's meeting, we will discuss how to get better results with video storytelling and how you can engage people emotionally with your product and brand. We will also talk about how to set and track meaningful ROI of your story and how live video can be a part of your product marketing strategy.

Wednesday, September 14, 2016
@ GigaSavvy in Irvine
Agile Product Management
A panel discussion moderated by
Scott Dunn of RocketNine Solutions

Many organizations have adopted some form of Agile in their product development practices in recent years, with varying degrees of success. Agile promises to deliver features to market more quickly and enable companies to be more responsive to market feedback. Adopting Agile also frequently results in improved relationships, transparency and trust across the teams.

“Going Agile” doesn’t come without its challenges, however. Many companies struggle between the “agile” desires of the development organization and the “waterfall” needs of marketing and senior management. Most often, companies practice a form of “Agile-fall”, far from textbook Agile.

We have pulled together a panel of practitioners from both product management and product development. They will share the challenges their organizations have faced, what’s worked and what hasn’t. You can expect a collaborative learning session where everyone takes away a few nuggets that can be applied in their own companies. Come share your experience and learn from others who have gone through many of the same challenges you are.

Wednesday, June 8, 2016
@ GigaSavvy in Irvine
5 Fundamentals of a Successful Product Launch
with Dave Daniels of Pragmatic Marketing

Many product launches fail to drive business results. The reason is that the launch focuses on the product and not the needs of the market. Discover the 5 fundamentals to a success product launch. The 5 basic things that all product launches share:

Solve a problem people care about
Understand where you fit in the ecosystem
Find gaps to exploit
Create a singular focus on results
Measure, learn, and adjust

Dave has more than 25 years of experience working in technology companies. He specializes in product marketing and product launch, with an emphasis on effective go-to-market strategies and execution. His extensive background includes development, sales, product management, product marketing, and executive positions—with a global perspective of the entire product launch process.

Read Dave's blog: Launch Clinic

SPECIAL EVENT: Wednesday, May 25, 2016
@ Webster University in Irvine
Product Management Leadership Roundtable Breakfast
with Steven Haines of Sequent Learning
This two-hour breakfast meeting is designed for leaders who are responsible for managing product managers. It will be an active, intellectually stimulating discussion to share ideas that can result in ways to:

Clarify the role of the product manager
Cultivate and shap product managers
Improve product manager competencies
Position product managers to get promoted

This dynamic program will be facilitated by Steven Haines, founder of Sequent Learning Networks and author of several product management books.

SPECIAL EVENT: Saturday, May 14, 2016
@ Fairfield Inn in Tustin
User Experience Boot Camp for Product Managers
with Sean Van Tyne
This is a one-day course for product marketers, managers and designers. It is a hands-on one-day course to discover how product and UX work best together; marry your UX strategy with your product roadmap; and determine, develop and deliver product experiences that wow your customers and create long-term sustainable market and revenue growth.

Wednesday, May 11, 2016
@ GigaSavvy in Irvine
Product Management Success Stories
Moderated by John Mansour of Proficientz
So, who really does this stuff? In a town hall format, we'll hear from product management leaders who have implemented some of the best practices you've heard at OC Product Managers meetings over the past seven years. They will share real-life stories of how applying sound product management practices has helped their companies to grow their business and delight customers.

Sid Nair is Sr. Director, Marketing & Product Management at Teletrac and has extensive experience in various transportation sectors like Agriculture, Aerospace, Connected Cars and Fleet Management. Sid will discuss how Teletrac is doing requirements definition and product planning through the eyes of the customer.

Rich Wood, a Global Marketing Executive at MOXA, is a product evangelist with a passion for high-tech products & technologies. Rich will discuss discuss how his team is creating stronger positioning and sales tools by doing it through the eyes of the customer first.

Wednesday, March 9, 2016
@ GigaSavvy in Irvine
Product Management: The State of Our Profession
Eric Boduch
Product Management, even more than business in general, is being shaped and re-shaped by multiple trends, among which are:

Ubiquity of Agile development
Rapid Cloud/SaaS adoption
Increased emphasis on design and customer experience
Advent of Big Data and Analytics

What are the implications of your Product role? Are the new skills and tools associated with these trends vital to your career's future or merely nice-to-haves? What are the opportunities and threats embedded in these trends that you as a product manager should be aware of - and also prepared to master?

Wednesday, February 10, 2016
@ GigaSavvy in Irvine
The Anatomy of "Yes"
Joe Burke
What makes a great brand story is understanding how consumers make decisions and why they say “yes”. To understand the “Anatomy of Yes”, we have to master the art of creating brands and products that are living heroes on archetypal journeys. When we achieve this, strategies in omni channel, multi channel and social media succeed on meticulous execution with one simple metric. Sales.

The interactive presentation will hand every attendee three immediately actionable steps to discover their product’s own anatomy of yes and answer why in nearly every Disney movie one of the parents dies in the first fifteen minutes.

Wednesday, November 11, 2015
@ GigaSavvy in Irvine
How Product Managers Decide What to Build
Jim Semick
Prioritization is a hot topic for product teams. Even the most seasoned product manager struggles with determining which features and initiatives to put on the roadmap.
With so many opportunities competing for scarce resources, how to decide?
In this session Jim revewed:

Seven different techniques product managers can use to prioritize product initiatives.
Ways to tie your priorities back to the strategic goals for your company and product.
How to get stakeholder buy-in on the prioritization.

Saturday, October 24, 2015
@ EventPlex in Anaheim
ProductCamp SoCal 6
Hundreds of Souithern California's finest product and marketing professionals convened for the sixth installment of ProductCamp SoCal.

Wednesday, October 14, 2015
@ GigaSavvy in Irvine
Product Success - How to Get Alignment with Stakeholders and Teams
Scott Dunn
What constitutes product success in your organization? While product managers are busy shaping their product, committing features to customers, setting expectations with stakeholders and communicating to the marketplace, too often, everyone in the organization has a different expectation and measure of success.

Some groups are working on making a product or feature perfect, even if that means pushing out the go-live date. Others are cutting scope where possible in order to hit a date they think is carved in stone. Organizational alignment of expectations is essential for true product success.

Wednesday, September 9, 2015
@ GigaSavvy in Irvine
Customer Experience Rules!
Jeofrey Bean
There are 52 best practices common to most leading customer experience companies, which have become the rules of successful customer experience transition, improvement and leadership, now, and into the foreseeable future. These rules are the subject of this discussion and preview of the new book, “The Customer Experience Rules!” by Jeofrey Bean.

Wednesday, July 8, 2015
@ GigaSavvy in Irvine
The Importance of Strategic Roadmaps
John Mansour
Highly successful companies use a single strategic roadmap with supporting product roadmaps to deliver more valuable solutions and improve day-to-day execution across product teams, marketing and sales.

Can you imagine loading your family into the car for a vacation without knowing where you're going? As ridiculous as it sounds, many companies find themselves in a similar situation when it comes to product roadmaps. When there's no destination for your product portfolio (the strategic roadmap), every set of turn-by-turn directions (product roadmaps) can look attractive.

When the destination for the portfolio is clear (customer goals and obstacles), it's much easier for all product managers to determine what's required of each product to remove those obstacles.

Wednesday, June 10, 2015
@ GigaSavvy in Irvine
You Listened to Customers. What's Next?
Rahul Abhyankar
The importance of going outside the building, meeting customers, observing, listening, and asking questions has been emphasized many times over. And yes, we get it. We all do it, some better than others, but we all know it is crucial. There are lots of articles and tips for what to do before a meeting, and what to do during a meeting. But what do we do next after we come back from a meeting? This talk will engage the audience and share a practical framework to understand how to derive the most value from our customer interactions. Participants learned proven techniques to:

Gather critical insights from customer conversations
Share actionable information across the organization
Build a meaningful relationship with customers

Wednesday, May 13, 2015
@ GigaSavvy in Irvine
It's Time to Silence the Voice of the Customer!
Michael Maron, Zach Lyons and Geoff Bell
Whether he actually said it or not, the famous Henry Ford “quote” about people saying they want faster horses rings true when it comes to product innovation. What people really wanted was to be able to get themselves and their stuff from Point A to Point B faster and with less difficulty. They had “jobs” that they wanted to do better or “pain points” they wanted to eliminate, irrespective of the tool they used to do it.

We’ll discuss a better way to understand your customers’ needs through a jobs-to-be-done approach to formulate market and product strategies that win in complex, competitive and new markets. Join panelists Zach Lyons, Michael Maron and Geoff Bell with moderator Greg White as we explore an agile results-driven approach to market and product development.

Only 17% of new products succeed. Can your business afford to fail 83% of the time? Stop throwing ideas on the wall, hoping something sticks and come learn how to identify the right targets before you take aim.

A lively group discussion centered around these main areas:

Selecting Markets
Capturing Customer Inputs
Identifying Opportunities
Targeting Opportunities
Translating Information into Action

Wednesday, April 8, 2015
@ GigaSavvy in Irvine
Realizing the Synergies of Social, SEO and Website
Joel Tanner and Sven Johnston
Wondering how to make social media, SEO and your website work for your brand and business? Joel Tanner and Sven Johnston of GigaSavvy share their real world digital marketing success stories and how they helped generate sales online and off. They'll dispel the myth that SEO is dead, that Social Media can't be tracked to revenue, and that e-commerce websites can't be beautiful. Come prepared with questions as the team will open up the floor to an extensive Q&A session.

November 15, 2014

After a year off, 2014 was a rebuilding year for ProductCamp SoCal. A new facility, EventPlex in Anaheim afforded new opportunities, such as food trucks for breakfast and lunch and chance to experiment with new things like an extended general session. In the end, 277 participants had a great day learning, sharing and connecting.

October 2014

Geoff Bell

Outcome-Driven Innovation
Why do only 17% of new products succeed? Because their genesis is not rooted in the needs of customers. Most common innovation practices are ineffective because they are incomplete, overlapping, or unnecessary.

Outcome-Driven Innovation (ODI) is an approach to product development that focuses on the quantifiable needs of potential customers to prioritize target markets and features for each of those markets.

Companies that have implemented ODI have seen a success rate of 86%. With ODI, companies are able to

Accelerate revenue growth
Bring markets into focus
Understand customers’ needs
Discover hidden growth opportunities
Focus investment
Build more successful products

September 2014

Panel of Customer Experience Experts

Customer Experience & The Future Of Product Management
In order to competitively lead their products and companies to success, Product Management professionals will need to manage horizontally across the customer experience continuum. This includes the company’s messages, people, processes, products and services. It includes the experiences people have directly with or about the customer experience and impacts strategy and tactics for success.

A panel consisting of CX expert Jeofrey Bean, usability expert Joely Gardner, and product management executive Kristy McKnight answered questions like these:

What does a product manager do now and in the future as the intersection with the customer journey and customer experience management grows?
What about customer experience strategy and product development?
What is a customer experience life cycle and how does it impact the present and future of the disciplines of Product Management and Product Development?

July 2014

Steve Gladstone

A Fractal-Based Approach to Innovation
Are you trying to bring innovation or change to your organization? We’ll explore some seemingly disparate concepts that will help you understand, navigate, and lead the complex and nuanced maze that results in true innovation. We’ll draw them together to unlock an iterative approach that you can implement for success.

The surprising links between motivation and driving change and innovation
The “Innovator’s Dilemma” and Crossing The Adoption Chasm
Project, product, and solution company types, and the impact on your approach
The “Fractal” mindset to drive innovation behaviors in the context of the organization
The consigliere as a model for driving innovation and change
Culture and situational awareness fractals
Bringing it all together through “joined-up” thinking

June 2014

Carol Buehrens

Journey Mapping: Buckle Up & Hang On
Carol Buehrens, Customer Experience Strategist for ICW Group Insurance, CXPA Expert and author of Happy R.A.V.I.N.G. Customers!, took us through the steps involved in creating Journey Maps. We identified high-level maps, use personas, create touch-points, assembled an entire journey and worked together to innovate. Our goal - you walking away with the skills and toolkit needed to implement the art of Journey Mapping in your own workplace.

Abstract:
What are Journey Maps? They’re essential tools that help you strategically plan and innovate the multi-channel experiences that your customers have with your organization. They provide your team with a high-impact, visual understanding of your customers’ goals and interaction paths. Whether you’re a product manager, a marketing professional, or other experience influencer, Journey Mapping provides you the valuable insight you need to raise the bar and transform your customer’s experiences. Fair warning - this wasn’t your ordinary, lecture-driven presentation! This was a fast-paced mapping extravaganza.

April 2014

Pete Deutschman

The Holy Grail of Content Marketing
Non-linear storytelling and interactive video experiences has long been the holy grail of online marketing. Creativity flourished during the 90s and early 2000s with Flash powering most video experiences. With the onset of mobile as a primary driver of video consumption, marketers and storytellers have been left with no choice but to build stories in a “click to play” environment. YouTube’s half-baked “Annotation” solution provided little scale and limited control following publication of an interactive asset.

The Buddy Group has exclusively partnered with an amazing well-funded tech-start up called Zentrick who effectively solved the issue of portable, trackable and dynamic video for product and brand communications. They can turn any video (YouTube, Bright Cove, Vimeo, etc.) into an interactive video enabling choose your own adventure, pause to play, add to cart and custom modules such as personalized content based on user information or behavior. That is only part of it, they also allow marketers to dynamically edit the video’s call to action or interactive layer post-publishing allowing clients to keep content relevant even after it is published.

Special Half-day Workshop in March 2014

John Mansour

Top-Down Product Management
John Mansour of Proficientz led the first workshop OCPM has produced. A dozen local product management professionals spent half a day at the Conscires "Work is Good" training center in Irvine to learn to see their customers as they see themselves.

Abstract:
Top-Down Product Management is the single most important competency of any B2B product management discipline. It is the ability to understand the dynamics of your target customers from the top down. This program will teach you how to see your target customers as they see themselves, how to eliminate competing product silos by aligning marketing, sales and product to a common mission centered on the goals of your target customer organizations.

March 2014

Panel of Web Marketing Experts

SEO Is Dead
Michael Bonfils moderated a panel of Pierre Zarokian, James Dolan and Brian Thomas Clark that taught the OCPM crowd at The Buddy Group how SEO practices have changed in recent years.

Abstract:
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy and best practices have changed in recent years as search engines like Google continue to roll out new algorithm updates such as Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird. Continued use of old "tried and true" tactics can now actually work against companies' websites. Companies need to be authentic and leverage new technologies to improve SEO and drive revenue.

Search engine marketing innovator Michael Bonfils will moderate an interactive panel discussion on how search optimization has changed and what product managers and product marketers can do about it.

February 2014

Dave Daniels

Creating Leverage for Your Product Launch
Pragmatic Marketing lent us another one of their outstanding instructors for the February 2014 meeting. Dave Daniels shared his insights from two decades launching products. Dave taught us that our launches must follow a documented process, have a dedicated budget and measurable goals. We learned that there are short cuts that can help make our launches more successful, many of which are already in place. We just need to leverage those resources.

Abstract:
Many companies have access to "invisible" leverage that could help assure product launch success, but few companies tap into this valuable resource. This session will help you to think differently about your product launch process, improve outcomes by learning about these "invisible" resources and teach you how you can tap into them.

November 2013

Panel of Agile Experts

Transitioning to Agile
Product Management in an Agile environment is different from that in more traditional environments. Implemented correctly, Agile can help companies increase product quality and customer satisfaction as well as team productivity and morale. Getting products and features to market faster means increased revenue and better alignment with market needs.

Unfortunately, many companies attempt to make the move to Agile, only to experience increased pain and decreased productivity. So, what are the factors that separate successful implementations and failed ones? And, how do we, as product managers, make things better at our companies?

A panel of experts, Agile veterans, will address these questions and others at Orange County Product Managers. Whether you've been "living the pain", enjoying the benefits or just considering a transition to Agile, join us for some dynamic and enlightening discussion.

October 2013

John Milburn

The State of Technology Product Management
Technologies come and go. Development methods adapt. People are still people and bad habits can develop in any environment. Sometimes Product Management is a catalyst for change and sometimes we’re stuck in the middle of groups with differing opinions of what’s best for the company. So, how are product managers dealing with today’s challenges?

John Milburn has worked with over 6,000 Product Managers in hundreds of companies over the past eight years as an instructor at Pragmatic Marketing. He’s seen it all and he’s coming to OC Product Managers to share his insights and elicit yours from your
personal experience. He’ll lead a Town Hall discussion that will highlight some of the most current challenges facing Product Managers and corporations that want to be more market driven.

John will present a problem, cover methods that others are effectively using to address the problems, and then open it up for your perspectives and a group discussion.

September 2013

John Mansour

The Most Rewarding Part of Product Management - Why Isn't Anyone Doing It?
The day-to-day grind that goes with managing products is critical for success but most product managers and marketers wouldn’t confuse it with fun. There’s an equally if not more valuable aspect of the job that’s more fun and more rewarding than the day-to-day care and feeding of products, but few organizations are doing it. Find out what it is and how to put your team in a position to do more of the fun stuff.

July 2013

Bryan Boettger

Creative Collaboration
It was "peanut butter jelly time" at OCPM when The Buddy Group's Chief Creative Officer, Bryan Boetteger kicked off his presentation with a hilarious interactive demonstration of how requirements and feedback can get mis-interpreted if not communicated effectively. The session ended with a crowd-promped demo of the new creative collaboration software The Buddy Group is launching later this year.

Abstract:
The Buddy Group is one of the most creative and innovative companies in Orange County. They know a thing or two about what makes creative collaboration successful and how to avoid miscommunication issues that impede successful innovation.

Chief Creative Officer Bryan Boettger will share what The Buddy Group team has learned over eight years of working with some of America's largest consumer product and technology companies.

Leveraging the results found in a recent survey of 100 marketers, branders and creatives, Bryan will share:
- Current trends on creative collaboration
- Examples of the effects of miscommunication
- Ways your team can improve collaboration

June 2013

Hank Mondaca

Mobile 2.0: What Product Managers Need to Know
As the evolution of integrated, multimedia wired and wireless services continue to expand, you need to be prepared to compete in a mobile marketplace. Today's innovative product teams are able to implement proven programs that capture the attention of their target audiences and entice them to take immediate action. Mobile marketing enables you to reach your stakeholders via their preferred method of communication, resulting in a more engaged and active audience.

Two years after enthralling a packed-house OCPM crowd, Mobile Marketer Hank Mondaca returns to share what's now and what's next in mobile. Mobile 2.0 integrates the social web with the core aspects of mobility - personal, local and ever-present. Hank is here to help us to stay current so our products and programs can keep up with the rapidly-changing environment we all compete in.

May 2013

Jeofrey Bean

Customer Experience: Winners, Losers and the Ones to Watch
The best practices and extraordinary results of customer experience companies have created winners, losers and ones to watch in the marketplace. Jeofrey Bean, co-author of the business leadership book "The Customer Experience Revolution - How Companies like Apple, Amazon, and Starbucks Have Changed Business Forever", will discuss what it means for businesses small and large that want to be better, different, more profitable and sustainable than most others. You'll learn select best practices of “experience maker” companies and see examples of winners, losers and the ones to watch including: Tesla, Square, Best Buy, Amazon, Sony, Evernote, Nokia, Skinit, Microsoft and others

April 2013

Luke Freiler

The Real Role of Customer Validation
Customer validation helps you improve products and validates your view of the market - think of it as a safety net before you launch your product into the wild. Luke Freiler, CEO of Centercode, will discuss the unique value that customer validation delivers to product management professionals beyond collecting feature requests. Luke will also share how Product Managers can leverage the results of customer validation to communicate the voice of the customer and strengthen customer connections.

March 2013

Jayson Duncan

Telling Your Story With Video
Jayson Duncan Chief Storyteller at Miller Farm Media taught us that it's better to show something than to tell it. He enlightened the crowd with the understanding of the difference between a video and a film. Of course, he didn't do it with words. He shared many examples of what to do and what NOT to do, with the willing help of the CEO of a popular pizza chain.

Abstract:
Storytelling has been popular since the world began. However, even though it is one of the oldest art forms, companies still fail to use this powerful tool. Stories can help align your entire organization. As a product leader, how do you tell a story with words and visuals in video? How can you apply this to all areas of the product management life cycle? Jayson will look at why stories are important, show you some steps for creating good stories, and show you the strategy for implementing video into your organization.

February 2013

Morgan Brown

Growth Hacking 101
Morgan Brown introduced us to a new vocabulary term: Growth Hacking. In a nutshell, growth hacking is just a term used to categorize many of the new product marketing practices we've been learning about of the past few years. As he always does when he presents, Morgan provided great case examples of growth hacking in action. Now, the 40+ people at OCPM's February meeting can wow their peers by using one of the latest buzzwords to be added to the product marketing lexicon.

Abstract:
Growth Hacking is the new buzzword in Silicon Valley. As companies look for ways to grow their user base quickly and at scale, they've turned to the growth strategies made popular by companies like AirBnB, Quora, Facebook and others. Growth Hacking at its core is the discipline of marrying product features with distribution tactics to get massive user growth with very little paid investment. Morgan Brown will review popular growth hacking case studies, how you can evaluate your product for growth hack opportunities, and how to get your team and product focused on growth for 2013.

January 2013

Lisa Montano

Agile Product Visioning
Creating a collaborative product vision can mean the difference between a product that meets expectations, and a product that delights your customers and turns them into loyal followers. As a product leader, you bring intimate knowledge of your market, competitors, and your customers’ needs.

Lisa Montano will teach us the tools that are available to make the product development team as passionate, inspired, and motivated as you are, to turn out a product that rises above the competition and establishes a legacy of continuous product innovation, excellence, and focus in your organization.

November 3, 2012

When it looked like ProductCamp SoCal couldn't get much better, it did. Hosted at Cal State Fullerton's Mihaylo Hall for the third straight year, the fourth edition of the Southern California "unconference" reached new levels in attendance (424), speaker quality and planning team execution.

October 2012

Customer Research Pitfalls

Mary Piontkowski

Product Managers are responsible for being in tune with the market and with real-world users. More and more, they are turning to research techniques like customer interviews, focus groups, personas, prototyping and usability testing in order to discover what customers want from their products.

But often what customers say they want in these studies and what they really need can be very different. It is critical to perform this research correctly and interpret the data in a way that will drive user adoption and success in the market.

September 2012

Transforming Ideas into Results

KT Connor

The Company 77 fire engine pizza and beer truck returned to warm up a crowd of over 50 product management and marketing professionals during the networking hour before Dr. KT Connor took the stage at The Buddy Group.

Dr. Connor taught the roomful of leaders and innovators some practical processes to elicit, organize and apply great ideas. She talked about importance of divergent thinking, convergent thinking and deferral of judgment in the ideation process. We learned to "SCAMPER" - Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Magnify, Put to other uses, Eliminate, and Rearrange existing concepts into new applications. Then, she brought it home with a tool that helps managers weigh the options on cost, acceptability, ease and speed perameters.

Abstract:
Companies are hungry for innovation these days. The pressure is on product managers to innovate. Some feel innovative thinking is something you either have or you don’t. Some have tried to force innovative thinking, to no avail. Note the brainstorming sessions that yield yards of flip chart pages full of wild ideas, but not much else. In order to produce true results, a process to elicit and purposefully direct innovative thoughts is needed.

This session will challenge the notion that innovation is a selective gift of the few or favored. We'll explore a proven process of moving thinking from idea to implementation in a structured, yet creative fashion. You'll learn the 6 basic steps and the 4 main skills you need to keep the process productive. You'll get to experience the process and explore its applications to product teams, meeting management, strategic planning, and individual development and coaching.

July 2012

Twelve Essentials of Customer Experience

Sean Van Tyne

An outdoor summer barbeque mixer in the parking lot at The Buddy Group kicked off a highly engaging meeting in July 2012. Short Stop BBQ provided the grinds from their new mobile grill cart. The smell of smoked pulled pork and music in the air created a "customer experience", that fostered lively networking and set the table for a great discussion in The Buddy Group's "living room".

Inside, Sean shared best practices that he and co-author Jeofrey Bean developed for their book based on case studies of Customer Experience (CX) leading companies. He said only 5% of companies have a CX program and talked about the differences between UX and CX. Leaders in CX are organized around what they do for their customer, not what they do. Sean taught us that it's important to engage with the customer early and often for product feedback - 5 interviews/follows is the magic number to capture 80% of needed info about usability/experience. Measurements and analytics work together with CX. Lots of great discussion from the group and insights from Sean!

Abstract:
Focusing on the customer experience takes exceptional commitment. Moving beyond promises, products, services, pricing, and transactions is not an experiment, a project, or the domain of one department. It requires a culture that focuses on the customer from their point of view. Product management teams can be leading influencers of a customer-focused culture.

From his new business leadership book The Customer Experience Revolution, Sean Van Tyne will share an aggregate view of some of the best customer experience companies and the practices that make them better, different, and more valuable than their competitors. These “Twelve Essentials of Customer Experience” are the elements that are keys to building a company focused on delivering great customer experience.

June 2012

SEO in 2012: Uncovering the Secrets of Online Marketing

Sven Johnston

The June 2012 meeting was the largest OCPM meeting to date, with 62 people in the room at The Buddy Group. Great gourmet pizza, beer and tunes from the Company 77 fire engine food truck got things off to a great start in the networking hour and Sven Johnston brought it home with an excellent presentation on today's SEO environment.

Abstract:
What's the difference between a colon cleanse, and a colon cleanser? The first is a topic search term, and the other is a product search. Each term indexes uniquely, so knowing these fine details can make all the difference.

Online marketing and especially SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a mystery to many marketing professionals. For those who think they know SEO, the practice has changed considerably over the past year. The best SEO practices of 2009 could get you penalized in today's search results. Sven Johnston will give us an overview of SEO, including its history, how to do research for the right keywords and ensure that you stay in line with the every-changing rules of Google, Bing and Yahoo.

You will walk away with the ability to discern how your potential customers search for their services and products. You will...
· Understand the difference AND the potential impact of on-page versus off-page SEO
· Become aware of the latest SEO best practices to work with Google's Panda & Farmer updates
· Know how to identify keywords that have "intent" to take action

Sven Johnston is the VP of Sales & Strategic Partnership with GigaSavvy a marketing company specializing in Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing and Web Design & Development. He is also the founder of "We Are Orange County", which in less than 5 months convinced LinkedIn to give Orange County its own location code and now has over 6200 members.

May 2012

Five Characteristics of High Performance Product Teams

Greg Geracie

Greg Geracie from Actuation Consulting shared the results of the 2012 Study of Product Team Performance with over 50 participants in the "family room" at The Buddy Group. The results of the study spurred some spirited discussion, particularly when the topic of Agile came up. Here are the five common characteristics of product teams that were successful at launching products on time, within budget and within scope, as evidenced by the study:

Strong executive team support, with the key word being "team". Leadership needs to be aligned and work well together.
Alignment with company business strategy. The strategy needs to be clearly articulated and the product team needs to be aligned.
Post-product development focus. Someone needs to shepherd tactical activities into launch and beyond.
Assigning core team members. The same core team members need to remain with the product perpetually. not on a project basis.
Thoughtful onboarding of new product team members, arming them with the knowledge and tools needed to be successful.

Abstract:
Only 12% of product organizations report that they bring products to market on time, on scope, and on budget. What do these organizations do differently or better than the other 88%? The 2012 Study of Product Team Performance shed light on some issues common in product organizations and surfaced five factors that were common among high performers. The likelihood of a product team performing at a high level by having these five factors in place is 67%. In their absence, the likelihood is 2% - a huge difference!

Greg Geracie, President of Actuation Consulting and author of the global best seller Take Charge Product Management will lead an interactive discussion spurred by the findings of the 2012 Study conducted by Actuation Consulting and Enterprise Agility. The study was based on responses from product managers, project managers, program managers, business analysts, and other members of the core product development team. It was sponsored by AIPMM, the International Project Management Association (IPMA), IIBA Chicagoland, Diversified Communications, and Accept Software. OC Product Managers and other local PM communities in the U.S. also supported the study.

April 2012

Beyond Product Marketing: Creating Fanatics for Your Brand

Lidija Davidson

Lidija Davidson, founder of marketing agency Sift, Cipher and Bloom taught us that it is a core human need to belong. When brands tap into this need for belonging, they are able to convert regular customers into brand fanatics. The brand becomes an "emotional glue" between a product and its users.

We unwrapped the case study of the King's Hawaiian Bread brand. From the color orange to the spirit of Aloha that fills the sense of taste and smell when one partakes of their irresistible product, we learned that King's Hawaiian has turned bread into an experience that not only brings families together over meal times, but also makes people feel good.

Abstract:
Why do some brands generate extreme passion, loyalty and near-fanatical responses from their consumers and some not? Recall the outpouring of support, love, grief, flowers, notes, and art placed outside each Apple store upon Steve Jobs' passing? Now, think about Apple's competitors: HP, Acer, Dell, etc. When is the last time you even thought twice about them, much less their president? Why is that? Clue: it goes far beyond having amazing, coveted products and fantastic user experiences.

Join Lidija Davidson, former Taco Bell Brand and Product Marketing Executive and founder of marketing agency Sift, Cipher and Bloom, to discover how to create Apple-like passion for your brands and products. Through specific examples you will learn the 7 components leveraged by brands successful in creating fanatics of their customers. The discussion will conclude with a live case study.

March 2012

Sharpening Your Creative Edge

Pam Sterling

Another group of 50+ congregated on The Buddy Group set to absorb Pam Sterling's inspirational wisdom. Her practical advice for product managers was to not give your customers what they ask for, but to give them what they want. Listening for the want lets us be more creative. Don't let "how" get in the way of "what". Think WAY outside the lines. There is no question without an answer and no problem without a solution.

She also recommended we carry an idea journal with us at all times so we don't let our great ideas slip away! Pam taught us to create our own "brain gym". She encouraged the audience to do daily brain exercises. She said to do something that scares you every day. Do something different each day, starting with taking another route to work. The group was encouraged to take a step in the direction of the impossible.

Abstract:
Abraham Lincoln said that if he had five hours to chop a tree, he would spend four hours sharpening his ax. We are inherently creative beings and are uniquely equipped to succeed through creativity vs competition. In fact, it is the only way that true and lasting success can occur. In this presentation, Pam shares seven secrets for sharpening your creative edge including - Making a Date with Creativity; Finding the Calm and Stepping into the Impossible.

February 2012

It's Time for a New Class of Product Manager... Built to Close the Strategy Gap

John Mansour

John Mansour returned to SoCal to share his thoughts on how the product management role needs to change if companies hope to align their products with corporate strategy and market needs. Over 50 people came to The Buddy Group to see one of the most popular speakers on product management.

John introduced the Product Portfolio Manager, a strategic role that has no direct product responsibility but is tasked with understanding the market and delivering market requirements to Product Managers or Product Owners who would implement necessary changes and additions to the product line. Having one person over a market gives companies a single view of the market from which solutions can be developed to meet market needs without the limitations of a product-focused mindset, which can be limiting and often results in conflicting priorities.

Abstract:
There is a gaping hole that exists between corporate financial goals and the constantly growing slate of product initiatives. The question that must be answered to fill that gap is “what markets are we targeting, what problems are most critical to solve and why?” It’s the organization’s market & portfolio strategy, and in its absence every market opportunity and every product idea is a good one. It leads to a path of distraction that’s stifling the growth of many organizations! A new type of product manager and a new structure within the product organization is necessary to close that gap and get organizations on the path to sustainable growth.

January 2012

Everything's A Game - Integrating Game Play into the Product Experience

Morgan Brown

Morgan Brown entertained and enlightened a room-full of product pros at OCPM's first visit to Posch, near John Wayne Airport. We saw many examples of game models that companies have used to drive user behavior, increase traffic and grow revenue. Morgan detailed different personalities and motivators that should be targeted for best results.

Abstract:
Gamification is the hot new marketing buzzword. Companies like foursquare, Nike, Ford and others have used gamification to drive customer behavior, increased engagement and revenue. But what is gamification, and how can it work for your product or business? This talk will discuss the basic tenants and best practices of gamification, look at some effective uses via case study, and also talk about how gamification can be applied to different products, both online and off.

We'll outline a roadmap for developing a gamified experience, building and executing on the strategy, and providing ways to ensure that your efforts will drive core product and business metrics. You'll leave this talk with solid understanding of how gamification can work for your product or business as well as ideas, tools and resources to begin the process of gamifying your user experience.

November 2011

YouTube as a Product Marketing Tool

Pete Deutschman

Another large throng of product management and product marketing experts descended upon the campy home of The Buddy Group in Irvine to learn about the latest innovations in marketing from YouTube. The Buddy Group had spent nearly two years working with YouTube to develop new technologies, so "Chief Buddy" Pete Deutschman shared some interesting new ways we can use YouTube to grow our products and increase customer engagement.

Abstract:
The digital engagement experts at The Buddy Group will share their insights on the latest ways YouTube can be used to increase interest in your product and engagement from your customers. After an hour of great networking, drinks and food, the team will share what they've learned after several months working closely with YouTube on several new programs, including one for American Express that was launched recently. We'll talk about custom brand channels, video's impact on search, social integration, conversation management and what's ahead in the video marketing space.

October 15, 2011

The third ProductCamp SoCal was simply awesome. The SoCal edition of ProductCamp firmly established itself among the best in the world in 2011 with active participation of 341 creative and intelligent professionals at Cal State Fullerton's Mihaylo Hall.

September 2011

Product Management X-Factors: How to be a Rock Star Product Manager

Paul Young

Paul Young drew another room-filling crowd to Tia Juana's. The Pragmatic Marketing trainer and founder of ProductCamp Austin taught us how some product managers are able to rise above the others, getting the great product assignments, having the ear of the CEO and earning the big bonuses. He shared his own framework of Personality Traits, Learned Skills, Product Management Skills, Communications and Executive Acuity to help define the traits of "rock star" product managers.

Abstract:
Product managers are asked to be strategic, tactical, technical, and business-oriented at the same time. Yet despite our diverse backgrounds, some product managers seem to have cracked the code to becoming more effective than others – and are enjoying the rewards in their careers. Join Pragmatic Marketing’s Paul Young for a discussion about what turns regular product managers into rock stars, and how we can learn from them and emulate their success.

August 2011

Taking Control - Five Things Product Managers Need to Do Better Than Everyone Else

John Mansour

A packed house at Tia Juana's in Irvine saw John Mansour teach us how to organize product teams and product marketing approaches with a portfolio focus, targeting solutions for problems that impact the CEOs in the verticals our companies target.

Abstract:
When it comes to major product decisions, every organization is full of Monday morning quarterbacks that come from all disciplines. The problem is they’re all right (in their own minds) and it can turn into a culture where the best lobbyists dictate key product decisions that serve one agenda well but may not be in the best interest of your organization’s goals. Learn five things you can do to take control of the proverbial steering wheel and why you have to do it better than everyone else to maintain control.

July 2011

Joint Networking Event with TechBiz Connection, Access EN and TCVN

For the first time, OC Product Managers teamed with other networking organizations on an event. Combining efforts and resources with TechBiz Connection, Access Executives Network and Tech Coast Venture Network, the mixer held at Prego Ristorante in Irvine was packed to the walls.

June 2011

Your Customers Have Gone Mobile...Have You?

Hank Mondaca

Mobile marketer Hank Mondaca led one of the more engaging discussions seen at an OCPM meeting. Participants learned how the world has gone mobile and several ways they can reach their customers in the new mobile paradigm. This meeting marked the first to be held at Tia Juana's banquet room in Irvine.

Abstract:
Mobile Marketing allows businesses to implement proven marketing, advertising and promotional programs that actually “capture” the attention of their audience and entices them to take immediate action…all through mobile solutions.

Learn how to grow your business by communicating with your customers through mobile marketing. As the evolution of integrated, multimedia wired and wireless networks and services continue to expand, you need to be prepared for the rise of mobile marketing. Mobile Marketing enables you to reach your target market with their preferred method of communication.

Watch a recording of this presentation on YouTube.

May 2011

Developing Customer Engagement and Loyalty

In May, OCPM returned to The Buddy Group for a third time and hosted another great panel that led a discussion about "Developing Customer Engagement and Loyalty." The panel of experts included:

Scott Schnaars, VP Sales at Badgeville
Jennifer Banovetz, VP Consumer Marketing at Edelman PR
Arnulf Hsu, CTO at Central Desktop

Abstract:
In 2011, the need to be closely engaged with your customers is higher than ever before. Thanks to social media, any negative information about your product can be broadly disseminated instantly. On the other hand, positive reviews can spread just as quickly. Companies that make the most of today's engagement tools better understand their customers' needs and are able to leverage their happy and loyal customers to grow their business.

March 2011

Profitability by Customer Experience: Lessons about Different and Better from the Best

Joely Gardner, Sean Van Tyne & Jeof Bean

Usability experts Dr. Joely Gardner, Jeofrey Bean and Sean Van Tyne teamed to panel a great discussion that explored successful models in customer experience.

Abstract:
Join us in this engaging panel session about the companies, people and products that have made themselves different, better and more profitable than their competition. These companies have done this by rising above industry and customer expectations. They break away from the slippery slope of competing solely on features and price. These companies’ have the insight to develop and deliver extraordinary and profitable customer experiences.

Panelists Jeofrey Bean, Joely Gardner, PhD. and Sean Van Tyne are experts in working with senior executives, product developers, product managers and business owners in discovering customer desires, developing and delivering the experiences people will have with a company’s processes, products, people or services. They will be sharing with you the stories of real companies, large and small, and the successes and lessons learned in the development and delivery of extraordinary customer experiences. This engaging session will then be open for discussion and your questions.

February 2011

Agile & Scrum: Introduction, Interactive Simulation and Discussion

Bachan Anand

Agile coach Bachan Anand and scrum master Yalda Shafihie redecorated the Brewmaster Room at JT Schmid's with new wallpaper and furniture rearragements during a team-oriented stand-up exercise that helped the group understand the elemental principles of the Agile Scrum methodology.

Abstract:
Have you heard about Agile and Scrum, but haven't had the chance to work with such a process? Perhaps your company uses these product development methodologies and you'd like to learn how others are doing it. Are you wondering how Agile can be used in non-software companies? Maybe you're just wondering what the heck Agile is and what's the difference between Agile and Scrum. Come learn from a teacher and a master practitioner.
A highly interactive session led by Bachan Anand from Conscires Agile Practices and Yalda Shafihie from RealtyTrac will provide a quick overview of the Agile Manifesto, its values and principles, and connect the dots between Agile and Scrum. They will walk us through the different practices, roles and meetings that make up the Scrum framework. Then, we'll play an interactive simulation game that demonstrates the mechanics and advantages of using the Scrum methodology for product development. We'll follow up the game with a debrief and interactive discussion.

January 2011

Understanding Organizational Maturity: How to Effect the Right Kind of Change

Steve Gladstone

In OCPM's first meeting of 2011, Steve Gladstone from Panasonic Avionics taught participants how they can increase their influence within their companies in JT Schmid's Brewmaster Room.

Abstract:
Whether you are a Product Manager in a company or consulting with clients, it's important to understand the company's Organizational Maturity (roles and responsibilities, responsibility vs. authority) and type of environment (Project, Product, or Solution) when attempting to effect positive change. By synthesizing information about the type of change, company context, and more, you will have the highest probability of successfully delivering on innovation and change. The position of consigliere (from "The Godfather" movie) will be discussed as a model for core elements of the most successful Product Managers. To provide a personal context, Steve will ask provocative questions about what type your company is as well as your own personal type. Steve will color the discussion by sharing some hard-won lessons from his own personal experience.

November 6, 2010

ProductCamp SoCal found a new hosting partner in Cal State Fullerton's Mihalyo College of Business. On November 6, 2010 the beautiful new Mihalyo Hall was home to 235 people at the second ProductCamp SoCal.

October 2010

Networking Mixer

With a second ProductCamp SoCal coming on November 6, OCPM held another mixer-only event on JT Schmid's patio.

August 2010

Strategic Product Marketing – The Missing Link in a Top-Down Product Management Culture

John Mansour

Nationally-renown product management educator John Mansour made his first visit to OCPM months after participating in the first ProductCamp SoCal. A great philosphical discussion took place among another packed house in JT Schmid's Brewmaster Room in Tustin.

Abstract:
One of the biggest factors impeding the top-down influence of both product management and product marketing is a “product first” mentality that attempts to align many bottom-up product strategies to corporate goals but leaves a huge void between the two that manifests itself into countless #1 priorities that compete for resources. Join a discussion on how strategic product marketing transcends all products and infuses a top-down market-driven mentality that aligns the product portfolio, marketing and sales to the same agenda.

July 2010

Networking Mixer

No speakers, no panels, no discussions this time. Just some good, casual networking over great beer and appetizers on JT Schmid's patio. Attendees shared their latest challenges and successes and introduced old friends to new ones.

June 2010

Creativity: The Language of Love

Paul June & Pete Deutschman

Paul June, founder and "King Monkey" of Barrel o Monkey's and Pete Deutschman, founder and "Chief Buddy" of The Buddy Group led an interactive workshop entitled "Creativity: The Language of Love". It was a fun evening of games and engagement at The Buddy Group's Irvine facility. OCPM and Barrel o Monkeyz celebrated their first anniversaries while The Buddy Group celebrated its 5th anniversary.

April 2010

Using Social Media to Be a Product Management Rock Star

Rebekah King

A packed house in JT Schmid's Brewmaster Room saw "Social Media Maven" Rebekah King from Kelley Blue Book share her insights about how product managers can make a difference in their companies through the use of social media.

Abstract:
Often the least talked about uses of social media is the most common one. It's not the marketer trying to sell you stuff (usually stuff you didn’t even know you needed), and not the consultant trying to convince you how smart they are. It's the average savvy social media user using the social sphere to collect intelligence for their own job. Learn the tactics the pros use to be rock stars within their organization by using intelligence gleaned from the ‘cloud’ collective.

March 2010

The Future of Business on the Internet

Alan Edgett

Alan Edgett from Experian's Consumer Direct group, creators of FreeCreditReport.com, shared his thoughts on how businesses will utilize the internet in coming years at JT Schmid's.

February 25, 2010

The inaugural ProductCamp SoCal, held at UC Irvine's conference center on was the 18th ProductCamp ever held. Attended by 178 people, it was one of the largest first-time ProductCamps.

February 2010

Why do Good Products Fail and Bad Products Succeed?

Kevin Liebl

This meeting was dubbed a "ProductCamp Preview" to test the concept of a highly-interactive topic-focused discussion. Kevin Liebl, VP from OptionEase shared his insights and elicited insights from the professionals in the room on how packaging, messaging, timing and other factors can kill a great product or make a winner out of a weak product. This was OCPM's first trip into a banquet room. The Brewmaster Room at JT Schmid's was home to this lively discussion.

Abstract:
We will explore the reasons products with high-potential often fail, while others who seem to be long-shots do exceptionally well. Starting with a definition of “success”, and then discussing both internal and external factors that impact product launch, lifecycle and end-of-life; this discussion will explore real-world examples of why products succeed and fail. Bring your own product experiences, both successes and failures, and share them with other OC Product Managers in what promises to be a dymamic and insightful discussion.

January 2010

Networking Mixer

OCPM kicked off a big year around the fire pit on JT Schmid's patio. We discussed the upcoming ProductCamp, shared ideas, resources and best practices as a growing group of product management and marketing professionals who are making things happen in Orange County.

November 2009

The Digitization of Product Marketing (and the Product Manager's Role In It)

Thanks to The Buddy Group, OC Product Managers was able to hold its first educational event at their Irvine facility. A crowd of 46 people filled the studio for a great panel discussion featuring:

Alan Edgett – Senior Director of Digital Strategy and Innovation at Experian Consumer Direct
Rebekah King – Principal of Rebiz Works, "Social Media Maven"
Eric Forst – Business Development Executive at Visible Technologies
Prashant Panchal – Head of Marketing at James Hardie Building Products

Abstract:
Advances in web-based technology are changing the way companies disseminate, collect and share information. Old paradigms of product marketing are being replaced by cheaper, faster, more targeted and more interactive models. It’s no longer about what you say to the market that drives your brand. The market now dictates your true brand and it’s imperative that product marketers and product managers are engaged in capturing and steering perceptions about their products.

Nimble marketing departments are using fresh tools and techniques to influence and capture the voice-of-market. Companies that are able to harness and direct what's being said about their products and marketing campaigns and quickly react to market sentiment will become the new leaders in their industry as a new economy emerges. What role should the product manager play in this ongoing engagement with consumers?

We have put together a panel of experts who are living in the new paradigm. They cover both the inbound and outbound aspects of the new digital marketing world. From this discussion, you will take away practical insights that you can use to improve your products and your market share.

October 2009

Networking Mixer

October 2009
Due to popular demand, OCPM returned to the patio at JT Schmid's for another networking mixer, with twice as many people in attendance. Many of those individuals joined the first ProductCamp SoCal planning team.

September 2009

Inaugural Mixer

September 2009
Orange County Product Managers grew from a LinkedIn group to a real-life networking group with a mixer of 14 people on the patio at JT Schmid's in Tustin. This mixer gave birth to ProductCamp SoCal.