Four years ago on the 13th of January 2016 Product Tank Madrid meetup page was created.
At that time, I had just arrived from London, where the product community at that time was huge and extremely active. So, when I landed in Madrid I started to look for the same kind of community, but found nothing. Nada, zero, caput. There was no product community in Madrid.
So the quote from Milton Berle came to mind:
“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door”
I wrote to the Product Tank team back in London and shared my vision of creating a Product Tank community. They came back with a yes and 2 names from people that had the same hopes of creating such community.
That day I met through mail, and afterwards face to face, Bernardo Reynolds and Alfonso Rocha, both ex-tuenti Product Managers. We were excited, we wanted to shake things up, and we also knew how little knowledge there was at the time around what the actual role of a Product Manager actually means. So our first talk was with the Head of Product from Tuenti, and Paul Iliffe, VP of product and design talked about his experience of the role in Spain.
So the first 30 people showed up to this very first Product Tank, and it was a blast. Not because the amount of people, but because the first conversations around the role of Product Manager were being held in Madrid in Spanish. We had beers and we had great conversations after Paul Iliffe’s talk.
After a couple of years Alfonso left Product Tank (and Spain!) to join Bitcoin.com, and Bernardo put all his focus on his startup, PriorHQ.
After some time, Andrés Fajardo (VP of Product at The Venture City) and Pablo Gil (Head of Product and Design at 4AM) joined as organisers to help me continue making Product Tank Madrid a reality.
Twenty one Product Tanks later, and with a community of more than 2500 people, we know there is a still a ton of work to do to bring the technology community in Madrid to grips with what exactly the role of a Product Manager is.
This is why I want to take the time this year to look back and remember all the great talks and advise we got from so many great product lovers. Each month I’ll review a talk and share it with the community, so that we can remember the lessons learned, and keep the conversation going.
And just to be clear, this is not the end of real events, but rather the bonus opportunity to learn if you miss going to the real thing, and also an opportunity to keep the conversation going.
Hope to see you in the comments box or in the next Product Tank Madrid events that we will be launching in on 2020.