Professional bodies - Mind the Product/Women in Product

One of the interesting things running a "state of practice" survey is finding out (or being reminded!) of organisations. In my previous round-up of professional bodies, I had missed out two in particular - Mind the Product and Women in Product.

Women in Product

Women In Product connects women in the product management field through our online platforms and live events. Our robust global community empowers women with opportunities to collaborate and resources for advancement. We align with organizations driving innovation through inclusive policies and practices that encourage mobility for women in product. 

so, it's more the community angle than a professional body per se. From the website it still seems to be heavily weighted towards North American chapters. That and not reallt being the target demographic and it's not surprising that I hadn't thought of them when providing professional bodies that survey respondents might be a part of.

Mind the Product

Mind the Product is another community based group. Although it was a face palm moment when I realised I had missed them off the list. Like Women In Product I think they are a "bottom up" approach to forming a professional organisation. Unlike the model that comes from regulated industries, like civil engineering or accountancy, that have a fairly rigid career path.

Under the Mind the Product umbrella are the volunteer led ProductTank meetups and a vibrant slack channel. The MTP Conference and MTP Engage. There are also Product Management courses from online self-paced learning to remote workshops or team training. Recently they have also launched the Product Skills Toolkit. Similar in intent to something like the The Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA), but much fresher and more targeted. 

The future of professional bodies?

Unless IT generally, or Product Management in particular, gets regulated I think that organisations like these two will be the future. Community led and starting with problems that end users have, rather than "customers", it fits neatly into product management approach of finding product/market fit. Although I also think that organisations like ISPMA and PDMA will serve a purpose in creating a bridge between academia and practitioners.

The 2021 Product Management survey is running until 1st March 2021. If you are a Software Product Manager - or you look after the software roadmap in your software organisation. Then I need YOUR help in completing a survey for my MSc project. It should take no more than 5-10 mins of your time, full results will be freely available. Complete the survey here 

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