Explore the ins and outs of the product management realm in our latest ProductTank Spotlight. We caught up with co-organisers of ProductTank Singapore Uttam Chopra, Principal Product Manager at Expedia Group and Shi En Wong, Senior Product Manager at Helicap to get insights into what’s happening in the Singaporean product landscape and what lies ahead for the product community.

What motivates you to organise ProductTank Singapore?

We all love meeting people, especially product people — as it gives us a chance to share perspectives with like-minded people who understand the ups and downs of being a product manager in the Singaporean context. There’s so much value in community and the ability to learn from others.

Product people are naturally siloed in professional environments. We [product managers] usually work in a larger team amongst engineers, designers, and project managers. Finding that connection with other people going through the same growing pains and experiences is crucial. This need has led to the desire to create the right environment for building those connections.

Meeting people doing the same work in vastly different fields is enriching. As Singapore is such a vibrant global financial hub, product managers do all sorts of different things — not just in the Finance/Tech space. I’ve met product managers working in fields ranging from AgriTech to Sustainability, who are all building products with great impact. It’s been super cool to learn from them.

What can you tell us about the product community in Singapore?

Singapore is a relatively mature tech hub, and many global multinational corporations (MNCs), such as ByteDance and Google, have situated their APAC headquarters in the city. That has led to great diversity, which is always exciting.

The product community here is very international, with many product managers from all over the world. For most events, we 50-70 people in the room—they’re all pretty brainy, passionate, and fun people 🙂

Can you share a fun fact about ProductTank Singapore?

ProductTank Singapore has hosted a list of impressive product personalities — most notably hosting the industry veterans Marty Cagan and Martin Erikkson in 2020 and 2019, respectively. Singapore was also the chosen location for the first Mind The Product conference in Asia in 2019. ProductTank Singapore is lucky to be in a well-connected city with many global visitors!

What’s next for ProductTank Singapore in 2024?

We’ve got a lineup of lots of big events for 2024, starting with a talk in February hosted by Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden on OKRs.

We’re also looking to pivot away from the single-speaker model that PT Singapore has stuck to since its inception and explore different formats of meetups. This includes speed networking breakfasts and lightning demos for product people to take the stage and speak about products they love. We hope to dive into a year of more relaxed meetups, creating more opportunities for deeper connections.

What’s been the biggest takeaways from the talks led at ProductTank Singapore this year?

In 2023, ProductTank Singapore hosted a talk on data-driven products and the Metaverse, a lively forum on the future of product management after the introduction of GenAI.

Singapore has always been quick to respond and adapt to changing trends. Discussing the shifting paradigms within the space was interesting, and hearing different perspectives from other product managers passionate about the extremely prevalent topic.

ProductTanks are informal meetups, created by Mind the Product, to bring local product people together and to enable speakers to share amazing product insights. Find your local ProductTank meetup to enjoy incredible product talks and connect with new product people – absolutely free! Use our map to get started. Take me to the map