Creating Experiences

Hi folks, this is all things product with Petra Villa and Theresa Kortz. And we're so happy you here! Petra I read a LinkedIn post by someone who attended your Product at Heart leadership event last week. By the time this goes live it will be a couple months ago for recording its last week.

One thing they really highlighted was how you in ARNA do such good job of of creating, not just an event with speakers and which a lot people do but really creating experience. And paying attention to all the little details and thinking about what attendees' experiences might be. I thought it would be fun to explore how you think in ARNA. Think About That How You Decide What's Important Because I think this is really analogous to just creating product experiences.

You're doing it in a real-world event! Yeah, that's actually quite a question and so many things to unpack. So maybe i briefly share what we've done with the leadership event because for the first time it stretched across one and a half days, in the past there was only like five hours event. And now we had more time to design an experience!

We started with a speakers dinner on Sunday night at Greenhouse Under Farm. all candle lit... The whole greenhouse was just covered in rosemary. so that actually quite interesting nice smells.

And then Monday, we did four amazing keynote talks to kick off the day and that was really learning an inspiration part. We had three real practitioners or product leaders on stage sharing how they go about their product leadership practices different flavors of it And one futurist talking about the futures that basically all leaders are designing. The afternoon was reserved for excursions, so a few people went on a boat trip through the Hamburg harbour and there Yeah, curation going on with that particular event.

So we just wanted to create the space for people to be outside experience Hamburg weather and it was a bit windy dead day um And Just having a lot of time at hand have conversations with peers because We really have product leaders in a room with product leaders. And that is rare thing, so we just wanted them to have enough time to have conversation. and A similar thing was the farm excursion. So we visited this same farm from the speakers dinner again But during today The owner explained the tomato life cycle for us For example.

That's quite interesting. How she is running with the support of digital tools, obviously. But there was like one hour and two hours was a snacking on some radishes And having again peer conversations With fellow product leads. The last is leadership improvisation workshop where it was all about taking space and having a stance, so that's the more embodied experience I would say.

So people were kicking their shoes off running around in very big rooms somewhere on the famous St Pauli Reperbahn here at Hamburg. quite interesting as well. then we had bit of party evening, dinner thing flying dinner. More time to mingle and have conversations And we even brought in the bigger Hamburg product leadership community.

so even more people talk too. The next day was mini workshops. So six mini workshops. every attendee got to pick two.

they could attend. That again with really practical conversations around product leadership challenges. What we learned again is how much humans are craving connection these days because so much of our learning is happening online and in cubicles, I don't know air conditioned rooms. for every.

everybody was so happy about us escaping the building, breezing some fresh air taking a walk but still even the talks and keynotes were well appreciated. So I think it's all about to mix And we've really made sure to design in way that there are different things to pick four people. they can curate their own experience because you cannot with ever event you cannot curate for everybody to be happy. otherwise it's not a good curation right.

so. We know, we curate for pretty edgy topics sometimes. And if we do so... we always try to make sure there is an alternative because in pro-theatre not a thing for everybody but some people love it and some people needed that day.

So this really something which we tried with all our events. For the big conference for example just invented The Heart Problem Clubs because we figured that, for example hardware product management is a good example. We cannot do a talk on Hardware Product Management in front of eight hundred people Because seven hundred fifty of them would not be interested In the topic maybe. But we found a way with smaller facilitated twenty-five People group conversations where we can cater For this more special special interest topics.

And this is a big part of how we build events and curate, I was wondering maybe to add that nuance? How organizations these days? because offsides were such a big thing! I don't know.

ten years back every company was basically putting it in their job descriptions what amazing off-sides they do company offsides team offsides. people are going to Majorca here in Europe, nice islands somewhere and having nice off-sides. And these days it's a bit out of fashion to some extent...and I think we should bring it back!

Yeah okay you just shared a lot. um one of the things that i heard but i really liked is this idea of ...you can't curate an experience that everybody's going to be happy with. so there's a few things.

Make an experience for specific types of people. You could say product dot heart is not four product managers in the hardware space. But you also can Do this mix and match where? Look at there's events that are meant to appeal to the broad community And then they're sort of choose your own path events That allow people kind a self-select into things that are most relevant To them.

it sounds like he did this at your leadership event with sort of choose your afternoon adventure, you're doing this at Product at Heart with the Hard Problems Club. I think no matter how like... You can't offer infinite paths. so no matter what-you are still curating and deciding these types of people.

we will focus on. Yes! Yeah.. You just giving a little more choice Like let's make it more broadly appealing.

So that seems one key decision That is really applicable for any product. Who are we choosing to serve? How many different segments? how he letting them pick like self-select.

I Like you're bringing it back to the product. yeah from experience to a product. The other thing i heard which you didn't really, I heard this more in your description But I also saw one of your attendees call us out on LinkedIn Which is You're not just planning events you Really Are creating these Mm-hmm, like I want to say it's full sensory experiences. So you described this dinner and you mentioned the rosemary right?

Like...I wanna hear a little bit about how you think about...like.. I could imagine that you can run an exact same event just in your regular room with people as their presenter And they will be cheaper!

think these like little elements you're talking about, the dinner in The Greenhouse with Surrounded by Rosemary going to the farm and learning about the life cycle of a tomato. Like what? To me These are analogous to when designers talk About designing for delight. so I would love to hear how do You decide What to add When it's worth spending on that?

Because I know running events is hard, like it's not like you have infinite budget. Do want to share a little bit about how you make those decisions? So Arne and I have both been attending events in the past that have cared about debt before we did And just to name two. The House of Beautiful Business has had a big impact on us.

conference in Malmö was the other event that we both experienced, these more sensory experiences plus they always make sure to bring in the arts. What we've realized and all the arts from spoken word poetry, and Derek Sivers to musicians too. I was rock weaving in Morocco In one of the sessions which is like more artisan than arts but still We were having Artisan Lee made tea in a Moroccan tea house And all these kind of things right. so these events are A big inspiration to us.

And then it is actually Arne who does more often than I. coming back to this. Hey, i have this idea. there's one friend of mine.

he does music when he connects some... I don't know amplifiers with fruits. maybe we can do something in the greenhouse and then we invite his person um To do a bit of music Pictures to the show note where you can see how we played music with vegetables this time. I was really good on playing that zucchini, um.

but We learned that is really connecting people With something bigger than themselves Something big and in the organization they're working for something bigger. then The problems currently having back at their office Distance or this different angle to look at the same problems that they obviously having is sometimes unblocking something in them. They come back deeply inspired fresh of new energy sometime. so whatever it does two people, if there's some thing too people and makes it Sometimes if you know me, sometimes I'm good for the goofy dance battle on stage and stuff like that.

So even some goofy moments are helping a lot at their people or feeling to be in a safe space where they can open up And that is For example In A Bigger Group. It's impossible. so we need To create this smaller group spaces Where it's easier a very diverse lineup, so we are very cautious about who to put on stage and that this does represent at least product management in its entirety because it helps people connect as well. You can't be what you see I think is saying one could use here.

It's not our main business to run these events. That's another thing that is definitely helpful. So Arne and I do a lot of it because we love it And sometimes, We just spend money on things Because we think its beautiful. The first year with the product at heart ,we hired A three meter disco ball Just for twenty second appearance Because we thought Its Beautiful!

It was massively expensive But people loved it and it Was really wow effect in the First minute. And that's what they're taking home with them. So we definitely took them out of their virtual cubicles and put them into a different reality where they could then learn how to be inspired, all these kind of things. For that you need touch all the senses?

Yeah I think... A few thoughts went through my head as you described it so i used this event called World Domination Summit. It's got kind of a terrible name. it was started by Chris Gillibow.

He visited every country in the world. that's where the name came from. If you know Chris and see Chris in person, its really clear. he is not about dominating anything.

The tagline at this conference has had to live a remarkable life. I forget...I'm gonna get right. Wow!

Its been few years since this happened. How do we have a remarkable lives in conventional worlds? It's just and when he says remarkable, He doesn't mean it in this like achiever mindset. He means it in the way that is meaningful for you Like what's remarkable?

For you. so how do you live a remarkable life in a conventional world? And one of the things they did exceptionally well was these little Delighter moments and these like over-the-top magical moments. and I think But wasn't there a dinosaur dress-up thing at some point?

One of the things they did each year was, I did a Guinness World Record attempt. So one of them was a dinosaur dance party. Um...I've now been part of four different world record attempts.

Breakfast in bed, dinosaur dance parties, largest number people doing yoga. I forget what the fourth one was. It's fun, right? But i think there is this feeling of awe that when we feel this sense of awe which by the way it like a way overused term.

but if you think about seeing really beautiful sunrise or just take a minute to put yourself back in I think when we curate these moments, whether it's through like a magical moment at a conference. Whether its something that were doing in our product some of is novelty. but i think novelty doesn't quite capture. really do you thing its all?

I think theres this thing happens to your wherein the moment you realize and sunsets come into mind because we literally could see sunset every day most of us don't not seen the sun set or sunrise everyday. I feel like there's this, when we can inspire awe. We take people out of their normal experience the mundane experience and we help People see what possible beyond The mundane Beyond the pedestrian. And i think as creators whether you're creating an event Whether your'e creating a product Just reminding yourself Like having way to have regular reminders that like most of our life experience is in this lane, but we can expand the lane.

Yeah! That's really a nice metaphor. yeah and I really liked these words delight and awe And what we always have as a metaphor are serendipity moments. so We want to create space where people could meet out of nowhere their next best product leadership body, for example and really fall in platonic love basically with somebody at the event.

For example, facing the same challenges or just sharing the same hobby whatever it is. so we don't care. but all us are wearing this corporate armor to some extent And have our business reflexes. And if we can get through that armor and shut off these reflexes, this business reflexes then inspiration is more likely to hit.

So it's basically what we try to create with the events. We have a lot of put in show notes Teresa! A LOT TO PUT IN THE SHOW NOTES! Thanks for bringing the topic.

Yeah, thanks for sharing your experience.