Why the Time is Right for #mtpcon Singapore

When we announced in September last year that we’re bringing #mtpcon to Singapore for the first time, it was in the knowledge that the technology and innovation scene across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region is booming.  We see this in reports from the tech and business press, but more specifically from the recent strong growth in our ProductTank meetups. There are now over 170 cities running ProductTanks globally, and with particularly strong growth across Asia-Pacific, the number of ProductTanks in the region has more than doubled in the last two years.

We’ve found that there’s huge interest in the Singapore market as we’ve moved through the planning stages of #mtpcon Singapore, both from people inside the country and from people across the region as a whole.  So we’ve been speaking to a number of our key partners to learn more about what excites, or indeed, challenges them!

Singapore Central Business District

Why Singapore?

Mixpanel has been a long-time partner of #mtpcon events around the world and its Senior Event Specialist Devon Carlstrom explains the thinking behind the company’s focus on Singapore: “After seeing escalating demand for tools to better understand users and their interactions, not only from technology companies but across category leaders, Mixpanel decided to officially open an office in Singapore in October 2018. Our Singapore office is our APAC home base and is focused on providing strong localised support to new and existing customers. As a leading international city within Asia, Singapore unlocks for us a wealth of talent, diverse business opportunities, and easy connection to other major APAC business hubs.”

This connection to both APAC hubs and major international airports played a key part in our decision to bring the conference to the city.

A Line-up of Inspirational Speakers

John MaedaThe reputation of our conferences is founded on our ability to secure the world’s most inspirational speakers on product management. We were very clear that this tradition was something we had to uphold when hosting our first big event in the APAC region – so we’re delighted to announce the addition of Automattic’s Head of Computational Design and Inclusion John Maeda to the #mtpcon Singapore stage. He joins speakers such as coach and consultant Jeff Gothelf, who is also the author of Sense and Respond & Lean UX, Jen Dante, who is Head of Enterprise AR/VR Product at Google, and Ken Chin, who is CPO of Seek Asia.

Kaia LaiWe’re as careful about our choice of conference partners as we are about the speakers on the main stage.  Conference partner Amplitude identifies the talk from Kaia Lai, Grab’s Head of Product Marketing, as a slot to watch – because, according to senior director Jean Lozano, “GRAB has an interesting challenge ahead of them and it will be interesting to hear how she is approaching product over the next year”. Amplitude has also chosen Singapore as its APAC HQ.

Jeff GothelfCoupang will be an unfamiliar name to many people outside the APAC region, but the company recently raised funding of $2 billion and is being hailed Korea’s answer to Amazon, so we fully expect this will change soon.  We asked Coupang’s Talent Intelligence Manager Giles Lewis about the speaker line-up: “We’re very excited to hear from Jeff Gothelf – Product and UX are very tightly linked, and as a startup, Coupang is very focused on quick iteration and what changes we can make now to make things better.”

Meeting the Challenges of the Region

No opportunity comes without challenges, and our conference sponsors are finding ways to meet the challenges that inevitably come with a booming market: “For Coupang it’s really around managing the huge growth in popularity of our application and making sure that we can keep improving the customer experience even as we scale,” says Giles Lewis. “Related to that, we are also very focused on hiring – particularly in Product Management. As we scale it’s critical to have people who can think through business problems and help us find innovative new solutions.”

We are very focused on hiring – particularly in Product Management. As we scale it’s critical to have people who can think through business problems and help us find innovative solutions.Giles Lewis, Coupang

Jean Lozano says Amplitude’s biggest challenge right now is “helping elevate the role of the product manager in companies that are laggards in their digital transformation. Product is the key to revenue growth.” Amplitude has also chosen Singapore as its APAC HQ.

Finally, Karishma Rajaratnam from Chargebee, a specialist in subscription billing platforms and another of our long-term partners joining us for this inaugural Singapore #mtpcon, says: “A global boom in technology adoption and consumption has created opportunities everywhere, as a result, APAC is one of the fastest growing markets for SaaS. Coupled with technology is a large, hyper-aware, and social-savvy consumer market that is forcing companies to innovate and test their loyalties every single day. This is driving relationship building across multiple channels.”

Clearly, our speakers, our partners, our ProductTank organisers across APAC see huge excitement, opportunity, and a range of interesting challenges before them.  We look forward to bringing together product people of all stripes to further the craft we all enjoy so very much on March 26.

Don’t miss out on tickets and see you in Singapore!

The post Why the Time is Right for #mtpcon Singapore appeared first on Mind the Product.

How to Further Your Product Management Career in Asia

Like everywhere else in the world, digital product managers are in high demand in Asia. It’s still a relatively new role in this part of the world and the supply of local talent is limited. Not many people have heard of product management let alone know what it takes to be good at it. Like me, most of them seem to have found their way into it by accident. But as the economies and tech ecosystems of Asia continue to develop, a small but growing community of product managers has started to emerge.

So where are the product manager jobs in Asia and what are they like?

Location, Location, Location

The first concern in managing your product management career in Asia is location. If you are willing to travel, the opportunities of working in regional or global markets can become appealing from both a financial and personal lifestyle perspective. Every city has its pros and cons, but in terms of product management, it’s generally best to follow the money – and in particular the VC money. Mainly because the maturity of product management roles is highly correlated to the maturity of the tech ecosystem.

Standing out in front is China. Beijing and Shanghai form the world’s second largest tech ecosystem of successful tech companies (Alibaba and Tencent), venture capital and startups behind Silicon Valley. China’s digital scene is massive and continues to grow, but it’s difficult for outsiders to navigate. As a work destination for product managers, it’s not a particularly attractive location unless you speak fluent Mandarin and enjoy the lifestyle.

I would group Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Singapore together as all of them have vibrant tech ecosystems and high standards of living. Many global tech companies have product delivery teams in these countries but the majority tend to choose either Hong Kong or Singapore as their regional headquarters due to their westernised lifestyle, widespread use of English and proximity to South East Asian markets.

Emerging markets are growing strongly, with cities such as Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Seoul, and Taipei hosting a growing number of tech companies and startups. Smaller markets in Asia such as Thailand, Vietnam and Philippines have more limited work opportunities for product managers but there are pockets of amazing talent and interesting companies in these markets too.

Where Should you Park Your Bike?

In my opinion, digital organisations in Asia fall into four categories:

  1. Global tech companies that operate in Asia
  2. Large enterprises going through a digital transformation
  3. Tech startups, most of which copy successful business models in the US
  4. Consulting firms and digital agencies

Global tech companies will generally bring in leadership from their US or European businesses to establish operations in Asia. Google, Facebook, Linkedin, Amazon and Netflix all have regional offices in Asia but most are focused on sales and customer support. Only a few have product delivery teams based in Asia and most of these are relatively small. While the opportunities are limited, they are great places to work and you will learn how to be a great product manager from the best.

Large local or regional enterprises will have significant product development resources in Asia and offer the best opportunities to find product management roles. The challenge here is that the management teams can be a bit old school. You should look at the backgrounds of the leadership team, and the most senior product person in particular. Where did they learn how to be a product manager? Can you learn from them? Many will bring in experienced product leaders from across the globe in order to drive digital transformation and build capability in their local teams.

Depending on which country you look in, there may be many tech startups looking for product managers. Tech startups are great places to experiment and learn on the job, but you may not get a lot of guidance or coaching. Before you join such a business, ask a few people about the organisational culture set by the founders. In particular, I would advise you to be cautious of those startups founded by private equity firms or ex bankers that simply clone a successful business models from another part of the world. In most cases they are optimised for growth in order to exit rather than the creation of long-term customer or business value.

Because experienced digital teams are in short supply there are a number of consulting firms and digital agencies operating in Asia, such as BCG Digital Ventures, McKinsey Digital and Accenture. These are amazing places to learn and hone your skills but they are usually only engaged by a client for a limited period of time. As a product manager, at some stage you will actually want to grow a product over the longer term.

Good luck with pursuing a product management career in Asia, whatever the location and type of business you choose.  Local ProductTanks are a good way to find about the state of product in your chosen location and what the people in local businesses are like. I’ll be following up this article after speaking and meeting hundreds of peers at Mind the Product Singapore, and in the meantime I look forward to finding out more about your thoughts and impressions of the state of product management in Asia in the comments below.

The post How to Further Your Product Management Career in Asia appeared first on Mind the Product.