Over the last month I’ve found a delicious new recipe for continuous learning – popcorn and pints! Each week a couple Product Owners and I get together for 30-60 minutes to watch product videos and discuss. We’ve started by checking out the Mind the Product video archive. It’s been a fantastic way to stress forever learning, have a chance to learn from some of the industry’s best, and bond as a Product Owner group.
If you want to try it out yourself, here’s some tips:
- If you don’t have beer on tap at work, just call it ‘Product & Popcorn’
- Schedule it for a regular time. We do Tuesdays from 3-4pm (that way folks can leave early or talk to their Team afterwards before the end of the day)
- Get a variety of fun popcorns! I’ve had the best luck with Trader Joe’s popcorns which are all great and unusual. We rotate who buys the popcorn each week.
- Have each person pick a drinking word before the video starts.
- Take frequent breaks to discuss/laugh/cry about what you’re hearing.
Hopefully you and your Product team learn a lot from Popcorn & Pints. I hope to be sharing some of the best videos and thoughts here soon. If you have any suggestions for great places for Product Management videos, please let me know in the comments.