Australia’s largest Product Management Community.
We bring product people together to learn from world-class experts, keep pace with emerging practice, and build the relationships that make product work better.
What we do
A place for product professionals to keep learning, stay inspired, and connect with peers.
Leading the Product is a global community for product professionals that hosts annual conferences that provide new insights and opportunities to grow, while also providing members with a content library where they can continue their learning journey at their own pace.
We curate the world’s leading experts, the latest thinking, and newest methods in product management, giving product professionals an avenue to expand their knowledge and retain their passion in a supportive and inclusive community.
Our mission
Professional development is an ongoing process. We create opportunities for product professionals to learn emerging trends and build real relationships with other product people.
Who it is for
An inclusive community for product professionals at any stage of their career, from those just beginning their journey to Heads of Product and Chief Product Officers.
The organiser
Brainmates brings more than two decades of product expertise through training, coaching, consulting and large-scale conferences across Australia and New Zealand.
Learn More About BrainmatesBy the Numbers
A Snapshot of Our Community
Regions
Australia, New Zealand
Job Titles
Product people of all levels & adjacent roles
Experiences
Over 1000 across all formats
Followers
Linked in 8000+, Meet up 7,700+
Our Story
A Brief History of Leading the Product
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2007
First Australian product community event
In 2007 Brainmates invited the fledgling community of product people to join them at their office in Sydney. This was the first Brainmates Product Talk and seven people attended and it was awesome. A community was born.
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2007 - 2010
The Australian Product Community Develops
In addition to the Brainmates Product Talks, several other Product Management groups formed, including Product Mavens is Sydney, and Product Anonymous in Melbourne.
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2010
The First Product Camp in Australia
Product Camps were a great way for the community to come together for a full-day event to talk about their practice. They were free and by design relatively unstructured. Over the next few years Product Camp Sydney and Product Camp Melbourne were the peak events for the year.
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2014
The Paid Event Experiment
Product Camps were great but we needed see if the community would pay $99 to attend a Product Management event. In 2014 we partnered with the VIVID festival to run a mini-conference. The event sold out.
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2015
Leading the Product is Born
In a collaboration between Brainmates and Seek, the first Leading the Product kicked off at Melbourne's Federation Square selling out again with over 350 attendees at the first event.
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2016-2019
From Strength to Strength
Leading the Product (or LTP to those in the know) continues to grow and expands to run in both Sydney and Melbourne. Every year is bigger than the last and every year the event sells to capacity.
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2020
COVID Hits, LTP Pivots
Like everyone, we were disrupted by the pandemic and safety for attendees was paramount. But we are product people, and we eat disruption for breakfast! Leading the Product pivoted to deliver an unforgettable themed experience that had hundreds of product people around the world participating in the conference remotely and following the interactive story of Jane. #SAVEJANE
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2021-2022
The New Normal
Despite the lockdowns and restrictions of the pandemic, Leading the Product continued to deliver the "7 T's of Product-Led Transformation" and "Product Navigation: How to Chart a Course to an Uncertain Future" with gripping talks from Australia and around the world.
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2023
The Hybrid Transition
Ultimately, Leading the Product is about a community of product professionals that come together. In 2023 we were able to celebrate the return of in-person events in Sydney, as well as delivering a live broadcast of the experience to the online participants.
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2024
Back to the Beginning
Executed in the 2 biggest cities in Australia, we executed LTP in the physical form only to cherish the connections we make face to face. We disrupted ourselves by going back to our roots before Covid times and the audience loved that we focussed on the true benefit of in person interaction.
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2025
The Experience Upgrade
Taking LTP into the new decade, we are bringing a new approach to the event with some major experience upgrades for the attendees in both Sydney and Melbourne. Look out for new ways to connect, share and consume this year as we Level Up!
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2026
In person Experience Triumphs
With the market shifting due to new tech like AI, the event landscape brings it's challenges. But what prevails is the peer to peer value exchange between attendees. A full day upgrade for our Leaders Forum alongside our flagship full day conference event allowed all product levels to bask in the true value of connection for longer.