2018 Event

ProductCamp San Diego 2018

ProductCamp San Diego participants had a great time at the inaugural event on Saturday 20 October 2018.  Let’s look at the numbers to see who showed up and how it played out.

Thank you!

We are grateful to everyone who responded to our post-event survey. Knowing participant demographics is really helpful when talking to sponsors. Your responses will to ensure the success of future ProductCamp San Diego events.

The Participants

In our inaugural year, we limited advance registration to 400 attendees, and sold out a week before the event.  We went into Saturday morning with 413 registrations.  Of those, we had an approximate 40% show-up rate (typical for a free event on Saturday morning) with a total of 166 checked-in attendees — plus those few of you who evaded our registration team.

The organizing team was planning for a 50% no-show rate, so the rooms were just about exactly the right size — standing room only for the opening session, then dropping down throughout the day as attendees left for other commitments.

The Reviews

We asked our 64 survey respondents the typical Net Promoter Score question: 
How likely are you to recommend participating in ProductCamp San Diego to a colleague or friend?

NPS SCORE 64

PROMOTERS 72%

DETRACTORS 5%

For context: Read Erik Fabian's article on NPS for special events

"If you want to compare your event to other kinds of consumer product and brand experiences, NPS Benchmarks shows the source of its scores. For instance, the Apple iPhone had a score of 63 in 2015 while Blackberry scored 23.

• NPS of <0 — something is terribly wrong

• NPS of 0–10 — meh

• NPS of 10–30 — a pretty typical thumbs up considering people are there for work and the standard experience at B2B events is a bit boring

• NPS 30–50 — is excellent for a B2B event but still has areas to improve

• NPS 50+ — a special experience by any measure

The Future Looks Bright

The future of an annual ProductCamp San Diego event looks bright.  Of 64 respondents, 30% (19) said YES they would volunteer next year, and 45% (29) said MAYBE they would volunteer next year.

What Participants said about ProductCamp San Diego

• Be ready to listen, learn, and share - Sean

• As a CTO, I would never have been able to get our PM opportunity in front of so many stellar PMs without ProductCamp! - Eric

• Great networking opportunity - Christian

• This was my first Product Management conference and I think I've found my peeps. Everyone was so eager to learn, improve themselves and share ideas on what works/what doesn't. - Jill

• You'll get out what you put in! Come with a voice that's hungry for knowledge and you'll leave with new connections and a wealth of experience to draw from and apply when you go back to work. - Wes

• This is a fun, information-dense day that will help you to learn about product management, design thinking, building successful startups. - Igor

• Product Camp is a fantastic way to meet others working in product, and some who aren't! There is so much knowledge to share and PCSD fostered the space to do this in a fun way. - Rachel

• A gathering of great product people! - Sabrina

• The energy and atmosphere was very welcoming and flexible! Organizers and volunteers made the event very enjoyable. - Ted

• Come to participate. Bring your ideas, your questions, your positive energy, and your reusable coffee mug. - Jessica

• ProductCamp San Diego is a great way to meet local product managers. Take advantage of the engaging and informational sessions led by experts! - Rose

Demographics

57 people reported their job title — though not everyone’s title was clear (“Principal” – Principal what?)

• 20 were product managers, from independent contributor to group-level director

• 10 founders or co-founders

• 7 C-level executives

• 6 in User Experience, from students and interns to one Chief Experience Officer

• 4 consultants or contractors

• Other titles reported include: Recruiter, Software Engineer, Project Manager, Partnership Specialist, Education Program Manager, Data Sciences Senior Manager.

60 people reported the size of their company

• 8 companies from 1,000 up to 30,000 employees

• 9 companies between 200 and 1,000 employees

• 11 companies between 50 and 200 employees

• 32 companies under 50 employees, including 20 companies of 1 to 5 people

61 people reported their level or experience and responsibility, and could choose more than one response

• Most respondents are entry level: 22 just getting into product management or have less than 3 years experience. 4 respondents had 3-7 years experience, and 6 respondents had more than 7 years experience.

• 16 respondents were Senior Executives, split evenly between VP or C-level executives and director-level managers and team leads.

• 5 respondents were students

• 15 respondents were not product managers, which includes founders, developers, designers, and recruiters.

62 people reported the industry they work in

• Many are in Technology, Software, and SaaS companies

• Represented industries include Health care, Biotech, Life Sciences, Fintech, Non-profit, Education management, Manufacturing, Publishing, Retail, Semiconductors, Telecommunication, and Transportation

• Also participating: design agencies, consultants, and professional services companies

The Topics

Participants proposed 30 Proposed topics for the 16 available time slots. In true unconference style, participants were inspired in the moment and jumped up to propose a topic, and similar topic proposals were combined into friendly joint sessions. 

• Alicia Mcclain // What the heck is a product owner anyway? (AGILE / SCRUM)

• Celeste Combs // Human centered design (shaping our future) // 4 trends in emerging technology

• Pompilio Fiore // OKME // PANIC Button for Uber Drivers // Launch in $500

• Andre Kwan // Building the FInancial Technology company for athletes

• Michael Norton // Stories for products // Storytelling is not a fad – it’s who we are.

• Tyler Jensen // How to attract investors and raise capital to launch your own product.

• Zac Lyons // Improving customer experience through Agile Innovation

• Nathan Young // Storytelling influence our world!

• Thomas Cruise // User stories and personas — who is the clear person using the tool?

• Eric Weiss // Translation from Product Vision to Engineering — Language that Engineers need!

• Eric Weiss // Mentor Matchmaking session

• Spencer Parikh // Creating Successful Relationships with Sales

• Rhonda Moret // When Innovation and Marketing Intersect

• Faisal Chaabani // Pricing on the Go

• Lance Lorns // Building things with atoms

• Allyn Pon // Cloud Migration and Data Analytics on Product Design

• Carrie Schneider // V San Diego — Help inspire products that lead to policy outcomes

• Jeofrey Bean // Customer Experience

• Jeofrey Bean // Cognitive Diversity

• Neil Thompson // Teach the Geek to Speak

• Yoram Baltinester // Meaning, Joy and Purpose are key indicators for personal developmnet

• Sean Van Tyne // Mapping the Customer Journey

• Sean Van Tyne // Innovation and Design Thinking

• Alan Buhler // Planning Fallacies — Overestimate to much benefit and underestimate the time that it takes to do the project

• Rachel Gauvin // How to Execute your plan and build habits for success – Optimize your time.

• Josh Cooley // Silos Suck and Navigate Intrapreneurship in your company

• Vidya Dinamani // Moving into Management – What gets done behind closed doors for promotion?

• Wes Shoup // A-Z Job Searching Talk // Writing resumes

• Jessica Sweeney // Team Leaders – 2-3 product managers – Training and Development

• Jessica Sweeney // Future of Product Camp San Diego

The Funding

ProductCamp San Diego was supported by 6 brilliant sponsors who contributed a total of $10,000.  Attendees contributed a further $409 through t-shirt sales and cash donations.

Expenses for the 2018 event and organizational overhead totaled $7,053. Expenses in 2018 were especially low because of the vital support of our amazing venue sponsor, UCSD Extension.

Here’s the general breakdown of where the money went:

• 26% food and beverages for morning and afternoon break

• 4% equipment rental

• 3% badge printing

• 8% signs, including the great photo backdrop

• 18% t-shirts, which were free for the volunteer organizers

• 40% everything else, like pizza for our volunteer meetings and keeping the web site going for a couple of years in the run-up to 2018

Platinum Sponsor

Gold Sponsor

Silver Sponsors

In-Kind Sponsors

Bronze Sponsors

2018 Organizational Team