Panel discussion at GHCI- "Product Portfolio Optimization"

I had an interesting experience late last week while participating in Grace Hopper’s conference in Bangalore, India (abbreviated as GHCI). The conference was on 2^nd-4^th-Dec. This was my first time attending this conference and having been a part of many other conferences, I can confidently say that I liked being there a lot by virtue of raw energy and enthusiasm of the participants and variety of sessions.

I had my Panel talk on the 4^th-Dec at 9:00 AM on the topic- “Product Portfolio Optimization- Choosing your Right bet”. Along with me were the esteemed panelists- Nidhi Gupta (Product Manager, Google), Martin Wezowski (Chief Designer at SAP) and the panel was ably led my Manjula Gondi (Director, Microsoft). The topic around product management, I was told, was being brought in for the first time at the GHCI conference. It was an enriching experience for me personally being part of such a learned Panel, who brought in such diverse perspective. And the in-person feedback that we received post the panel talk only confirmed that the session went humbly well.

The format of Panel discussion required the moderator (Manjula) to set the context and invoke a discussion among the panelists by asking specific questions around the topic and also invite questions from the audience. Through the next few blogs, I will try and list the questions that were put forward to me as a part of discussion and try and list the answers that I gave (as much as I recollect them).

Stay tuned for more Info. Below is the video link of the session-

Here are some of the discussion items that came up during the Panel discussion (where i gave lead answers)-

What factors matter in decisions related to Product portfolio growth and expansion?

What kind of mindset is needed to deal with changes that can impact the product portfolio?

How can the Engineering function positively support the growth of Product portfolio?

Does Leadership styles matter in forming Product Portfolios?


Image source:
http://ghcindia.anitaborg.org/