Insights and Key Takeaways from the Product at Heart Leadership Event 2025
What happens when you gather 60 forward-thinking product leaders, add in insightful and inspiring industry thought leaders, and allow them to mix and mingle? You get open conversations, collaborative problem-solving, and actionable takeaways. That’s the idea behind the Product at Heart Leadership Event, and 2025 delivered all that and more.
Did you miss the event and wish you hadn’t? Were you there and just want to relive the memories? Either way, we’ve gathered the top insights and takeaways to share with you here.
It all starts with a shift in perspective
In 2025, we returned to NORD EVENT Panoramadeck, a bright and airy venue on the 23rd floor that offers unparalleled views of Hamburg. As event co-hosts Arne Kittler and Petra Wille welcomed us to the space, they pointed out that this new perspective on Hamburg (whether attendees were local or visiting from out of town), gives us all the space to think clearly, have honest conversations, and make meaningful connections.
And as we discussed during Olga’s workshop (more on that in a moment), getting outside of your daily routine and shifting your perspective is a tool that can help you maintain your resilience as a leader—a skill that everyone needs these days!
Curation is critical
The theme for this year’s Product at Heart events is curation. As product people, we have to curate the experience within our product as well as within our product organizations and teams. And this is no easy feat, especially as a leader! There are external factors outside of our control (you can probably think of a few of those without us mentioning them by name!), demanding stakeholders to negotiate with, and ever-shifting team dynamics.
But as you likely know all too well, when everything is a priority, that means that nothing actually gets prioritized. So taking a curatorial mindset when thinking about your team’s priorities, your product operating model, and your own growth and development is critical.
Learn how to cultivate resilience
“Change is no longer the exception—it’s the environment we live and lead in. And it’s our role as leaders to provide orientation and clarity,” said executive coach Olga Skipper to kick off her workshop, “Resilience in Times of Forced Change.”
Olga shared some of the ways she recommends building resilience, which includes journaling, working with a coach, and cultivating a regular meditation practice. And she began the session by guiding us through a short meditation and some individual reflection exercises to give us a sense of what this feels like.
Olga then guided the group through several more reflection and sharing activities designed to help us consider a time when we’ve been resilient and what tools and tactics we can use to cultivate more resilience. A few highlights from these conversations included:
Intentionally cultivating a positive mindset
Journaling or drawing (Olga recommends connecting this practice to something you’re already doing like drinking your morning coffee to make it a habit that sticks.)
Spending time in nature or any place where you can find peace and remember the big picture
Olga invited us to consider what we’d take away from this experience and how we’d continue to build our own resilience.
And with that, it was time for a little coffee and cake break (the best kind of break there is, really!).
Remember: It’s okay to think and feel
Yi-Wei Ang, Chief Product Officer at talabat, learned something disturbing from a personality quiz. He found out that, according to the Myers-Briggs framework, he’s an ENFJ. Why is this a problem? Because 90% of C-suite leaders have a T (which stands for “thinking”) rather than an F (which stands for “feeling”).
This caused Yi-Wei a lot of insecurity initially. But eventually he realized that the ability to feel is just as important as the ability to think. One of the sources that inspired him was Brené Brown, whose work focuses on vulnerability and its connection to creativity.
“It takes courage to not know the answer, to do the customer centric thing, to be wrong, to take an unconventional bet, the take a decision in the face of uncertainty, to pull the plug, to say what needs to be said, to build it the right way,” said Yi-Wei. And we don’t get there just from thinking. We need to feel, too.
Why is feeling so important? Feeling allows us to empathize (so we better understand our customers), surface truths and challenges (so we can trust each other more), and create more clarity in thought (which leads to better alignment). All of this leads to making more impact with bigger, bolder bets.
Everything starts with psychological safety. When people feel safe enough to make mistakes or say they don’t know something, it creates room for better customer interviews, first principles thinking, and bold testing of ideas.
Yi-Wei shared a few tactics that helped encourage feeling, empathy, and psychological safety at talabat:
Discovering customer needs and opportunities all together rather than outsourcing this to a single research team.
Introducing a “Fail of the month” ritual where members of the product team can volunteer to share something they’ve tried that hasn’t worked.
Switching from anonymous 360-degree reviews to a collective approach to leadership growth where people share their challenges and areas for improvement openly with their peers.
Prepare yourself for the politics of transformation
To close out the day, Marty Cagan and Gabrielle Bufrem shared their stories and observations of companies that have successfully (and not so successfully) undergone the product operating model transformation that Marty describes in his book TRANSFORMED.
Often, the difference between success and failure lies in a product leader’s ability to navigate the politics of transformation. A few examples include:
The politics of delivering a difficult message and inspiring real change.
The product model is not a process. It’s about creating a culture where innovation really happens. In order to achieve this, Marty said it’s ineffective to tell people (especially leaders and executives) that they’re wrong. Instead, it’s much better to show them examples of successful companies they admire. This is much more likely to convince them that it’s worth getting out of their comfort zone and attempting to change.
The politics of leaders not yet knowing what good looks like.
Reading a book like TRANSFORMED is often where people start. But that’s only the first step. And for many people, the product operating model is so different from their current reality that they get overwhelmed when trying to put these concepts into practice. Gabrielle compared it to someone who’s never run before who tries to run a marathon. It’s much better to work with a coach who can help you build the foundational skills and work your way up to the major transformation.
The politics of demonstrating meaningful results before the clock runs out.
The political reality, according to Marty, is that the moment the CEO says you can transform, the clock starts ticking. You have three to six months to show that it really works. And if you try to change the whole organization at once, you will inevitably fail. The proven formula for success is to start with a pilot team. Gabrielle suggested thinking of your pilot team like the poster children. They’re the shining example you want to hold up to everyone else in your organization to inspire them. So make sure you think very carefully about who you select for your pilot team.
Marty and Gabrielle’s stories remind us that transformation is rarely quick or easy. But entering these situations with more awareness of the politics involved will make you much more likely to succeed.
We capped off the Leadership Event with a glass of wine and a few photo ops before joining event sponsor Netlight for dinner. Closing out the day with even more connections and conversations—what’s not to love about that?
Check out the attendees’ highlights and stories
We love hearing directly from attendees about what resonated with them and how they’re planning to put these ideas into action. Here are a few highlights and stories they shared:
“[Olga’s workshop] was an incredibly powerful session! Very inspiring, and both grounding and uplifting 🤩” – Annette Karlstad
“The value of an event like Product at Heart for me lies in the amazing opportunity to spend time with thought leaders and super experienced product people. It is in meeting in person where trust is built, where the idea of a theoretical collaboration may become more concrete and where you can tap into the collective wisdom of this group to learn, get challenged and grow. Petra Wille and Arne Kittler: thank you for putting this together!” – Simonetta Batteiger
“The Product at Heart is one of my favorite events in our wonderful #productcommunity — and the perfect excuse to escape to Hamburg once a year ❤️ Yesterday’s Leadership Event was again an absolute blast. Huge thanks to Petra Wille Arne Kittler, Tobias Freudenreich, and everyone else behind the scenes for making it all happen 🙌” – Sandra Hinz
“Excellent talk today from Marty Cagan and Gabrielle Bufrem at Product at Heart in Hamburg, on navigating the difficult waters of transforming a Product organisation.
I'll share one quote: "A product without a business is called a hobby..." – Gabriel G.
Explore the event in your favorite format
For a more visual experience, check out the video recap of the event or browse through the full photo album on Flickr.
This post just scratches the surface of all the inspiring content from the Product at Heart 2025 Leadership Event. We’ll also be sharing more detailed recaps from the main conference along with video recordings on our blog and in the video archive in the coming months. Watch this space or follow us on social media for more updates!
And as a final note—if you’re wondering when you’ll have the chance to join us again, we’ve already announced that we’ll be holding the Leadership Event in Hamburg on June 24, 2026. We hope to see you there! We’ll be updating our blog and social media once the tickets go live.