Product Coffee

Atlanta Product Happy Hour - May 2026 - Battle & Brew
2026-05-21 18:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York)
ProductCamp Atlanta, BPM Product Community, Atlanta Women in Product, and Product Coffee are back at Battle & Brew in Sandy Springs for another low-key happy hour with Atlanta’s product community.
No talks. No slides. No forced mingling. Just consoles, drinks, and the kind of conversations that happen when product people actually relax for once. Whether you want to crush someone at Street Fighter or just grab a beer and decompress after a long week, you’re in the right place.
First time joining us? This is the easiest entry point into Atlanta’s product scene. Show up whenever, leave whenever. Strike up a conversation with whoever’s next to you at the bar or jump into a game that’s already going. You’ll meet product managers, designers, founders, and builders from all over metro Atlanta. No one’s checking credentials at the door.
What to expect:
🎮 Free games! (Battle & Brew’s got the setup)
🍺 Full cash bar and food menu
🤝 Real conversations with Atlanta product folks
🎯 Zero networking pressure, maximum chill
👋 Friendly faces whether you’re a regular or brand new
Bring a teammate. Bring a friend from another company. Just don’t bring your roadmap.
See you in Sandy Springs.
This event is included for free with a Product Coffee Premium membership. If you aren’t already a member, join today!

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Customer Conversations Book Club
2026-05-22 14:00 - 15:00, 2026-06-05 14:00 - 15:00 | Virtual Product Coffee Meetup
Steve Johnson’s Customer Conversations: A Product Manager’s Superpower makes the case that talking directly with customers isn’t just research. It’s a core leadership behavior that builds your credibility and sharpens your judgment.
The book demystifies the whole process. It shows why secondhand intelligence (sales reports, support tickets, analytics) can’t replace direct conversation. As Johnson puts it: “A direct conversation lets you hear context, feel hesitation, and notice what triggers emotion. That’s not trivia. That’s strategy.”
There’s also a sharp chapter on AI’s role in product work. Johnson’s take: if you use AI to free up time for more customer conversations, great. If you use it to avoid those conversations, you’re building on sand.
Why join this series?
When you avoid customer conversations, you outsource judgment. This book removes the mystery and helps you build a habit of making customer insights your source of truth. It’s practical, not preachy, and it gives you a framework for conversations that reveal what customers actually need instead of what you assume they want.
Get the book: https://amzn.to/4tSfNCX
Join Bookclub for Invites

There and Back Again- From PM to Founder and Back
2026-05-27 07:30 - 09:00
What happens when product leaders cross into founder mode, step into the venture world, and come back with a different lens?
Join
– Hari Gopal, Director of Corporate Insights at Engage,
– Kent Keirsey, Director of Product Management at Adobe, and
– Steve Engdahl, Head of Product at Systech
for a candid conversation about what carries over, what breaks, and what changes when you move between product, startups, and investing.
Kent has lived the operator-to-founder-to-product-leader path, including building a company that was acquired by Adobe. Hari brings a PM-gone-VC perspective from the Atlanta startup scene. Steve has seen the product journey from just about every angle: venture-backed, public, privately held, and his own startup.
✅ What product work actually prepares you for founderhood
✅ What founders learn that can make them sharper, more decisive PMs
✅ What surprises both sides, and how those lessons show up back in the day-to-day work
This is not startup mythology or polished career advice. It’s a real conversation about the skills, tradeoffs, and perspective shifts that come with building from different seats. Join product people from around the world who care about building what matters.

This event is included for free with a Product Coffee Premium membership. If you aren’t already a member, join today!

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David Dean - AI, Judgment, and the Work We Don't Document
2026-06-03 11:30 - 13:00
Join David Dean, author of An Inbox Between Us, as he sits down with Allison Herbert, our very own Product Coffee Librarian, to talk about what happens when AI enters the space between the organization we document and the organization we actually live in every day.
Most organizations have process maps, org charts, goals, and operating models. They also have the reality of how work gets done: spreadsheets, workarounds, judgment calls, undocumented expertise, Slack threads, hallway conversations, and the people quietly carrying the context that keeps everything moving.
AI works with the information it’s given. That means it can help surface patterns that were previously hidden, scattered, or simply accepted as part of the job. It can also expose broken processes, unclear accountability, invisible work, and places where automation may amplify problems rather than solve them.
David and Allison will explore what AI reveals about how organizations actually function, where judgment and accountability still matter, and the role invisible work plays in keeping things moving.
We’re also excited to make this our kickoff discussion for the next Product Coffee Book Club selection, giving members a chance to meet David, hear the story behind the book, and begin exploring its ideas before we dive deeper together.
If you’re a product manager, product leader, or anyone working through the realities of AI adoption inside a complex organization, I think you’ll find this discussion both practical and thought-provoking.

This event is included for free with a Product Coffee Premium membership. If you aren’t already a member, join today!

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Christian Crumlish on Bringing Your Agents to Work
2026-06-17 11:30 - 13:00
Christian Crumlish went from casual AI user to building Piper Morgan, an AI agent designed to collaborate with product teams. Along the way, he discovered something most of us are starting to feel: personal AI workflows are everywhere, but team AI workflows are a mess.
You’ve probably got your own AI habits by now. A prompt you reuse. A tool you swear by. A workflow that saves you hours. But what happens when your whole team starts doing the same thing? When everyone’s got their own agent, their own outputs, their own version of “done”?
That’s where things break.
In this conversation, we’ll dig into what changes when AI moves from single-player to multiplayer mode. What coordination mechanisms do teams actually need, shared vocabulary, agent protocols, documentation, governance? How do you make AI-generated output usable by humans who didn’t generate it? And what are teams outsourcing to AI that they really shouldn’t?
We’ll also talk about what this means for product managers specifically. If shipping is getting faster, what becomes the real job? What should PMs own that agents can’t? And when prioritization gets harder because everything is suddenly possible, what judgment needs to remain non-delegable?
Christian has been thinking about this longer than most of us. He’s building tools for it, writing about it, and living it with real teams. If you’re trying to figure out how your team should actually work with AI, not just use it, but operate well together, this one’s for you.

This event is included for free with a Product Coffee Premium membership. If you aren’t already a member, join today!

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Atlanta Product Happy Hour-- June 2026-- Midtown(ProductCamp Kickoff)
2026-06-18 17:00 - 19:00
Join ProductCamp Atlanta, BPM Network Community, Atlanta Women in Product (WIP), and Product Coffee for a casual happy hour at Botica in Midtown!
This one has a special purpose — we’re kicking off volunteer recruitment for ProductCamp Atlanta on November 13. Come hang with product folks from across the southeast, grab a drink, and learn how you can be a part of your favorite product unConference.
Expect the usual low-pressure vibe: great conversations, no agendas, and plenty of familiar (and new) faces from the Atlanta product community. Whether you’re already planning to volunteer or just want to connect with the broader group, this is the perfect night to show up.
Location: Botica (Midtown)
Time: 5:00 – 7:00 PM
Registration required. Grab your spot and come help us build the best ProductCamp yet.

This event is included for free with a Product Coffee Premium membership. If you aren’t already a member, join today!

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Grounds for Discussion - What Has Your Attention?
2026-07-08 07:30 - 09:00
This week’s Product Coffee is back to our roots: A bunch of great product people drinking coffee (or whatever is in that cup) and sharing what they’re learning with each other.
“What has your attention?” has been Jason’s kickoff question from the start, and this week it’s our complete focus. What are you seeing in the product management world right now? What are you trying? What’s getting harder? What are you learning that other product people in the room should hear?
Maybe you’re experimenting with new tools. Maybe you’re wrestling with stakeholder management. Maybe you’re rethinking how to show your value, or looking for ideas to amp up your job search. Whatever’s on your mind, this is the kind of session built to talk it through.
Jason will be joined in studio by Chuck Blevins to co-host the conversation. Chuck isn’t here to give a talk or run through a framework. He’s here to add perspective, ask good questions, and help make the room sharper.
☕ Bring the question, challenge, or shift that has your attention right now.
☕ Bring something you’ve learned recently, too, so the room gets smarter together.
☕ Leave with fresh perspective, useful ideas, and a better sense of what other product people are seeing and learning right now.
It’s a virtual meetup in the truest sense: product people showing up, comparing notes, and helping each other think a little better about the work.
This event is included for free with a Product Coffee Premium membership. If you aren’t already a member, join today!

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Think Clearly -- Decide Faster - Accelerate Your Confidence Under Pressure
2026-07-15 11:30 - 13:00
You know that moment when everyone’s staring at you and you need to make the call?
Roadmap review. Executive briefing. Stakeholder pushback. The meeting where someone asks the question you weren’t expecting and suddenly the next thing you say actually matters.
Most product managers freeze, overthink, or overexplain. You end up talking yourself in circles while the room waits for you to land it.
Mayla Clark fixes this for a living.
She’s an executive speaking skills coach who works with product leaders on the moments that count. In this session, she’s going to walk us through why high-pressure product decisions trigger hesitation, what patterns slow you down, and how to replace mental loops with structure that works under fire.
We’ll talk about grounding decisions in evidence, judgment, and track record instead of spinning. How to recognize when you’re overthinking. What it actually sounds like to lead with authority when the room gets tense.
If you’ve ever walked out of a meeting wishing you’d said something different—or said it better—this one’s for you.
Mayla’s bringing practical tools you can use the next time the stakes are high and everyone’s looking at you to make the call.

This event is included for free with a Product Coffee Premium membership. If you aren’t already a member, join today!

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Grounds for Discussion -- Open Topic Roundup
2026-07-29 11:30 - 13:00
This week we are back to networking and “come as you are” coffee talk! We’ll jump into some rapid-fire discussions about the product management topics and questions that are on your mind.
This is a time for our community to get to know each other and make new connections by sharing your questions and your knowledge. Come one, come all for a knowledge bomb free-for-all!
We’ll cover questions and topics that you’ve been asking about, like:
→ Getting in front of customers when life or the business makes it hard
→ Vibe-coding outpacing everyone’s judgment
→ How real PMs are getting more value out of the latest tools
And whatever you bring to the table!

This event is included for free with a Product Coffee Premium membership. If you aren’t already a member, join today!

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Find Your Place - Volunteering at Product Camp Atlanta
2026-08-12 07:30 - 09:00
Product Camp Atlanta does not run on magic. It runs on volunteers who know how they want to contribute and who want to meet smart people while building something useful together.
In this conversational Product Coffee session, we will talk about why volunteering matters in the first place, what kinds of value people actually get from it, and how different volunteer roles fit different personalities, strengths, and energy levels.
Allison Herbert and Dave Mathias, hosts of the ProductCamp Conversations podcast, will join Jason to compare notes, share what they have seen, and keep the whole thing lively instead of turning it into a committee meeting.
We will also do a few light exercises so attendees can:
→ understand the key volunteer roles around Product Camp Atlanta
→ figure out which kinds of work sound energizing versus draining
→ spot where they could contribute, learn, and meet people faster
→ leave with a clearer sense of where they might want to jump in
This should be fun, participatory, and useful whether you are a longtime community builder or just wondering where to start.

This event is included for free with a Product Coffee Premium membership. If you aren’t already a member, join today!

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Jtbd Stories -- How We're Getting Faster at It
2026-08-19 11:30 - 13:00
What job did you hire your coffee for this morning? Not “caffeine.” Something more specific: to make the commute bearable, to feel like a functioning adult before 9am, to give you a reason to sit still for five minutes. That’s Jobs to Be Done thinking, and it’s a lot sharper than most product discovery.
Jason’s teaming up with Devin Smith, our resident JTBD expert, for a session built around real stories: the McDonald’s milkshake that was secretly hired as a mess-free commute companion, and how Intercom split one product into four to serve four different jobs and grew 500% in 18 months.
We’ll unpack:
✅ What switch interviews reveal that regular customer interviews miss
✅ The four forces of progress (Push, Pull, Anxiety, Habit) and how they explain why people actually switch products
✅ Where AI genuinely helps with JTBD work (prep, first-draft job maps, spotting patterns in transcripts) and where it can’t replace a real conversation with a real buyer
This is a community conversation, not a presentation. Come ready to participate, and leave with one concrete thing to try this week: a short switch-style conversation with two people about a problem you’re actually working on.
Product Coffee is a global community of product folks who love bringing great ideas to market. This is where we do it over coffee, not slides.

This event is included for free with a Product Coffee Premium membership. If you aren’t already a member, join today!

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Atlanta Product Happy Hour -- August 2026 -- Sandy Springs
2026-08-20 18:00 - 20:00
ProductCamp Atlanta, BPM Product Community, Atlanta Women in Product, and Product Coffee are back at Battle & Brew in Sandy Springs for another round of the happy hour these four communities throw together.
No agenda, no pitch decks. Just a room full of product managers, designers, founders, and builders from across metro Atlanta, a cash bar, and enough games to settle who actually deserves bragging rights this month.
Why you should come:
🍻 Meet product people from four different Atlanta communities in one room
👾 Come as you are, no pitches required
🎮 Free Mario Kart (and other games), courtesy of Battle & Brew
🍸 Full cash bar and food available
🌟 A midweek reset with people who actually get what you do all day

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Are You a Context Steward?
2026-08-26 07:30 - 09:00
Misha Sulpovar, Chief AI Officer at Foley, is making an AI transformation bet most companies are still tiptoeing around. He is focusing AI transformation around two functions, context stewards and builders.
A context steward owns approved domain knowledge. Foley’s product marketing lead, for example, is the steward for their ideal customer profile. When something new gets added or changed, it lands in her queue, and she decides: accept, comment, or decline. Builders take that governed context and construct the workflows, agents, and systems around it.
The idea itself isn’t brand new. People are already talking about context engineering and data stewardship. What’s different here is that Foley is actually running it, reshaping, hiring or training for both roles, and betting that a strong steward, builder, and AI can do a real chunk of what product work used to be.
So the question is a personal one. Look at your own job: the part where you hold context nobody else does, and the part where you build. Which one are you? And is Foley seeing the next shape of product work, or making one company’s bet?

This event is included for free with a Product Coffee Premium membership. If you aren’t already a member, join today!

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Getting Real About Going Fractional
2026-09-02 11:30 - 13:00
More product people are looking at fractional work right now, and for good reason. The market is shifting, companies still need experienced product perspective, and new startups are forming with real ambition but limited resources. The work is there. The questions are too.
This session is for PMs and technologists who are curious about going fractional but aren’t sure where to start. It’s a roundtable, so think peers in conversation, not experts presenting. We’re getting a few people who actually do this work around one table to talk through how it really goes.
We’ll cover:
– How you bill and get paid
– What kinds of work actually lend themselves to fractional
– How you find business and keep it coming
– Why companies hire fractional talent, and how to spot the ones that will
At the table: Jason Brett, Jackie Flake, Scott Mitchell, and Chuck Blevins. Pull up a chair and bring your questions. We’ll leave plenty of room for them.
Join us Wednesday for a practical conversation about doing fractional product work, and how that work gets bought and sold.

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