Sheryl Sandberg tells us why tech needs women at the 'Women in Product' community event

“In today’s world, women need tech — and tech needs women.” These words shared by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg in her recent Facebook post was the gist of the innovative Women in Product community event. Over 350 women from the tech industry attended this conference. With the idea of ‘Bringing together women who build’, the purpose of this meet up was to have women in product management to learn from one another.

This event by women, for women had a pretty impressive line-up, with industry heavyweights like Frederique Dame, Product and Engineering Manager at Uber, Deborah Liu, Facebook director of product management for monetization, Julia Hartz, Co-Founder and CEO at Eventbrite and many others. From all different backgrounds, the speakers shared their inspiring stories and exchanged ideas and actionable advice to strengthen their products and leadership skills. As to how Women in Product came to fruition, Product Managers (PMs) from Facebook would often host a series of dinners for women PMs throughout the industry. It was a great opportunity to connect, and build a community. During one of the dinners, there was a discussion on who would attend the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. The women realised that there was no such event for Product Managers and the rest is history. The inaugural event was held at San Francisco, where participants got to interact with industry leaders for free. Sheryl Sandberg has been a leading voice in creating more communities like these for women through LeanIn.Org, a global community committed to empowering all women to achieve their ambitions. In case you wish to know what would ensue in the Women in Product event, here’s a TED talk by Sandberg where she gives three powerful pieces of advice to women to reach the top of their professions.