Embracing Radical Uncertainty: Use Improv to Make Your Digital Product a Success

Samantha Gonzalez Headshot

Change is a natural part of product development, but managing that change effectively can be the difference between a successful product and one that flops.

Learning to think like an improv performer—and teaching your team to do the same—can be a vital tool to ensure your product succeeds. Join DockYard Director of Strategy Samantha Gonzalez and Tess Hermes, founder of improv consulting business Yes and Sell, for a fireside chat at the 2023 Women in Product conference to learn how to use the fundamentals based on the art of improv to make your digital products stronger.

Gonzalez has been an improv performer and teacher for 11 years, and regularly applies what she’s learned on stage to her role in product development. It has allowed her to approach product development with the flexibility and curiosity required to respond to constant change without losing sight of what the end product should be: a product users will love. Her co-presenter, Hermes, has played alongside Gonzalez for eight years and started Yes and Sell to train high-performing sales teams.

Improvisational performances require a different way of thinking. Product development teams should do the same: Rather than making decisions based on the fear of what can go wrong, improv basics give teams the tools they need to adapt to emerging trends, team dynamics, and new data with curiosity. That curiosity means better evaluation of what will actually make the product better, not just avoiding risk for fear of making mistakes.

Audience members will learn how to help their team embrace collaborative solutions, accept new information and learnings as a natural part of the product development process, and turn vulnerability (no one has all the answers) into curiosity to make your product better.

The 2023 Women in Product conference will run from May 9-10. Gonzalez will present with co-host Tess Hermes, co-founder of Yes & Sell, on May 10, 2023, at 11:30 a.m. Pacific Time/2:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Find a full list of conference events and register to attend on the event site.

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