Growing into Product
All career journeys are unique, especially regarding people working in product.
Join us to hear a diverse range of career stories, how our speakers and panellists landed in product roles and what they learned along the way. Keynotes will include:
Damian Robinson, Principal Product Lead at Auto Trader UK
After speaking to a new recruit in the Product team, I started to reflect on my journey of how I got to work 260 miles from my home and have been doing so for over 10 years. Over the years I’ve taken to market numerous products, working with different teams in different ways. I’ve had both great and bad experiences and so wanted to share my journey from being an analyst straight out of Uni to working as a senior product leader at Auto Trader and what I’ve learnt along the way.
Atif Ahmed, Head of Product Practice at Consulting Firm
I am a Manchester-based Product and Digital Leader with over 20 years of experience. Working with brands such as BT, EE, TalkTalk, Tesco and Virgin Media. Building and delivering products and services supporting millions of end users spanning sales, service, and transformation spaces. I’ve guided significant teams in operational, product and digital product leadership roles. I’m currently immersed in the world of consultancy as a Product Practice lead helping major brands on their digital and product journey. I’ll share my product journey and key learnings along the way.
Following the keynotes will be a panel discussion where we delve into our panellist’s career stories, how they got into product roles and their advice for people looking to grow in product roles. The panel includes:
Host – Tor Lever, Product Director at Auto Trader UK
Tor jointly leads the Product discipline at Auto Trader – a team of about 30 people (Product & BA) working on products across the breadth of the AT ecosystem. She is currently most focused on our finance & ancillary proposition – which looks to bring transparency & simplicity for consumers, while helping retailers & funders to maximise their opportunity from this market. Prior to Auto Trader she worked as a strategy consultant for c.10 years, working with clients across the tech & media industry – one of which was Auto Trader. She originally joined in 2019 as Head of Strategy, but gradually took on responsibilities within Product before fully moving across at the start of 2022.
Kelly Palmer, Group Product Manager at Booking.com
Kelly Palmer is a fast paced, problem-solving force of nature always to be seen wearing excellent footwear, or none at all. They cut their product teeth at Auto Trader and have continued their loose association with all things automotive at booking.com where they manage the Booking Engine (engine, get it?) and the post-booking customer experience. Kelly loves whiteboards, Google docs, playing with data and drinking dangerous volumes of coffee.
Steve Messer, Senior Product Manager at Government Digital Service
Steve is passionate about innovation for the public good and open, ethical product design. He has spent the last eight years working with product organisations in the public sector – like GDS and NHS Digital – thinking about how to make public services more frictionless and better for people. He has taught product management to people working in banking, media, fintech and various startups. He writes regularly about product management, agile software delivery and tech trends on his blog.
Yahya Patel, Business Analyst at Auto Trader UK
Yahya is a Business Analyst for Auto Trader who works within the private selling domain for Auto Trader consumers. Yahya graduated from university with a degree in Law with Business, after which he gained experience within the legal, financial and telecoms industry. Yahya is passionate about squiggly careers; he initially joined Auto Trader as a Technical Support Analyst and has developed key skills to progress a legal background into a career in product.
Rachael Poole, Product Lead at Auto Trader UK
Rachael is a Product Lead currently focussing on optimising consumer digital finance experience. She started her product career at Moonpig Group, joining their Associate Product Management programme, before progressing into a role as a Product Manager looking after the "Editor" space, helping to make the experience of personalising a card or gift easily more personal for customers. Before this, she spent many years working as a Data Analyst for Asda and Walmart and found her passion for wanting to progress into a product career whilst regularly working with colleagues across the business to help solve customer problems.
