Dear ProductBC Members,
As the board representing the interest of our Product community, we have recently refreshed our Vision, Mission, and Value Statements, to better capture what we are trying to accomplish as an organization. After a challenging 2020, we will continue into next year by growing our community culture with optimism, excitement and plenty of new professional development opportunities.
Our new statements are as follows:
Vision
To be British Columbia’s largest community of product professionals who inspire, challenge, and support each other to build the world’s best products.
Mission
To promote excellence in product and foster professional relationships while removing systemic barriers to grow an inclusive product community in British Columbia.
Values
- #Excellence
- We build a community of greatness that helps people develop their craft at any stage in their career.
- #Promote
- We advocate for our people and our professions while creating opportunities for each other to succeed.
- #Inclusive
- We proactively remove systemic barriers to achieve justice and equity for all people.
- #Community
- We create a safe and supportive place to connect, share diverse perspectives, and build relationships that lead to professional growth.
As a Product community, it is of paramount importance that we be authentic, bold, and prescribe key objectives to actualize our Vision, Mission, and Values. As such, we are planning a number of key initiatives for 2021.
- Events: we are committed to holding a major event in January to kick off our 2021 calendar of events, with the focus being on tackling pay inequality. We also are working on an event for February, on the topic of Inclusive Product Design.
- Content: we are planning a new ProductBC community-focused podcast series for 2021. We are planning to cover important topics to our values including ones on diversity, inclusion, and equality in Product. We will also have a blog article series with similarly important themes on ProductBC.ca.
- Programs: we are setting up a scholarship committee and fund, to improve access to Product professional development opportunities for women, persons with disabilities, BIPOC, ethnic minorities, and other minorities that are underrepresented in product management, product marketing & other product professions. We will also provide tools to augment existing salary data from other organizations in order to localize on the BC market.
- Online community: we are fostering safe, open discussions on DEI, and also encouraging folks to get help through the community when they are facing systemic barriers.
We feel these are exciting developments and encourage any feedback on the above statements and action plan. Together, we aim to tackle systemic barriers as a community of Product professionals and embark on this new bold path forward for 2021.