What Happened At The DIVE Product Conference 2023

The DIVE 2023 was Africa's largest product management conference, held on August 12th, 2023, in Lagos, Nigeria. It brought together accomplished product leaders, executives, and founders to share insights and best practices. The conference featured keynote speeches, panel discussions, workshops, and networking opportunities. Attendees learned from industry experts, discussed challenges, and built connections with like-minded professionals.

The DIVE 2023 focused on various topics: product strategy, user experience, data-driven decision-making, and leadership. It aimed to empower product managers and leaders to drive innovation and achieve business success. The conference was a significant milestone for the African tech ecosystem, showcasing the growing importance of product management in the region.

Registration

Highlight: The ambulance arrived early, so it shows that the organizers were actually intentional about our welfare. The ushers were not very organized though. I arrived Zone Tech Park, Gbagada, Lagos (the venue) at exactly 8:00am but they were not ready for us. We sat under a tent for about 40 minutes before we were called in for registration.

Identification

We showed the ushers our tickets and they handed us a bag containing gifts. They did not give me a meal ticket but I was not bothered because I believed they knew what they were doing. Mistake.

Photo Booth

There was this nice Photo Booth with someone there to capture our smiles. You can quickly airdrop them if you have an iPhone.

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Breakfast Session

That was how they ushered us into Emerald hall filled with pastry, fruits, coffee and juice. It was a buffet service and it was very chilled because not many people had come at the time. What a nice welcome!

Opening Speech by Tobi Otokiti

Afterwards, we were directed back to the hall for the main conference. Tobi Otokiti, founder of ProductDive, addressed us and I loved it. The hall was so beautifully arranged, and a phenomenal compere - Temi Badru - moderated the event.

Keynote Speech: Clarity and Conviction

This was my favourite session.

“Ebi Atawodi is currently Director of Product at Google, building for YouTube Studio. She is also an Angel Investor and Product Advisor at Origin. Before that, she was a Director of Product Netflix for Payments EMEA. She has also worked at Uber, leading the Amsterdam Product team. While at Uber, she got to work with over 120 talented product managers, designers, engineers, and data scientists, making every company experience even more seamless. Prior to that role, she was the General Manager at Uber West Africa, tasked with growing the business from 15 cars to a top 20 market in the EMEA region.” - ProductDive (Facebook post)

Conclusion

In the end, we had a very “product-ive” day. The souvenirs shared were very thoughtful. There were also Speed Networking sessions, a session on Artificial Intelligence and a crypto-focused AMA session with Nestcoin’s founder. In addition, there were breakout sessions held by industry experts and I compiled these and other insights in the document below:

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