Why UtahNerdNights?

This is the place for Utah's product engineering leaders to connect and hone their craft together.

We fill a hole in the local ecosystem.

• All the big stages are predominantly occupied by sales and marketing leaders.
• Most local VCs are geared towards hustle and market momentum.
• There are some fantastic groups for developers and designers (including utahjs, Product Hive, data nerd herd, and others)—but they're primarily focused on technical and career skills for ICs.

The Utah tech scene is home to an increasingly deep bench of product engineering leaders. UtahNerdNights is a watering hole specifically for us.

What is product engineering leadership?

Product engineering leadership goes far beyond technical acumen.

Within organizations, we inspire and align the creative work of design and engineering, and cultivate strong team identity. At the same time, we maintain coherent long-term product vision, and wrangle the complex roadmaps required to deliver on big promises.

When we do our jobs right, the output is indistinguishable from magic. Digital products scale faster than anything else humans build, disrupting industries, reshaping society—eating the world.

Leaders who master the craft of product engineering can marshall talent, capital, and other resources to express their ideas, create new user experiences, and unlock economic value on a grand scale.

When and where do you meet?

In 2021, the backbone of our event calendar is a series of meetups, hosted every other month. A typical meetup is a presentation or panel discussion focused on the craft of product engineering leadership; sandwiched between time to eat and socialize; with friendly VCs or recruiting companies providing the space and picking up the tab for food.

Informally, members of the community also get together for hikes, board games, mountain biking, pickle ball, etc. These gatherings are friendly places to connect socially, talk shop, and also not talk shop.