In this episode of Digitalconomics, I sit down again with Daniele Ronca to explore how they built one of Berlin’s most dynamic communities for product leaders from scratch. We talk about how ProductLab started (there was also a cool episode about this before) and evolved into a full-fledged legal entity—with monthly IRL gatherings, a growing online presence, and now a major conference planned for September 2025. Daniele shares how he navigated early challenges, from finding the right format and tools to balancing community building with financial sustainability. We dive deep into: - The behind-the-scenes of launching ProductLab Conf > 2025 with big-name speakers like Ravi Mehta (ex-CPO of Tinder) and former leaders from Typeform and Calendly - Choosing and experimenting with community tools like Circle, Slack, Tally, and Luma—and the trade-offs of each - How Daniele onboarded 500+ members with a Zapier-powered system and what worked in keeping 50–70% of them engaged monthly - What he learned from other major product conferences and why building an IRL-first community in Berlin made all the difference - His honest take on monetizing communities, pricing tiers, and why he’s rethinking platforms like Circle for pre-revenue stages Throughout the episode, Daniele shares candid reflections on product strategy, community engagement, and the reality of doing everything from content to ops in a small, scrappy team. Whether you’re a product manager, community builder, or thinking about launching your own event, this conversation is packed with actionable insights and relatable stories. 👉 More about Daniele & ProductLab Daniele on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danieleronca/ ProductLab Community: https://productlab.community Berlin Product Managers Events: https://linktr.ee/berlinproductmanagers Thanks to Appunite for sponsoring today episode: https://www.appunite.com/grow?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=body&utm_campaign=digitalconomics