Product is... Saying No

Product Is... is tackling something that most product people experience but rarely talk about out loud - saying no.
Parveen Downer is a career coach, former Senior Product Manager, and stand-up comedian who has spent years helping tech professionals find their voice, speak up without the spiral, and build the kind of confidence that doesn't disappear the moment a stakeholder pushes back.
Once again, we're kindly hosted by Synechron at 35 Gresham Street, London, EC2V 7QB. A massive thank you to Synechron for providing the venue.
Doors open at 6:30 PM, we kick off at 7:00 PM, and wrap up by 8:30 PM. Drinks and snacks will be provided. Come ready for proper discussion, new connections, and ideas worth thinking about.
--- THE THEME - PRODUCT IS... SAYING NO ---
Saying no is supposed to be a skill. There are frameworks for it. Books about it. Entire workshops dedicated to it.
And yet, in the moment - when the stakeholder is pressing, when the room is watching, when the politics are live - most product people still say yes. Not because they do not know how to prioritise. But because the environment they work in makes saying no feel genuinely risky.
This is not a prioritisation problem. It is a psychological one. Product teams operate in environments where confidence is quietly eroded, where pushing back on the wrong person at the wrong time can damage relationships and careers. The question is not whether product people know how to say no. It is whether they feel safe enough to do it.
We will be exploring what product environments do to confidence over time, why psychological safety is the real prerequisite for good decision-making, and what it actually takes to push back - not just in theory, but in a real meeting with real stakes.
--- THE SPEAKER - PARVEEN DOWNER ---
Parveen is a Career Coach for Quietly Ambitious Tech Professionals and PM Instructor at Colab Cohorts. She spent seven years as a Product Manager, most recently as Senior PM at Semble, building healthcare software across B2B, enterprise, and education spaces. She left her 9-to-5 to coach full-time, and has since worked with over 100 tech professionals - from scrappy startups to household names - helping them get unstuck, get promoted, or get out.
Her specialism is the intersection of product and psychological safety. She has been a guest on the Product Coalition podcast, run confidence workshops for thousands of tech professionals, and coaches people on the specific skills that rarely appear in job descriptions: speaking up in a room that makes you feel small, advocating for your work when no one asked you to, and saying no without it feeling like a career risk.
She also does stand-up comedy. Which, as she would tell you, involves many of the same skills.
-------- ABOUT 'PRODUCT IS...' --------
PMs, UX & UI designers, user researchers, developers - you like to dream big when it comes to digital products… Now it's time share your perspective!
'Product is…' grounds itself in informed, knowledgeable context and healthy conversation - vital ingredients to tech success. One keynote speaker sets the tone on a theme of less travelled subject matter before all attendees add their perspective during the second half of round table-style discussion.
Don't expect standard tech meetup fare like "How to improve your CV/Portfolio for that dream job at Facebook" or "How this new framework/approach will improve your workflow" - this meetup is food for the mind, but also a place to meet like-minded big-thinkers! We welcome everyone who works in tech - EVERYONE has a valuable perspective that we learn from.
-------- WHY WE CHARGE FOR TICKETS --------
We do not aim to make a profit from this meetup, our goal is to create healthy and interesting conversations, meet new people and make new connections. Speakers and the organising team give up their time free of charge to ensure the events are enjoyable for all. A charge is required for attendance - this allows the organisation team to cover overheads, plus food and drink for the evening. To be clear, we're working towards lowering our costs as much as possible to keep ticket prices as low as possible.

#ProductIs