<aside> 💡 Disclaimer: This is a living document and is subject to change! If you have any further questions or concerns, please send a message in the private #bc-moderators Slack channel or message one of the following Product Buds Leaders: Grace Yeung, Henrika Lim, or David Zhou.

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Hello Product Buds Book Club Moderators! The Product Buds team would like to welcome and thank you for stepping up take on a leadership role in running one of our pilot initiatives. Since our May 20th launch date, Product Buds has grown to more than 1000 aspiring and current Product Managers globally. In this document, we will share an overview of Product Buds, logistics behind book clubs, and what the book club mentor role is.

🍃 What is Product Buds? 🍃

Product Buds aims to be a diverse, inclusive, and welcoming environment for aspiring Product Managers of all social and cultural identities, as well as educational and career backgrounds. We were launched by a team of four students with a desire to connect similar aspiring PM's together by creating a community to advance PM knowledge and execute collaborative projects.

Think back to when you first decided that you wanted to pursue a career in Product. Aside from books and articles, you might have felt lost and confused in your journey due to the lack of a community and mentors to guide you in your journey of breaking into Product. Product Buds aims to fix that exact issue with our community support, collaboration, and mentorship.

💭 What is the Product Buds Book Club? 💭

The Product Buds Book Club (PBPJ) was initiated to allow aspiring Product Managers to learn more about topics related but not limited to Product Management, Product Design, and Product Strategy. We hope to foster learning through discussions about the books we read on the #bookclub Slack channel and virtual discussion sessions among book club members via Zoom.

💡 What Is the Role of a Book Club Moderator? 💡

The main role of a book club moderator is to plan and execute one book club cycle. The responsibilities are broken down in phases:

1) Set Up Book Club

• Pick a Book To Read: As moderators, we want you to be engaged in the reading material so you are free to choose a book that you would like to read. If you have multiple books in mind, you can also start a poll in the #bookclub channel to gauge the interest from the community members and pick a book from the poll results. To see the top book category picks, you can view the results of the initial survey we ran when we first launched Product Buds in mid-May.
• Lay Out Reading Calendar Schedule: We think 4-5 weeks is a reasonable time to complete a book. Create a schedule to inform participants what the assigned readings are for a given day/week as well as when discussions are happening. See sample schedule from the last book club cycle.
• Create Book Club Slack Channel: This is where discussions will occur, along with sending participants registration details for the live Zoom discussions. (Note: Contact the PB Leadership team when you are ready for this channel to be created)

2) Run Book Club

• Encourage Discussion and Participation: You should aim to keep participants engaged throughout the reading cycle as well as foster the exchange of notes, ideas, and reflections to maximize everyone's learning. In order to achieve this, we recommend the following tactics:
  • Post 3-5 weekly discussion questions on the Slack channel and ask participants to do the same.
  • Host bi-weekly virtual calls to facilitate a discussion or an activity related to the concepts discussed in the assigned readings. During these meetings, you should be taking notes to document the discussion and metrics for reporting like number of attendees. (Note: Contact the PB Leadership team to help you create a poster, Zoom link, EventBrite page.)

NOTE: The above tactics are what has worked previously. As new moderators and aspiring PMs, we encourage you to use empathy and creativity in how you will run your book club cycle and meet the needs of the book club members! The Product Buds leadership team welcomes new ideas regarding book club activities and processes.

3) Wrap Up Book Club

• Gather Feedback: In order to improve future book clubs, collect feedback from participants and generate insights on what changes can be implemented in future book clubs.

🌱What are the Benefits of Becoming a Book Club Moderator?🌱