Our Mission

The Chicago Product Alliance exists to foster a strong and vibrant Product Management ecosystem in Chicago. We believe that through collaboration, knowledge sharing, and professional growth opportunities, we can establish Chicago as a leading center for Product Management excellence.

Our mission is to connect Product professionals across the city, facilitate meaningful discussions, provide learning opportunities, and promote best practices that elevate the discipline of Product Management throughout Chicago’s business community.

Who We Are

David Jesse

David is an experienced executive leading product management, design, technology, data science, and operations teams. He’s a startup consultant, advisor, and coach on both paid and pro bono basis. He’s scaled teams from startup through public company phases.

Lauren Polkow

Lauren is passionate about solving problems by building products that people love. She builds teams and develops people to help them reach their fullest potential. She believes great innovations emerge when a balanced voice is given to engineering, product, and design.

Jenny Zhao

Jenny is a product leader, advisor, and community builder with a passion for supporting startups and scaling product teams while advancing women in product management and leadership. Her career spans product, operations, sales, and recruiting across companies of all sizes, stages, and industries.

Pritam Das

Seasoned Product Leader leveraging a 18-year career marked by the successful leadership of product teams and innovation of high-impact products in the fintech sector. Pritam is the Chapter Lead of ProductTank Chicago.

Anna-Mi Widman

Through Anna-Mi’s experiences at fast growing startups, she has developed an impact driven leadership style and has become an expert at aligning business outcomes with product outcomes. She loves to develop product strategy and lead cross-functional teams to deliver innovative solutions. Anna-Mi is the Chapter Lead for the Women in Product Chicago chapter.

Adam Goodman

Adam has over 20 years experience building products, leading and scaling teams, and driving value to customers. His experience ranges from building at startups to scaling at large publicly traded enterprises.

Nigel Caine

Nigel has over a decade of experience in product management in both consulting and startup roles. His focus has been on hospitality and Insurance. Originally from South Africa via the UK, he currently lives in Chicago. Nigel is the lead organizer of ProductCamp Chicago.