Giving and Taking in a Community

Topics Covered

• The Trend That Sparked This Episode: Petra flags a shift she’s noticing: more folks joining communities asking, “What can I get?” instead of, “How can I help?”

• Why Communities Matter: The unexpected long-term benefits of engaging in a community—and how the payoff often comes years down the road.

• The Origin Story of Petra & Teresa’s Connection: A short, enthusiastic conference interaction leads to years of collaboration and friendship.

• What Giving Actually Looks Like: The difference between offering value and unsolicited advice. (Spoiler: one builds trust, the other breaks it.)

• Behind the Scenes of Conferences & Course Communities: How Petra and Teresa handle entitlement, scholarship requests, and volunteering—and why the approach matters.

• Online Community Behavior: From Slack spamming to thoughtful sharing: how to show up well in digital spaces.

• Choosing Where to Engage: Why less is more when it comes to online communities—and how to pick the right ones for deeper involvement.

• Mentorship, Giving at Any Level, and the Power of Small Gestures: Even a thank-you note or recipe can go a long way. Giving isn’t transactional—it's relational.

Key Takeaways

• Give before you ask. Community thrives when people contribute without - expecting immediate returns.

• Quality > quantity. You don’t need to be everywhere—just pick a few communities and show up consistently.

• A little effort goes a long way. Whether it's sharing your learnings or offering to help, even small contributions can lead to big connections.

• Be mindful of timing and tone. Offering value is great—unless it’s delivered like a sales pitch or advice no one asked for.

• Communities remember generosity. Years later, people still remember who offered help, not who just wanted the mic.

Resources & Links:

• Follow Teresa Torres: ProductTalk.org

• Follow Petra Wille: Petra-Wille.com

Mentioned in this episode:

• Meetup (meetup.com)

• ProductTank (mindtheproduct.com/producttank)

• Slack (slack.com)

• LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

• Mind the Product San Francisco 2019 (mindtheproduct.com/tag/mind-the-product-san-fr…)

• Petra’s Coaching Cards (strongproductpeople.com/cards)

• Petra’s Books (strongproductpeople.com)

• Teresa’s Book (producttalk.org)

• Barry O’Reilly’s (barryoreilly.com) book, Unlearn: Let Go of Past Success to Achieve Extraordinary Results (barryoreilly.com/explore/talks/unlearn-let-go-…)

• Teresa’s Product Discovery Courses (learn.producttalk.org)

• Teresa’s CDH Membership Community (learn.producttalk.org/course/cdh-membership)

• Lenny’s Newsletter Slack Community (lennysnewsletter.com/p/community)