PROW speakers 2025: ”fall in love with the problem”

Prow Conference is one of the main events dedicated to digital products and technology in Eastern Europe. This year, PROW focused on an essential subject for Romania: how to build digital products that matter, technology that can scale and a growing community that makes a difference in the global software market. This year's edition attracted over 650 digital product professionals from Romania and Europe.

For our first round, we got the chance to talk to: 

• Martin Eriksson is an entrepreneur and product leader with nearly 30 years experience building businesses, products, and teams in multiple markets and industries. He is an internationally renowned author, advisor, and speaker on product and strategy, and is an influential thinker in the space. 

He has worked at The Financial Times, Monster, Huddle, Covestor, and Cazoo, and literally wrote the book on Product Leadership. Most recently, Martin has served as the Product Partner at EQT, the world’s third largest private investor with over $225 billion AUM. 

As the Founder of ProductTank and Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Mind the Product, Martin has helped define the industry and shaped the practices of a generation of product managers.  

• Julia Petretta is a Product Design Manager who thrives at the intersection of design, data, and business strategy. She has launched 0–1 products that scaled to multi-million-pound operations, driven data and BI integrations that unlocked customer and commercial growth, and led teams at Thoughtworks, Plum, and Accenture on high-stakes challenges—from AI-powered financial guidance tools to design systems that accelerate delivery.

She helps teams navigate uncertainty with evidence-led experimentation to uncover opportunities for scale. Julia also mentors on ADPList and co-organises Ladies That UX Brighton, championing collaboration and community in product and design.

The key takeaway from our conversation is that startups and product teams should focus on solving one customer problem really well, rather than getting overly attached to their own solutions.

It's important to stay obsessed with the problem rather than the tool or solution itself since problems may evolve and AI could provide new, better ways to solve them. 

Martin: ”I think we need to be more ambitious in how we're solving problems. I think there's so many problems in the world right now. I think in Europe, especially, we can think a lot bigger. So there's hunger in the world, there's energy problems in the world, there's security problems worldwide, and we can go tackle a lot of those problems, I think, especially with AI. So I think basically dream bigger, find bigger problems, and go solve those problems. There's so much more that we can still be doing.”

AI is presented by our guests as a powerful tool that's rapidly increasing efficiency and productivity across product management, design, and engineering.

While it's not yet an intelligent agent but more of an advanced tool, it already has the potential to reshape entire industries and business models.

However, the speakers think we're still far from true general intelligence, even if AI is as transformative as the internet was and will dramatically change the world over the next decade.

Another important point is that good products are usually focused—not trying to serve everyone, but instead addressing a specific, meaningful pain point for a particular group.

While some products can aim at universal problems (like hydration or rest), the best products are usually built for a clearly defined segment. Understanding the real needs of users, questioning the value system behind your product, and being willing to adjust your strategy as technology and tools like AI evolve are crucial.

Finally, the rise of AI is labeled not just filtered by speed and efficiency, but also as an agent of change, about how teams work together, communicate, and build relationships. 

Julia: ”I do think that there is a promise of speed with AI. So a promise of developing faster or moving faster. I personally think it will change a lot of the dynamics between team members. And with that, I think it's also coming back to the basics, like how do we build relationship in order to get things done together? And what does together mean in an AI facilitated world?”

Our conversation leads to a conclusion: in addition to using new technologies, teams need to come back to basics: fostering collaboration, re-evaluating what 'working together' really means as AI starts taking on more of the workload, and ensuring that the core value of their product stays aligned with users' real needs. 

You can listen to the complete discussion in the video below: