Heads of Product®
level up
your team’s product
game
A fun and thrilling tournament-style workshop that transforms how your team understands product… and each other.
Let’s play.
Heads of Product® is a simulation in which each player takes on the role of Head of Product in a rival company, competing for subscribers in the same market.
The game mirrors real life product leadership, forcing trade-offs, dealing with workplace challenges, and teaching players to think fast and be both agile and strategic.
In the workshop format, we play the game, then we talk about it. The discussion is led by the game’s creator, a seasoned product leader.
Heads of Product® players work at:
why teams love the HOP workshop?
It’s fast (2.5 hours of gameplay + debrief)
It’s not a lecture, post-it workshop or a slide deck - It’s a board game, played in person, individually or in small teams
It shows what product decision-making feels like from the other side
Anyone can play! (Leadership, PMs, UX, dev, data, sales, marketing, uncles and aunts)
It may point to some hidden skills no one knew they had
+ It’s run by someone with real product experience, not a corporate trainer.
The core competitive game quickly aligns your entire team - product or not. It develops deep insight into how product works, how it connects to the business, what drives success, and how each role contributes to it - by taking action and play.
the core workshop
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Heads of Product® game quickly aligns your entire team — product or not — by providing deep insight into how product works, how it connects to the business, what drives success, and how each role contributes to it.
You’ll hire, upgrade and lead your teams to acquire, convert, and retain those flaky subscribers. And of course - generate profit.You’ll make your CEO and investors proud, and react to market shifts and competitor moves - just like real product leaders would do.
It has a different effect depending on a profession:
🛠 Engineering → Understand agility and trade-offs between tech debt, product features, and business needs.📊 Data & Analytics → Proactively focus on work that creates impact.
💰 Sales & Marketing → Experience the entire growth funnel to maximise conversion in a long term.
🎨 Design & UX → See the direct impact of UX on business outcomes and team strategy.
📈 Leadership & C-Level → Get a holistic view of how product works and how your decisions influence product success.
📦 Product & Cross-functional teams → Understand how your roles fit together in the company success.
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Kick off – 30 min - Meet the group and introduce the game
Game Time – 2- 2,5 hours - Play Hop in 3-person groups.
Scoring & Break – 15 min - Log the scores and stretch your legs.
Results & Reveal – 15 min - Find out who won.
Reflection Time – 30-45 min - Reflect on the experience, share insights on how it connects to real product work in a guided discussion with the game maker who is an experienced product leader.
Total duration 3,5-4h
Workshop available in afternoons and evenings.
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*excluding. VAT
Available in Amsterdam and the Netherlands.
For bookings outside the Netherlands, please get in touch. - Additional fees may apply.
Group Size:Minimum: 6 participants
Group size must be divisible by 3
Ideal experience: 6 to 15 participants
Pricing
€90 per participant (*ex. VAT)
Minimum charge applies for 6 participants ( €540 ex. VAT)
Not included: location, catering, travel or accommodation
Not sure if this is right for your team?
Check the FAQ or get in touch, happy to help!
“HOP helped me understand the pressures PMs face and why certain tradeoffs are made. It’s made our collaboration more empathetic and way more effective.”
- Data Analyst “I did not expect it to be this engaging! This was fun, despite feeling TOO REAL!!! 😱”
- Sr. Product Manager “I kept thinking about the game weeks after the play. It really adds perspective and allows you to zoom out and see how things effect each-other.”
- Product Director 
why play hop?
Modern teams struggle with:
Misalignment between product, data, engineering, marketing, sales, and leadership
Frustration over unclear priorities and decisions
Missed opportunities for collaboration and shared ownership
Heads of Product® workshop solves that by delivering:
Core understanding of product thinking
Shared language across roles
Alignment around what drives success
A fun, energising team-building experience that people will refer to and talk about afterwards
many ways to play…
Heads of Product® is a flexible system that adapts to your team’s size, style, and goals.
From competitive to co-op modes, and from beginner-friendly to advanced challenges, Heads of Product® can be tweaked to evolve with you.
Mix in modular extensions like Shaky Market, Dirty Games, Experiments, Goals, Dependencies, or Innovative Tech to shape the experience around what your team needs to explore.
You can ramp up the difficulty or focus on specific skills like stakeholder management, prioritisation, or team planning.
Every session feels fresh and every version unlocks new insights.
If you’re interested in a deeper exploration with your team, discounts are available for multi-session packages.
A cooperative way to play Heads of Product® and make your product team as efficient as possible. This edition of the game is most beneficial for product teams exploring their ways-of-working.
hop-co-op
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Unlike the core game, HOP-CO-OP is a cooperative edition where four players team up to grow a single product together against another team of 4.
In each team: one player steps into the role of Head of Product (HOP). The other three play as Product Managers, each responsible for a different part of the funnel: Acquisition, Conversion, or Retention.
The HOP sets the big picture: they align with CEO and investor expectations, define company or team goals, manage the budget, and upgrade teams.
The Product Managers focus on growth within their domain, handle cross-functional dependencies, and make the case for the resources they need.
The gameplay simulates the impact of different collaboration styles and decision-making approaches:
How should goals be used to drive alignment and focus?
What makes planning actually efficient?
Do roadmaps really help? If so, how?
How can we deal with dependencies without slowing down?
What role does transparency play in delivery and trust?
It’s a safe, high-energy space to test your operating model, experiment with different decision dynamics, and see what happens when you tweak team structure, communication, or prioritisation.
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Practice decision-making without risk
Try out new ways of setting goals, prioritising, and allocating resources.Reveal collaboration patterns
See how dependencies, misalignment, or lack of clarity slow teams down.Build shared mental models
Align product leaders around strategy, planning, and execution.Level up team culture
Strengthen trust, empathy, and communication across product functions - while having fun.
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Kick-off – 30 min
Meet the group, introduce the game, clarify roles and objectives.
Game Time – Round 1 – 90 min
Play the first session in 4-person teams: one Head of Product, three PMs.
Scoring & Break – 15 min
Log scores, stretch legs, grab a snack.
Reflection & Strategy Reset – 30 min
Review what happened. Decide how to structure your team, set goals, and work differently.
Game Time – Round 2 – 90 min
Play again - try new tactics, team setups, and planning rhythms.
Scoring & Break – 15 min
Submit final scores, short reset before closing.
Results & Score Reveal – 15 min
See how the scores changed - and what that says about your choices.
Final Reflection & Group Discussion – 30–45 min
What did you learn? What shifted? How does it map to real product leadership?
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Availability:
Available in Amsterdam and the Randstad area.
For bookings outside the Netherlands, please get in touch.
Group Size:Minimum: 8 participants
Group size must be divisible by 8
Ideal experience: 8 or 16 participants
Pricing:
€150 per participant (ex. VAT)
Minimum charge applies for 8 participants
Not included: location, catering, travel or accommodation
Not sure if this is right for your team?
Check the FAQ or get in touch, happy to help!
Heads of Product® players work at:
FAQ
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No. The game provides a sped-up product experience.
Even non-tech participants will recognise familiar concepts, and those in tech will gain useful new insights.
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Absolutely! Might even be more fun.
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In the competitive game, you’ll sharpen your product instincts, make tough trade-offs, and experience the ripple effects of your decisions — all while having fun. It’s fast-paced, intense, and full of “aha” moments about goals, roadmaps, and the realities of product delivery.
Going deeper:
HOP-CO-OP offers a more strategic, collaborative experience. It helps your team:
Build a shared mental model of how product works
Spot bottlenecks and improve ways of working
Understand how the funnel maps to your own product
Align cross-functional roles around what really drives outcomes
Both versions are built to challenge, teach, and energise product teams.
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The real value isn’t just in playing. it’s in the guided reflection afterward.
The workshop helps teams connect their game experience to their own work challenges in a conversation led by an experienced facilitator(that’s me).
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It’s most beneficial for companies that are organised around their own product and are having a hard time aligning their teams.
It is also super helpful to traditional companies considering or in a midst of a shift to a product-first organisation by showing the ways of working in a glance.
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Online version of HOP is in the making. I expect it to be available by Q1 of 2026.
However if there is a lot of interest I may speed that up. Let me know if that would be something for you.
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Yes.
Heads of Product® comes in two editions:
SaaSy Edition, focused on selling monthly subscriptions
Retaily Edition, focused on driving repeat purchases
While it may not replicate your exact business model, the game teaches how funnels work, how product decisions drive outcomes, and how teams collaborate across functions. These lessons apply to every company, whether SaaS, B2B, B2C, startup or an enterprise.
Every business has a funnel. This game helps your team understand and master it.
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Yes! It’s a custom (and may be expensive) project.
I can absolutely design a tailored version of Heads of Product® for your specific business (industry), or even create a completely new game. For example, to onboard new team members to your product or teach your unique processes.
Custom work like this involves more time, strategic input, and licensing considerations, so it’s not a low-cost option. but if you’re serious about using play as a learning tool, I’d genuinely love to explore it with you.
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Not yet, but I’m considering a train-the-trainer program and a licensing agreement in the future.
Let me know if you’re interested - if there’s enough demand, I’ll make it happen.
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No.
These guys did. <3
Hi I’m Jo.
I am a consultant and a product coach with a decade in product management. I help leaders and their teams build a culture of innovation, playfulness, and human-centricity, delivering market-leading products.
I’m also the inventor of Heads of Product® (aka HOP).
After a decade in product leadership, I saw a common thread in even the best of companies: frustration, misalignment, and wasted effort between cross-functional teams. Product, marketing, sales, data, engineering, and leadership often speak different languages, and it shows.
I created Heads of Product® to change that.
In under four hours, this workshop gives teams a first-hand experience of what it’s really like to lead products, not through theory, but action. It builds empathy, clarity, and collaboration. And because it’s designed like a game, it’s also a lot of fun.
When teams understand the forces behind great product decisions, they stop working in silos and start building things that matter together.
Let’s play.
get in touch
Request a quote, reserve a workshop slot or ask me anything. I’ll get back to you as soon as possible, usually up to 2 working days.
If you want to hear more about the game or chat in person you can book a 30-min consultation here (free of charge ofc).
play HOP without a team or join a pre-sale waitlist?
We’ll be launching public game-plays, community of HOP players and open tournaments, and eventually a buyable edition for individuals and teams.
If you’re curious and want to stay in the loop, leave your email and be the first to know when Heads of Product® is coming your way.