How web apps work: for product managers who want to follow the technical conversation
TL;DR
A hands-on workshop for product managers without an engineering background. You'll see how a web app works by running one yourself and following a failed save through the browser, the server and the database. The next time an engineer explains why something isn't working, you'll know which part of the app they mean and what to ask them.
Event content
You know what your product does. When something breaks and your engineers start talking about requests, servers and databases, it's harder to follow what went wrong, and even harder to know what to ask them.
In this 2-hour workshop, you'll learn how a web app works by running one yourself and investigating a bug in it. A customer clicks Save, the app spins, and their new record never appears.
First, you'll set up your own development environment. It's the copy of an app that engineers run and change without affecting real customers. Yours runs in GitHub's cloud and opens in your browser, so you won't install anything on your laptop. You'll start the app yourself and watch its parts start up: the database, the server and the frontend.
Then you'll follow the failed save through every part of the app:
Open your browser's developer tools and find the request that failed: what it sent and what came back.
Read the server log, where you'll see the same request arrive and fail, just as an engineer would.
Check the database and confirm nothing was saved.
Find the rule that rejected the save, and work out where the bug really is.
You'll draw a map of how the browser, the server and the database connect, and write a bug report with the evidence an engineer needs to fix it.
Finally, you'll fix the bug with AI. You'll give your bug report to GitHub Copilot, an AI agent that can change the app's code, and test its fix in your copy of the app. You'll also see why the evidence an engineer asks for helps an AI agent fix the bug too.
The app you'll run is Twenty, a real open-source CRM. It has the same parts as most business software: a frontend, an API, a server and a database.
By the end, you'll be able to:
explain what happens between clicking Save and the data reaching the database;
run Twenty in your own development environment, and explain how that differs from the live product your customers use;
find a request in your browser's network tab and read its status code and response;
tell whether a problem starts in the browser, on the server or in the database;
write a bug report with the evidence engineers ask for, and give it to an AI agent to fix.
Who it's for
Product Managers and Product Owners without an engineering background. You won't write code yourself, and you don't need any technical knowledge.
What to bring
A laptop and a free, personal GitHub account. Before the workshop, we'll email you instructions for setting up the account and turning on GitHub Copilot's free plan, plus a short check that your laptop can open your development environment and GitHub Copilot (some company laptops can't).
Your hosts
Kinga Magyar spent over a decade in the tech industry, learned to code, moved into product management and worked as a lead product manager. She has mentored product managers and holds an executive coaching diploma.
Tamas Kokeny spent 15+ years as a software engineer and engineering leader. He co-founded Green Fox Academy, a coding school that graduated over 3,000 students into tech careers.
Between them, they've worked at Datadog, Citrix, Volkswagen and Cloudera. In the workshop, they'll guide you through how each part of a web app works, and you'll be able to apply the knowledge to your own product.
Location
PTW Palace - Rua Gomes Freire, 98, Lisbon
Room 1, at the ground floor (turn to the left, after entering the Palace)
Please note: By attending this event at PTW Palace, you agree to Portugal Tech Week's Terms & Conditions for Visitors. Please review them before attending.