I’m coming from a consulting role and trying to pivot into product management. Everyone says AMA sessions are golden for networking, but honestly, I’m not sure how to make them work for me. How do you actually convert a Q&A chat into a meaningful connection that could lead to referrals? Any specific strategies or personal success stories from the community?
lol AMAs for referrals? good luck. Most of those are scripted PR ops. Real connections happen offline – check if the speaker actually answers DMs afterward. Pro tip: ask a niche technical Q they’ll remember, then follow up 3 days later. Works 1/10 times, which is better than zero.
i got a linkedin connect after asking about roadmap prioritization! but no job yet. maybe try mentioning shared interests? works sometimes!
AMA success requires three steps: 1) Ask questions that demonstrate deep preparation about the speaker’s work 2) Send a concise follow-up within 24 hours highlighting how their advice impacted your thinking 3) Nurture the relationship with quarterly updates before asking for support. This approach secured referrals for 6/10 mentees I’ve coached.
You’ve got this! AMAs are fantastic for visibility – just be your curious self and connections will follow!
Funny story – I once asked an AMA panelist about failed product launches, shared my own flop story in the chat, and we ended up coffee-chatting about failure postmortems. Six months later, they recommended me for a role. Sometimes showing vulnerability works better than polished questions.
Analysis of 50 AMA transcripts shows attendees who reference the speaker’s published work get 73% more DM responses. Those who ask about implementation challenges rather than career advice receive 2.1x more meaningful follow-ups. Correlation ≠ causation, but suggests tactical framing matters.