Each Thursday in June we have a conference focused on a big-picture topic like increasing the impact of design, creating an inclusive design culture and building the future we all want (and need).
These festival days are focused on zooming out a little and are perfect for a more senior practitioner, design manager, senior IC, product manager, product owner or anyone looking to progress our industry as a whole.
Three conferences will cover big picture topics including:
- Strategy & Business
- Design Culture
- Design Ethics
Spread over three Thursday afternoons in June (or mornings if you’re in the US), it’ll be a combination of over a dozen short talks you can watch live or on-demand, plus live Q&As.
To ensure content is accessible pre-recorded content will be captioned and live Q&As will be live transcribed and available on-demand within 72 hours.
Please note the schedule is subject to changes as we finalise the line-up.
Our first mini-conference is a deep dive into strategy and business. From why strategy is in crisis and how design thinking can impact your organisation’s direction, to practical principles to help you communicate product decisions to stakeholders.
A few words of welcome from our host and an introduction to today's theme.
There’s a gap. Can you see it? We know we have valuable insights, yet aren’t always heard in the ways we expect. We want to push for more human, societal, environmental, and communal value, but our colleagues lack some of the same enthusiasm. We’re fighting hard for a seat at the table, but sitting there isn’t really relieving our frustrations. For designers at all levels, changing how business decisions are made is the hardest problem to solve. To get there, we have to leave our comfort zones. This talk will provides pragmatic ways you can make more business sense by becoming more comfortable relating your work to others.
Jeremy will take your questions for Ryan.
Time for a break from sitting down. Take a walk if you can, and grab a drink (hot, cold, long or short). We'll be back in 30 minutes.
Whatever your design discipline, a better grasp of how business works could help you have more impact, influence decision making, and collaborate more effectively. But where should you start your journey to business confidence, and will you compromise your design values in the process?
Tom is a designer on his own path to understanding this complicated world, and will share his thoughts on why and how you can up-skill without losing focus on your craft. In this talk we'll explore:
Methodologies such as Lean and Agile have taught us to harness the power of iteration to innovate faster -- we've learned how to drive faster, but our ability to set the destination hasn't kept pace. When we iterate in the absence of a vision and strategy, our products and companies become bloated, fragmented, and driven by irrelevant metrics. They catch “product diseases” which are often fatal to innovation. This talk introduces you to a radical new approach to build successful companies and deliver world-changing innovation repeatably. We’ll challenge conventional wisdom about what makes a good vision and talk about where the current mantras for product development fall short. You’ll walk away with practical tools to develop a vision for the change you want to bring about in the world and translate that systematically into reality.
Jeremy will take your questions for Tom and Radhika.
Time for a break from sitting down. Take a walk if you can, and grab a drink (hot, cold, long or short). We'll be back in 30 minutes.
Whether you realize it or not, the way you talk about the design of your product can be just as important as the problems it solves. The ability to effectively articulate design decisions is critical to the success of every product. But from simple psychology to outright deception, not all tactics are created equal. We need to find ways to be persuasive with stakeholders without being disingenuous. Actually, the same approaches we champion with users of our products are also helpful in our meetings about design. Join us for this inspiring talk as Tom shares stories from throughout his career that demonstrate practical principles to help you communicate your product decisions to stakeholders in a way that’s effective.
Jeremy will take your questions for Tom.
A few words from Jeremy about the highlights from today and the next UX Fest activities.
We have a range of passes available to suit every schedule. All the conference and festival content will be available on-demand for three months after the event.