We'll open the doors a little early and let folks in. Sometimes, we have surprises, sometimes, we play music, sometimes it's a little quiet. Get there a little early to be ready for kick-off!

Starting the event!

Why Design Is Hard

What we call designing is in reality mostly advising. We make things as suggestions for powerful people—clients, executives, and project teams—and they often ignore our expertise. This is why design is hard. In this fast paced and fun talk, Berkun will teach you how to use the skills you already have to overcome the people and systems that currently hold you back.

Scott Berkun
Scott Berkun is a former project leader and UX designer. He is the best-selling author of eight books, including How Design Makes the World, The Myths of Innovation, Confessions of a Public Speaker, and The Year Without Pants: WordPress.com and the Future of Work.

His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, The Guardian, Wired Magazine, USA Today, Fast Company, National Public Radio, CNN, NPR, MSNBC and other media.

His popular blog and email list are at scottberkun.com.

15 minute break.

Ecosystem of a UX Leader

Whether you are an individual contributor, UX manager, or UX Director, to be a successful and effective UX leader, you need to be connected to the larger organization, build relationships, and depend on so many of your counterparts. This talk will review some strategies and tactics that can help you focus on growing your ecosystem.

Many experienced UX professionals are growing into experienced individual contributors, UX Managers, or Directors as they grow. Regardless of their titles or management levels, for UX leaders to succeed, they have to be effective and successful on many fronts. And a big part of their success will come from how they are connected to the rest of the org, their relationships, and how creative they are in working with others.

Kanwaldeep Arneja
KD Singh Arneja, a UX professional with over 20 years of experience, is currently Senior Director of User Experience at Intelligent Medical Objects. He has worked with startups and mature companies, focusing on UX, Agile practices, and Design Thinking. KD has held roles in various industries, including Health Care, Building Information Management, and applied AI/ML. KD is passionate about leadership, UX ops, design team management, and aligning Product and UX strategy. KD’s passion project is to coach and nurture budding UXers. He regularly presents in UXPA chapters and Customer Experience conferences.

15 minute break.

Selling the Design – Tips on how design leaders can become better communicators and influencers

Start the journey of becoming a better storyteller and communicator as a design leader. Zinnia Sophia, Content Strategy Director at VML, shares her experiences and lessons learned in selling design to clients, marketing leaders, C-level executives and investors. She discusses the many faces of design influence and highlights the skills required for elevating the work to your department, company, industry or market.

Introduction to Selling Design:

- The journey from design expert to strategic communicator.
- Understanding the shift to a new business mindset.

Skills of Successful Design Influencers:

- Essential communication skills needed for influencing stakeholders.
- How to maintain authenticity while embracing your influencer archetype.

In this talk, Zinnia Sophia draws attention to the importance of salesmanship, persuasion, influence when selling design. Walk away with new communication strategies that position you as a thought leader. This talk is perfect for design leaders who find themselves in speaking and selling roles, encouraging them to embrace this new challenge with confidence.

15 minute break.

Your Team Needs a Knowledge Base

A knowledge base helps your team organize and store information—but what if it could do more than that? In this talk, Sabina will showcase how her team’s knowledge base has not only served as a day-to-day hub for content and UX resources, but also has transformed how new hires get onboarded.

Join in to get tips and tricks about developing similar materials at your organization, including how to structure information, establish governance to keep resources updated and avoid organizational silos, and connect your knowledge base with your team’s onboarding to make training more efficient (and fun!).

Sabina Leybold
Sabina Leybold is a content strategist and user experience designer who has worked with clients across finance, healthcare, technology, education, manufacturing, and more. She focuses on the balance of modern user needs and enterprise business goals to create experiences that are practical, scalable, and accessible to all. When she isn’t elbow-deep in a massive sitemap or furrowing her brow at a complex content model, she loves reading, running, and traveling.

15 minuted break.

Future-Proof Your Portfolio with AI Projects and Insights

In today’s rapidly evolving job market, staying ahead of the curve is key. Explore how integrating AI projects into your portfolio can future-proof your career in UX design and empower career transitioners to pivot using their subject matter expertise.

As technology continues to shape the future of design and business, understanding AI projects is no longer a luxury but a necessity. In this presentation, we’ll dive deep into the world of AI-driven projects and how they can add a cutting-edge dimension to your portfolio. You’ll gain actionable insights on leveraging AI to enhance your portfolio and pivot into UX design using your subject matter expertise and passion.

During this presentation, you’ll learn:

- The role of AI projects in shaping the future of design
- Practical strategies for integrating AI-driven insights into building your portfolio
- Tips for effectively showcasing AI projects to potential employers and clients
- How career transitioners can pivot into UX design using their past experience

Kai Tran
Kai Tran has over 10 years of design experience. Her design journey has spanned from game cinematics to environmental design, and from print to interactive. In all her diverse experiences, one thing has been central: innovation.

As a specialist in AI product design, she co-founded Sprintfolio, an AI-driven career accelerator for UX designers. She has mentored nearly 200 design sprints, guiding new talent to leverage AI for innovative learning and design.

15 minute break.

Quiet Leadership for Introverts

Do you squirm in your seat when asked to introduce yourself? Do you find networking awkward and embarrassing? In meetings, do you find yourself keeping quiet even though you have something to say? Does a quiet evening at home with a book sound more attractive to you than an evening socialising with people you’ve never met?

If your answer to most of these questions is yes, congratulations: you are (probably) an introvert. As an introvert, you lose energy when engaging with people rather than gain. People engagement is not optional if you want to lead. So how do you lead as an introvert?

In this talk, Tim Yeo will share techniques he’s used to manage his own introversion in order to lead as a designer. He’ll also share power tips he’s learned leading a fully remote global team during coronavirus isolation that play to an introvert’s strengths.

Wrapping up the day.