Bennett King
Ben is the Managing Partner of Konrad+King, a San Diego based human-centered design studio that focuses on enterprise, healthcare, mobility and smart cities. Equal parts studio leader, design researcher and design technologist, Ben has over 20 years of expertise coupling digital systems and keen insight on human behavior. Ben joined Konrad+King in 2015 after nearly a decade embedded in Qualcomm Research where he researched and designed experiences in Augmented Reality, Human-Robot Interaction, Wearable Devices, and Connected Systems. He previously served his time at Kyocera Wireless, HP, and a number of startups. On a more personal note, he is a ninth-generation Californian, husband to a patient wife, father to two ungrateful children, and 73% sure he once saw Bigfoot.
For more, keep up with Bennett on Twitter as @skunkwurx.
Presentations
Leadership By Design 2018
Where Is My Mind? – Risking Security & Finding Sanity by Leaving Big Business for Small Design
Have you ever wondered if you could be the boss? Not just the manager, or the design leader, but someone who is ultimately responsible for decisions that shape the success or failure of your company? I’m going to tell you about my journey to become the boss, and share the lessons I’ve learned about accepting risk, finding value, creating worth, and seeing benefit in the design field.
Something tells me that this is the type of thing that gets easier the second time, but, to me, there were no do-overs in this adventure. It involved going all-in and gambling without a safety net. Along the way, I’ve found myself pondering a second mortgage to keep the lights on, losing employees and clients at the worst times, riding project highs followed by periods of drought, and somehow constantly running out of bourbon.
And this was exactly what I had been looking for. Maybe it’s what you’re looking for too, so I’ve got some stories for you.
