Events

The second annual DesignOps Summit will take place in New York City on November 7-9, 2018. If you’re just getting your feet wet with DesignOps and ResearchOps, or are a seasoned Chief Operating Officer, Design Program Manager, or Chief of Staff of a mature design organization, this conference is for you.

Join us for The Business Case for Design, a one-day virtual conference, where six speakers will provide you stories, methods, approaches, and perspectives you can use to get design established, supported, and, eventually, incorporated into your organization’s DNA. Ideal for user experience designers and researchers, regardless of where your company is on the UX maturity ladder.

Enterprise UX 2018 is dedicated to delivering useful, delightful, and humane experiences to people who work for and in enterprises.

If you’re a design leader, manager, or practitioner who wants to both learn about and define Design Operations for your company, you should join us for the first DesignOps Summit.

Dedicated to delivering useful, delightful, and humane experiences to people who work for and in enterprises.

What is the “near future” of design? It’s the stuff that’s far out enough to be fascinating. But not so far out that you can’t imagine ever working on it.

Anyone can conduct effective user research. You just need to know how. The User Research for Everyone one-day virtual conference will show how to succeed with research that leads to products users want to use, buy, and recommend to friends.

Dedicated to delivering useful, delightful, and humane experiences to people who work for and in enterprises.

Fifty seasoned professionals bring their diverse experience to a two-day studio, focusing their curiosity and creative energy on a question that is too complex for experts alone, and too important to ignore.

The intersection between Product Management and User Experience is growing—and full of opportunity and even a little mystery.

Empathy is a buzzword these days. But what does it really mean and how do you apply it to your work? In this seminar with Indi Young, author of the book Practical Empathy, you’ll learn the different types of empathy, how to develop it, and some tips for persuading the people around you to pay more attention to this powerful tool.

Dedicated to delivering useful, delightful, and humane experiences to people who work for and in enterprises.

Whitney will demonstrate how designing for users from the outer edges of the bell curve results in amazing ideas and insights. She’ll share her tips for recruiting users with a wide range of disabilities, from physical to cognitive.

Lisa Welchman explains how establishing clear governance can inspire new levels of creativity, real collaboration, digital quality, and online growth.

Many organizations go about their business half-informed. The human half of the picture is missing. Practical empathy helps fill in the missing knowledge. It leads to even greater confidence and clarity of direction.

Lisa Welchman explains how establishing clear governance can inspire new levels of creativity, real collaboration, digital quality, and online growth.

Learn some practical ways your team can develop and practice empathy to help understand your users and make better decisions.

How do you build an enterprise design organization from the top down, and turn design thinking into design doing? Lou chats with Doug Powell, Design Principal and Program Director of Education & Activation at IBM, about the challenges of bringing design ideas to life within a global organization. He also gives a sneak peek of his upcoming keynote talk at the 2018 Design Ops Summit.

What does sociology and the study of technology have to do with DesignOps? Everything! Lou sits down with Jacqui Frey, Director of Design Operations at MailChimp, to discuss her upcoming talk at the 2018 DesignOps Summit and why studying technology’s interconnectedness relates to all aspects of DesignOps.

How do you build an ontology? Lou talks with Carol Smith, Senior UX Researcher at Uber’s Advanced Technology Group, about the challenges of developing an artificial intelligence ontology, and how information architects can and must play a role in technologies that use artificial intelligence.

Lou talks with Carl Smith, Owner at Bureau of Digital, about the challenges of curating the right content to make design and UX conferences successful for both the owners and the attendees.

How can startups employ good design practices from the beginning? Lou talks with Irene Au, Design Partner at Khosla Ventures, about her work with setting up companies with robust design practices, and why user research is an investment every company should make.

Holistic design is a term being thrown around, but what does it really entail? Listen as Lou talks with Kerry Bodine, customer experience expert and founder of Kerry Bodine & Co. and author of Outside In, as they discuss how UX designers can benefit by using service design as a framework to create product and customer journeys.

What does it really take for an organization to embrace UX design as the foundation of creating products? Lou talks with UX guru and co-founder of the UX design school Center Centre Jared Spool about the paths organizations take to reach the UX tipping point.

What are the hidden side effects of the digital products and services you make? Author and design consultant Jorge Arango shares why it’s important to create products as digital places. Hear how you can intentionally reframe your digital products to create with deeper intent and meaning for users–and society as a whole.

Pressure keeps mounting for designers to be more than just designers. What can you do if you find yourself serving as the intermediary between different departments? Dan Brown talks with Lou about his workshop Facilitation for Designers and shares the habits, behaviors, and techniques you can bring into your own practice.

As an organization and its products expand, so do the complexities of making sure that that there’s a consistent user experience. How do you accomplish that across multiple teams and locations? Lou talks with Nathan Curtis of EightShapes about his upcoming workshop, Scalable Design Systems, and how having a design framework bridges the gap between teams and creates a cohesive customer experience.

What happens when you take apart the individual pieces that make up the design of your organization? And, more importantly, how do you make it better? That’s where Organizational Design comes into play. Lou chats with Adam Connor, VP of Organizational Design at Mad*Pow and author, about his upcoming workshop at Enterprise UX 2018, Transformation by Design.

Designing the experience for customers to move through all of your touchpoints has gotten more complex: from your call center through your website, app, email, social media, on-the-ground store…the list goes on. Lou chats with authors Chris Risdon & Patrick Quattlebaum about their latest book, Orchestrating Experiences. Learn how you can collaborate differently across your teams to design a consistent experience that meets customers where they are.

Enterprises present universes of wicked challenges for designers and, really, everyone. Lou talks with Case Western design educator Dick Buchanan about about his pioneering work around the “fourth order of design,” which re-frames these challenges around systems thinking. Learn why Richard believes enterprises are the ultimate design challenge.

A large organization operating online steps required to define how it manages digital politics: that’s how Facebook happens. Digital governance ensures large organizations can scale in ways that meet ethical standards. Lou talks with Lisa Welchman, digital governance expert and author, who explains the two big factors that lead to governance failures.

Big data is getting its fifteen minutes of fame – but where does qualitative data fit in, if at all? Lou talked with Tricia Wang, co-founder of Sudden Compass, about the importance of integrating qualitative and quantitative data, and why the only way to successfully scale an enterprise org is to bring back the human element. Tricia is our Scale theme leader at Enterprise UX 2018 Conference and introduces the lineup of speakers.

Everyone has a story to tell, and UX practitioners are no exception. Lou talked with seasoned UX consultant Dan Willis about his role as the Storytelling Curator at the Enterprise UX Conference. Dan discusses the process that speakers go through to join the pantheon of past Enterprise UX Conference Storytellers – and how you can be part of this amazing tradition.

When it comes to investing, most people think of dollars. But if you work in enterprise tech, you must invest in your people or your budget gets squandered. Amy Marquez, Manager of the Alexa Personality Experience team at Amazon, shares how you can better invest in people. And gives a sneak peek into what you can expect to hear about investing at the Enterprise UX 2018 conference.
We’d love to see you at this year’s Enterprise UX conference: enterpriseux.net/

What are blockchains and conversational UI have to do with UX? Everything. Nathan Shedroff, founder of a new startup SEED Vault Ltd., believes the blockchain technology will transform the way we run businesses and achieve greater transparency in businesses for overall social good. Hear how his new venture will use these emerging technologies to improve user experience.

Follow Nathan Shedroff on Twitter: twitter.com/nathanshedroff
Follow Rosenfeld Media: twitter.com/rosenfeldmedia

We know we should have good communication skills, but what does that look like in an enterprise UX environment? In this episode, Margot Dear, Senior Director of User Experience at ADP, gives an overview of the different facets of communication. Hear about how she uses journey mapping to make a difference to talking to C-level execs. Finally, Margot gives a sneak peek into what you can expect to learn about communicating at Enterprise UX 2018.

How do you build enterprise-level products while keeping ethics and diversity at the forefront of your process? Eduardo Ortiz, Product Designer of Siberia, sat down with Lou Rosenfeld to discuss how he curated Theme 1: BUILD for this year’s Enterprise UX conference. Eduardo introduces the speakers and the challenges of developing products within the enterprise environment.

Lou sat down with author Kevin M. Hoffman to talk about his book, “Meeting Design: For Managers, Makers, and Everyone”. Kevin explains how and why design thinking can be applied to meetings. Listen for tips you can use right away to set your meetings up for success.

How much do you want your socks to know about you? Should they alert you that they need to be repaired or be made of self-cleaning fibers? Or should they be able to go one step further and order you a new pair as soon as they’re worn out? Lou sits down with Liza Kindred, founder of Third Wave Fashion, to talk about wearables, tech, and how “me” commerce is leading the charge for mindful tech.

Leaving a UX legacy at an enterprise level requires stamina, courage, and grit. But the common denominator for creating a UX legacy is a surprising one: empathy. Lou talks with Colette Vardeman, Executive Director of Design at USAA, about her current experiences, past challenges, and what she’ll be covering as Theme Leader for Creating a Legacy at 2017’s Enterprise UX Conference.

What does an interdisciplinary enterprise team need to focus on to ensure customer satisfaction? Lou talks with Phillip Hunter, Head of UX at Alexa Skills, about the unique challenges of growing and leading enterprise UX teams to success. Phillip Hunter is the Theme Leader for Leading Teams That Execute at 2017’s Enterprise UX Conference.

What’s the difference between Customer Experience and User Experience? Are they working together to create a consistent experience with users of your products? Sarah Bloomer, former Director of Customer Experience and Insights at Forrester Research, talks to Lou Rosenfeld about what companies can do to build bridges between their Customer Experience and User Experience teams.

Designing apps that empower people to manage their own investments is a high stakes challenge. Steve Turbek, Head of User Experience Design at Fidelity Investments, shares how his team walks the tightrope between making easy to use products on the front end and processing complex transactions on the backend. And why having no finance background is a surprising asset for any UX designer.

Technology is unintentionally conspiring against you: making sure you only see more of what you like and agree with. How do we as a people expand our point of view when arguments are no longer productive? Dave Gray’s returns to talk with Lou Rosenfeld about how his latest book, Liminal Thinking, applies to Brexit and the recent U.S. election.

A couple of researchers walk into a bar. After a few drinks, they fess up their most embarrassing tales of research gone wrong. In this podcast, Steve Portigal talks about how that one night at the bar (and cat pee) sparked the idea for his book Doorbells, Danger, and Dead Batteries. Learn why Steve believes in the value of failure stories, and how he convinced a skeptical Lou to publish the book.

The Lean Product Playbook by Dan Olsen has revolutionized the way start-ups get their products to market. But what if you don’t work in a startup? Dan reveals to Lou Rosenfeld how the lean philosophy can be applied to companies of all shapes and sizes–even enterprises. Learn what the common challenges and solutions are to bringing the lean philosophy into an established company.

Most companies innovate backwards–focusing first on what features or products they can build. In reality, you’re in the relationship business. Authors Nathan Shedroff and Steve Diller talk about new tools they’ve developed to help businesses innovate with customer relationships in mind.

Throwing money at technology won’t automatically make your company more innovative or productive. So how do you pick the right tools for your organization? In this episode, Real Story Group founder Tony Byrne talks about what digital leaders need to do to make tech buying decisions that drive success.

Too often, companies take a “research band-aid” approach to user research. Fixing things over here that causes problems over there. Julie Stanford, founder of Sliced Bread Design, and talks about how to avoid playing Whack-A-Mole when researching and designing products.

Every company wants to make useful products that people want–but few really do. In today’s episode, Steve Krug, author of Rocket Surgery Made Easy, chats with guest host Laura Klein. Steve shares tips for setting up a successful usability test–and what two questions you should never ask during the test. Ever.

Does your company struggle to find and use video, audio, and image assets after you’ve created them? Do they disappear into a dark netherworld on your server? In this episode, Theresa Regli, author of Digital and Marketing Asset Management, breaks down what to ask before buying kludgy and expensive software. And which vendors rank highest on her list of otherwise lackluster DAM vendors.

Usability testing helps you find bugs in your product. But it can’t tell you if customers love your product. In this episode, UX Team Of One author Leah Buley talks about the insights under your nose that you probably aren’t using. And offers a realistic approach to rapid research and product development.

Erika Hall wants us to get one thing straight: getting research right isn’t about the method you choose. It’s about gathering research to make the right design decisions for your business. Hear Erika’s ideas for how to bake research into the product design process. And why every organization needs a “team philosopher.”

Erika Hall wants you to get one thing straight: getting research right isn’t about the method you choose. It’s about gathering research to make the right design decisions for your business. Hear Erika’s ideas for how to bake research into the product design process. And why every organization needs a “team philosopher.”

Cindy Alvarez knows how to go toe to toe with leaders who resist user research and still get it done. The author of Lean Customer Development shares tips from her experience for conducting research–even when you don’t have formal authority or budget.

As a designer since the early days of Flash, Val Head knows first hand how animation design has evolved to become a powerful tool for creating better user experiences. Hear Val’s insights from her book Designing Interface Animation––for how using motion to enhance your brand, and mobile UX.

Why was the F16’s requirements document one tenth as long as the F15’s, and yet the F16 took half as much time and money to develop? Dan Ward knows; he spent 20 years innovating within the US Air Force. He has advice you’ll want to hear on rapid innovation and how and why to keep projects small and simple.

We grabbed Boon Sheridan—a veritable Swiss Army knife of UX—and asked him that simple question that’s not really so simple: what do you know now that you wish you would have known when you started out in UX?

Lou talks to Mariano Suarez-Battan and Jim Kalbach of Mural.ly to discuss the state of User Experience Design, working solutions for distributed teams, and how design leaders can start putting together optimal solutions one piece at a time.

Look for Mural.ly to make an appearance at EnterpriseUX in San Antonio, June 8-10.
www.enterpriseux.net

Rackspace’s KC Teis sits down with Lou to share his perspective on leadership: his own story of growth and discovery, people he has seen blossom from unassuming designers into highly effective leaders, and, above all, the need to be an authentic, consistent and humane. 20 minutes of tremendous conversation.

KC’s organization Rackspace is a founding sponsor of Enterprise UX (www.enterpriseux.net). They will host the event for the second time June 8-10 at their beautiful headquarters in San Antonio.

Enterprise UX (www.enterpriseux.net) braintrust Uday Gajendar and Dave Malouf get together with Lou to talk us through the reasons that UX design needed a conference for enterpise, how they tackled the unique challenges of community building and programming posed by an emerging subset of the profession, and how they plan to keep from being ‘one hit wonders.’

Rosenfeld Author and delightful person Donna Lichaw comes on the podcast to talk about the significance of narratives in daily life and how that connects in a very significant way to the design professions.

Enterprise UX (www.enterpriseux.net) theme leader and super-nice Brooklynite Ted Booth talks through the process of designing for the multitudes. After hearing from Ted, you will never see your thermostat the same way again.

Lou and fellow Michigander/Information Architect Dan Klyn talk about carrying ideas and practices from their originators to a broader community of practice. Wurman, Alexander, and the elusive dream of an ordered, life-affirming digital information landscape.

Susan Worthman, Design stategist, writer and Associate Dean of the Design MBA program at Cal Arts talks Lou through the nuances and challenges of building and retaining a potent experience design team in a moment where that is a significant challenge. She will be a theme leader at Enterprise UX in San Antonio, June 8-10: www.enterpriseux.net.