Conference Program

As designers, we all know that the majority of our time is spent on people, not on designing. Nearly every designer has experienced some kind of “people problem” at work – such as a cross-functional partner that won’t collaborate. In this talk, Alla will offer an introduction to relationships – what they are, how they work, and how designers can create relationship interfaces so they can be 10 times more effective at work.

Get more meaningful feedback, achieve UI consistency, and scale design process — that’s just three out of multiple improvements you will see once you build prototypes with interactive components. Take part in UXPin’s session and see what you can do to make prototyping interactive by default.

Rosenfeld Media founder, Lou Rosenfeld opens the day by welcoming our attendees to Design in Product and presenting our Conference Chair, Christian Crumlish.

Design in Product’s Inaugural Conference Chair, Emcee, and Chief Curator Christian Crumlish takes the stage to share the conference agenda, go over important attendee information, announcements and housekeeping guidelines, and introduce the day’s first speaker.

Any designer who has ever struggled to implement change in an organization has asked questions like those below:

• “How do we get product managers to value user research?”
• “How do we get executives to think in an Agile way?”
• “How do we get UX researchers to prioritize our work?”
• “How do we get our sales team to stop making promises we can’t deliver?”

For product leader and author Matt LeMay, such questions are frustratingly familiar. He hears them from clients and colleagues, alike. Practitioners and leaders–in roles and on teams spanning UX, marketing, product, and more–unfailingly come to him seeking the answer to the question, “How do we get X to do what we want?”.
Matt’s answer is always the same:
“You don’t ‘get’ anyone to do anything.”
“What’s more”, he’ll add, “you’re asking the wrong question”.

Exactly what question should you be asking? All will be revealed when Matt joins us for the opening session of “Design in Product”. Building from the premise, “The path to success in cross-functional product development means embracing ego death and recognizing that you have very little direct control over anyone or anything,” Matt’s presentation will tap into the wealth of knowledge he has gained at such companies as Google, Audible, Mailchimp, and Spotify to illustrate concepts that are as practical as they are unexpected and profound.

Stick around to join the conversation and ask Matt your questions during our post-session Q+A, moderated by Christian Crumlish.

Curated from community-contributions, these brief video clips feature winning submissions from industry pros sharing their most important lessons on navigating the intersection of UX/Product.

No doubt you’ve heard of empathy mapping– the simple, yet powerful tool often employed by product teams to attain a deeper understanding of what their customers think and feel in order to deliver a better user experience.

In this interactive, two-part activity, we’ll put product managers in the place of the customer, mapping the motivators, external and internal influences, and actions that make them tick. By the end of this exercise, you’ll have gained insights into who your PM is, and how you can best connect with them!

Note: Part 2 of this activity will take place during the second half of the day.

In this talk, Johanna Kollmann will discuss how true insights can inform product strategy, with direct impact on the roadmap and metrics. Drawing on her experience as a research lead and product manager, Johanna will share case studies and tools that are relevant for researchers, designers, and product leaders.

Stick around to join the conversation and ask Johanna your questions during our post-session Q+A, moderated by Christian Crumlish.

Designers often find themselves under pressure to create beautiful outputs rather than impact and outcomes. In this talk, Catt Small, Director of Product Design at All Turtles, will share techniques she applied in moving herself from execution to a more strategic role over 12 years of in-house work at companies spanning various industries. You’ll learn to become a more strategic thinker and show the value of design at every part of the product development process. Before you know it, you’ll be your PM’s best work friend!

Stick around to join the conversation and ask Catt your questions during our post-session Q+A, moderated by Christian Crumlish.

Join conference curator Christian Crumlish, conference speakers, and special guest commentators for a lively panel discussion reviewing highlights, sharing notable takeaways, and diving deeper into questions inspired by the morning’s presentations.

Curated from community-contributions, these brief video clips feature winning submissions from industry pros sharing their most important lessons on navigating the intersection of UX/Product.

Take a break to grab a bite, stretch your legs, chat with speakers and attendees in the conference Slack, or even take a nap. Just remember to set your alarm and be back in time for the second half of Design in Product!

Bloomberg’s UX team is excited to share its 15-year evolution — from employing UX as a new, innovative process to UX playing a central role in every part of the product development lifecycle. Ash Brown, Global Head of UX, will share how the company’s UX team has grown and how it collaborates with its partners in Product. This will be followed by a panel discussion with two designers and two product managers who will talk about the different ways they’ve worked together. Bring your questions, because we’ll close with a Q&A session.

Early in projects, big or small, resist the urge to go with your first idea, and instead work to explore all kinds of possible solutions. This will allow you to better understand the problem you’re trying to solve, and help you avoid potential pitfalls later in the design process.

In this session we’ll explore commonly used design thinking techniques to help you push past the obvious ideas, generate many ideas, and find the right solution.

Strong cross-functional partnerships make us more efficient and effective at our jobs while ensuring projects are completed successfully. But these relationships, especially those between design and product management, can sometimes be in conflict.

Thankfully, the same thing that helps bring these two teams together is also the same thing that helps build the best products for the company. This talk will focus on how to leverage user research to help make the right trade-offs when you feel pressure to launch quickly but also want to have confidence that you’re designing the right thing for your users.

Chris will draw from his experiences at Google, Uber Eats and now Sprig to show how research can bridge the gap between designers and product managers.

Design in Product’s curator Christian Crumlish takes the stage to offer attendees a warm welcome after the long break, share announcements, and introduce our afternoon agenda.

Product managers and UXers do adjacent but different jobs. We’ll talk about scope, celebrating successes, and understanding each other better.

Stick around to join the conversation and ask Rich your questions during our post-session Q+A, moderated by Christian Crumlish.

Curated from community-contributions, these brief video clips feature winning submissions from industry pros sharing their most important lessons on navigating the intersection of UX/Product.

Having grown her career from UX designer to Product Experience leader, Wendy Johansson has learned a thing or two about what it means to “be a product boss”. Along the way she’s had plenty of wins, more than her fair share of fails, and one or two moments when things completely blew up in her face. So, rest-assured, she’ll be speaking truth in this presentation where she will share why, when, and how designers should level up their careers towards product bossdom!

From understanding just what it is that product leaders do, to learning how you can incorporate product know-how into your design skills toolkit–Wendy will help you bring out your inner product boss for more effective communications and outcomes in all your organizational interactions – across engineering, product, sales, and even your own team!

Be sure to join the live post-session Q+A with Wendy for the opportunity to share questions and relate your own experiences of being a product boss!

When teams don’t know how to pivot, the resulting waste can lead to a slow down in product delivery. Unfortunately, such confusion occurs commonly in UX/Product teams where roles can blur, and overlap between responsibilities can be rampant.

In this session, product expert Adam Thomas introduces the concept of “Survival Metrics” — an approach to team collaboration that not only encourages healthy pivots, but puts in place the mechanisms to achieve them.

Stick around to join the conversation and ask Adam your questions during our post-session Q+A, moderated by Christian Crumlish.

Join conference curator Christian Crumlish, the conference speakers, and guest commentators for a lively panel discussion reviewing highlights, sharing notable takeaways, and diving deeper into questions inspired by the afternoon’s presentations.

Curated from community-contributions, these brief video clips feature winning submissions from industry pros sharing their most important lessons on navigating the intersection of UX/Product.

We’ve spent a full-day exploring the challenges and opportunities in product/UX collaborations, and looking at those challenges and opportunities not only from a UX perspective, but also from a PM point of view. In this follow-up session, we’ll look back to the morning’s empathy mapping session, and take a beat to reflect those two roles and how they relate to one another.

After a very full day of expanding our minds, we’ve reached the end – of the program, that is. We’ll take a moment to reflect and hear some closing words of wisdom from Christian.

After a short intro, we’ll dive into a breakout to play and connect with others in our community.

Cozy Juicy Real is NOT like other team building activities:

–> Doesn’t feel like a stuffy team building event
–> Requires zero preparation on your side
–> Takes 5 mins to get the rules and start having fun
–> A safe space for the shy and introverted
–> Can be as high-energy or chill as you want it to be
–> 100% online — perfect for a remote conference like ours!

This is an interactive session and spaces are limited. RSVP is required!