Agenda

Have you spent week's pulling together the data to make a compelling case for changing your processes or adopting a new way of working. Your manager congratulates you on doing a great job and everyone is on board.

But then nothing happens.

It's clear that we will make more money or save more costs if we go for it but there are always competing priorities and deadlines that seem to trump your change.

We'll talk through why this is happening, and what you can do about it.

Join our expert panel, hosted by Patrick Mooney, as they dive into the game-changing EU accessibility standards and their impact on UX and development professionals. Featuring insights from Karen Hawkins (Level Access), Gareth Crossan, and Mick (Optum), this session bridges the gap between compliance requirements and practical implementation. Discover how these new regulations are reshaping the digital landscape and learn actionable steps to prioritise accessibility in your work, whether you're a newcomer or a seasoned professional in the field.
Key Outcomes/Learnings:

• Understanding the implications of the EU accessibility requirements for UX, development, and product teams
• Practical strategies to integrate accessibility into existing workflows and design systems
• Debunking common myths about accessibility and its impact on creativity
• Actionable steps to start prioritising accessibility immediately
• Insights into the future of accessibility and its potential to drive innovation

Join Jaco Els as he shares the transformative journey of strategic prioritisation within King's expansive product teams. Discover the transformation from traditional prioritisation methods to a value-driven approach that spans 22 product teams and involves over 400 team members. Jaco will share how King has redefined their operating model, integrating tailored prioritization frameworks like the RICE model, to foster transparency and streamline project delivery. Attendees will gain actionable insights on optimising prioritisation to drive efficiency and alignment in large-scale product environments

Through working in startups, scale-ups and enterprise companies, Nadine has experienced that many companies view creating and establishing UX research as a discipline and as part of the overall culture.

Join Ahmed Menshawy as he shares the intricate balance between maintaining model complexity and meeting the operational demands of real-time processing in the financial sector. Dive into the practical challenges and solutions in deploying advanced machine learning technologies in a large enterprise.

What's the role of prototyping in your product development lifecycle? Do you use it in your discovery work or do you think prototypes are just designers' responsibility?
Great product teams, marketers, tech writers or engineers should leverage prototypes or wireframes. This can help align with stakeholders, test assumptions, and decrease the risk, time and resources dedicated to engineering, product or design work based on inaccurate or untested assumptions.
If you want to understand and harness the power of prototyping and experiments in your product development, discovery and reduce risk, time and resources while creating products, join us for this engaging forum!

In this talk, Lee Cooper, VP Product & Technology BBC Studios, will discuss the challenges and strategies involved in transforming the BBC.COM from a largely UK-centric public service supplied site to a globally recognised commercial product. He will share insights on balancing the public service mission with the need to generate commercial revenue, addressing the technological and cultural hurdles faced during this transformation.
Key Learnings:

• Vision setting, gaining traction and buy-in to differing product objectives
• Navigating the challenges of moving from a legacy tech stack to a modern, scalable platform that serves a global audience
• Strategies for aligning the values and objectives of a public service organisation with commercial imperatives
• Lessons on leading through change, making necessary compromises, and achieving consensus in a complex organisational environment that serves both public and commercial interests

When you are a large enterprise with over 30k employees, there are a lot of challenges that come when trying to change a mature organization that has immature product delivery practices. In this session Chris will share the work it takes to shift from a business-led approach, to a more modern product development practice. He'll share the challenges and successes his team faces and how they know when they’re doing it right, including;

• Setting the foundations of how teams need to be sized and structured to not only survive, but thrive
• Road Clarity: identifying what skills are necessary for growth
• How designers and engineers are working together; then, now and in future

With countless tools available for product development, selecting the right ones can be challenging. Join Petra, Head of UXR at Omio, to discover how the right tools can streamline your workflow and improve product outcomes. Share your experiences and learn effective methods for choosing the best tools for your team.

Join Fabrice, CTO of Theodo and author of ‘The Lean Tech Manifesto: Learn the Secrets of Tech Leaders to Grasp the Full Benefits of Agile at Scale’, for an open conversation on software delivery, just-in-time and right-first-time. Fabrice will share his innovative “Dantotsu” approach to detecting defects early in the process and systematically analysing them, effectively combining lean strategy with the speed and scale of digital.

Join an insightful discussion on navigating company, team and individual purpose. Discover practical strategies to align your company, teams, products, and individuals with their core purpose for improved business, customer, and individual outcomes. Explore a blueprint for:

• Harnessing Vision and Mission: Uncover the transformative power of a clear vision and mission in refocusing your organization. Learn to adapt while considering customer needs, competitor strategies, and business expansion.
• Staying on Course: Explore the importance of staying connected to your organization's original purpose. Understand the consequences of drifting away from this core foundation.
• Motivating with Purpose: Gain insights into how a defined purpose can motivate and concentrate your team's efforts.
• Innovation & Execution Alignment: Navigate the challenges of aligning new ideas with your core purpose.
• Effective Business Communication: Learn to communicate effectively in the language of business and of your customers.

Explore 4 product tools and how they can help improve the way you work with live demos with their expert team! This is a great opportunity to see their solutions in action, ask questions, and learn how their tools can benefit you and the way you work. Whether you’re curious about features or seeking hands-on experience, their team will be there to guide you every step of the way. Don’t miss out on this chance to connect and discover something new!

As the newly appointed CPO of high-growth online therapy startup Unobravo, Matt will discuss the crucial strategies for establishing effective approaches that enable product teams to scale globally. This talk will explore the challenges faced by high-growth companies that achieved product/market fit but are hyper-focused on growth of both revenue, profitability and teams and the challenges that go with it. Matt will share his insights on steering the company forward, emphasizing the importance of avoiding legacy inefficiencies, the dangers of using process as a proxy,building on existing strengths, and creating a robust foundation for sustainable growth. Learn how Unobravo, a mission-led company, navigates the complexities of expanding into new markets and solving new user problems while maintaining product-market fit and profitability.
Key Points:

• Essential Foundations for Scaling: Understanding the crucial processes and structures needed to support a growing product team.
• **The importance of mindset: **How the best processes in the world will not create impact without the right mindset in the team
• Building a High-Impact Team: Techniques for assembling and nurturing product teams with the right balance of experience and innovation.
• Process as a Prompt, Not a Crutch: How to use agile methodologies and scrum processes to drive meaningful outcomes rather than just turning the handle on procedures.
• Decision making as you scale: How to empower with the right guardrails

In this session, Alan, the CTO of Manna, will show how their cutting-edge advancements in AI and machine learning have powered their latest drone iteration. Alan will walk you through how Manna leverages advanced algorithms to transform navigation and collision avoidance, setting new standards in drone delivery technology. This session will address the challenges of managing vast datasets with the goal of reducing delivery delays and enhancing efficiency. Learn how Manna's team incorporates AI-driven real-time route optimization and robust safety measures, and explore how these innovations can be applied to streamline operational workflows for product teams, designers, and engineers.
Key Takeaways:

• Understand the integration of AI and machine learning for drone navigation and collision avoidance.
• Learn how to better handle and process large datasets to improve delivery efficiency and reduce delays.
• The benefits of AI-driven real-time route optimization for operational workflows.
• Gain insights into the advanced safety protocols employed to ensure secure and reliable drone operations.
• Explore how these AI and ML-driven strategies can be applied across various product development and engineering teams to enhance overall efficiency and effectiveness.

Explore a variety of UX research methods beyond just interviews and discuss practical ways to also involve non-researchers across product, design, and development in user research projects. Nadine Piecha will share her insights on various research methods, including usability testing, surveys, co-creation, field trips, and more. Together you will assess how to overcome obstacles such as language barriers, small budgets, or a lack of user research experts in small product teams.

At an enterprise level, where the default focus on the user doesn't always count, Kelle unravels her game-changing strategies in rolling out the Program Management team's process at Verizon Connect and championing the fusion of design thinking in strategic initiatives. Kelle will share a pragmatic and fresh lens on how she ensures projects resonate powerfully across all departments for the coveted buyin. This talk merges theory with Kelle's profound experience, arming attendees with actionable strategies versatile for any organisational tier.
Key insights include:

• Strategic Limelight: Redefining roadmap delivery to resonate with decision-makers, ensuring every stakeholder feels seen and valued.
• Speaking Their Language: Master the craft of tailoring project articulations that resonate with varied teams, from sales to finance.
• Adapting Design Thinking: Delve into the nuance of molding design thinking principles to fit and flourish within any business context.
• Empowerment Over Control: Understand the potency of stepping back, empowering teams to steer their tales, and crafting narratives that captivate stakeholders.
• Serving Over Controlling: Navigate the crucial paradigm shift from a controlling grip to a service-oriented approach, setting the stage for a harmonious and productive project atmosphere.

In this witty talk, Andrew Birgiolas will share how you can reduce the meetings, increase alignment, and ship quality faster with practical, repeatable tactics that will transform your team’s efficiency.

This session is designed to make the case for and a new focus on design-centricity that goes beyond user-centered practice. Using practical examples of results achieved at Preply and Lingokids, Chris will walk us through the essence of being design-centric, where craft meets creativity and innovation emerges from deep customer insights.Key highlights of the talk include:

• Making the case for the need to prioritize beauty and delight in customer experiences, especially in a world where much of the promise of "tech" has never materialized
• Elevating Craft Excellence: Demonstrating how designing to make each user interaction deeply engaging and on-brand, ensures a high-quality experience
• Pioneering Customer-Centric Innovation: Highlighting how Preply and Lingokids identify and address user needs with innovative solutions, driven by creativity and a deep understanding of user challenges and aspirations, pushing beyond the limits of current technologies and market standards.

This talk will dive into the dual challenges of hiring for and designing at an enterprise scale. Daria will share insights from over 15 years of experience, including the lessons learned from failures and success stories on hiring the right person for the job. Discover what to look for in a designer's portfolio and understand the critical importance of strategic hiring for all parties involved.

Key outcomes discussed:

• Gain a deep understanding of the essentials of designing for enterprise scale, including navigating permissions, roles, and the specific demands of these roles; and identifying if you're the right fit.
• Learn strategies to ensure your enterprise product not only survives but thrives in a competitive market by being consumer-friendly.
• Avoiding Costly Mis-hires: Explore the significant impact of mis-hires on team dynamics and project outcomes, and how to prevent these expensive mistakes.
• Team Expansion Strategies: Receive insights of rapid scaling of your design team, and achieving complete hiring autonomy.

Discover how early-career designers can effectively influence as design managers in large enterprises, featuring insights from Roberta Virzì. This session will draw from Roberta's experiences with structuring embedded teams, obtaining stakeholder support, and facilitating effective communication among PMs, developers, and designers.

In this session, Harry Parkes, VP Product at OVO, explores the unique challenges of balancing growth with the structural stability required for large-scale operations. Harry will deep dive into the strategies used to maintain agility while integrating into a more rigid established system, the advantages and challenges of sustaining product growth and process improvement during the transition, and fitting in culturally to align with an overarching mission.

Product teams are harnessing the power that design systems offer, creating digital solutions efficiently, consistently, and at scale. But, as teams move towards this level of maturity, are they similarly maturing in their application of accessibility into their processes and output? Sadly, many design systems are failing to address the needs of all audiences. From tokens to annotations, each step in the creation of a design system must consider and incorporate digital accessibility. Teams are facing issues regarding who is responsible for which aspects of accessibility, and where and how to document accessibility considerations. In this forum we will openly discuss how product teams can incorporate more accessibility
considerations into their design systems.

This session will uncover the design process behind a pioneering camera-enabled watch-together experience. We'll examine the critical challenge of keeping things simple in a product that's at the forefront of consumer tech. Discussions will include how to manage consumer expectations effectively, ensuring that sophisticated features improve user experience without adding unnecessary complexity. Learn how to achieve the perfect balance between high-tech functionality and straightforward, user-friendly design in today's product development landscape.

Join an engaging discussion on how the principles of developer productivity can be applied across the entire product team, including UX, design, and product management. Share and learn practical methods to enhance team-wide efficiency, reduce rework, and align efforts towards achieving better product outcomes.

In this session, Dan Lake will dive into the importance of going back to the origin, sharing the story of Not On The High Street strategically pivoting back to their origin as a curated marketplace and how their founding purpose is shaping their future. Dan will detail the tactical decisions that underpin this transition and their broader implications for scaling technology and product strategy.

Key Learnings:

• The challenges of shifting purpose and the impact on technology strategy
• The "buy vs. build" decisions in technology deployment to support scalability and marketplace efficiency
• Strategies for enhancing partner development to ensure a high-quality marketplace offering and robust community engagement

Join Mario, Head of Payment Products at Vipps Mobile Pay, for an open conversation on ways of working when scaling a product development organisation. Drawing from his experience with different organisational structures and frameworks following the merger between Norway’s Vipps and Denmark’s Mobile Pay, Mario will share how they ensure better product outcomes and company alignment by running a flex-focus rhythm. Mario will talk about the challenges in balancing the short- and long-term goals of the companies while operating within a divisionalized product organisation where there is no single individual or team with overall responsibility for product development.

This forum dives into the complex dynamics between product teams and external agencies. We'll explore strategies for when to engage with an agency, the challenges of aligning different company cultures, frameworks, and product processes, and how to foster a collaborative environment that benefits both sides. Attendees will gain insights into managing client-agency relationships effectively, ensuring clear communication, and achieving successful UX outcomes from both perspectives. This session is ideal for those client-side product stakeholders working with agencies and other third-party service vendors looking to enhance their collaborative efforts.

Explore 4 product tools and how they can help improve the way you work with live demos with their expert team! This is a great opportunity to see their solutions in action, ask questions, and learn how their tools can benefit you and the way you work. Whether you’re curious about features or seeking hands-on experience, their team will be there to guide you every step of the way. Don’t miss out on this chance to connect and discover something new!

Should UX designers embrace AI to drive efficiency and stay relevant (AI Enthusiast) or focus on originality and differentiation opportunities outside of AI (Positive Sceptic)? This debate will explore AI's impact on the creative industry and what it means for UX designers in terms of product development and professional growth.

The Combatants:

• **The Enthusiast: **An advocate for empowering ourselves with AI and embracing it across all processes.
• **The Sceptic: **A critic of the over-reliance on AI, arguing that it may lead to superficial conclusions and similar outputs across the industry.
  The Format:
• Each participant will outline their core arguments for or against the use of AI in design and research.
• The debate will be divided into three rounds, each focusing on a key point of contention:
  • UX Research: Can AI-driven research help build impactful products, or is it designed to give superficial conclusions and data?
  • Creative Design: How much should UX designers embrace AI across the creative process. Will it lead to everyone going down the same road?
  • Job Security: Can AI tools enhance job security by making designers more efficient, or will it make the designer role obsolete?
• Moderator Q&A: The moderator will pose questions to each debater, allowing them to dive deeper into their positions and address each other's arguments.
• Closing Statements: Each participant will summarise their key takeaways and offer a final perspective on the future role of AI in UX design and research.

Should UX designers prioritise designing solutions for the ever-changing future (Design for Tomorrow) or focus on delivering practical solutions with immediate benefits (Design for Today)?
Practicality vs. Investment: Do the costs of deep futurism outweigh the potential benefits?
Agility vs. Vision: Can a long-term vision hinder an organization's ability to adapt to change?