Ryan Leffel is a user experience and product leader with expertise crafting user-centric design strategies, building teams, and evolving design processes. He works to drive product and business growth through digital transformation, innovation, and elevating the user experience, while helping brands to maximize customer success.
His inherent passion for finding elegant solutions to complex organizational and design challenges led Ryan to earn a Master’s degree in Interactive Design from the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. After earning his degree at NYU, Ryan took on lead user experience roles at companies including R/GA, Yahoo!, Corra, Pearson and Priceline. Ryan has been a featured speaker in both the US and abroad on topics including design, ecommerce and multi-channel strategy, personalization, and managing teams through change.
Ryan is currently the Head of Design at Priceline where he oversees design and research for web, marketing, mWeb and app. With extensive experience in UX, design leadership, user research, digital and multi-channel strategy, he excels at ensuring business objectives and user needs are being met with ease.
Upcoming Talks
14 May 2025
What happens when a founder faces a pivotal moment of change? In this live podcast recording of That Pivotal Moment of Change, host Ryan Leffel sits down with Prayag Narula to explore his journey from starting out as a researcher to founding LeadGenius, a Y Combinator-backed startup, and ultimately launching the UX research platform Marvin. They’ll discuss the career-defining choices, challenges faced, setbacks, and pivotal moments that shaped his entrepreneurial path. Plus, they’ll dive into the transformative role of AI in research and what’s next in this rapidly advancing space. Whether you're an entrepreneur, product leader, or AI enthusiast, this conversation will be packed with actionable insights and inspiration you won’t want to miss!
14 May 2025
Hiring today is broken—candidates are getting filtered out by AI before a human even sees their application, and hiring managers are often relying on outdated methods that don’t assess the full potential of a candidate. This discussion will tackle hiring challenges from both sides of the table:
- How candidates can stand out despite AI screening and generic recruitment pipelines.
- Why skills, mindset, and cultural fit matter more than portfolios or take-home assignments—and how hiring managers can assess them effectively.
- How hiring managers can better brief recruiters to identify the right talent, even if they aren’t design or product experts.
- How teams are using AI and hiring tech effectively without missing top candidates or introducing bias.
- Real-world hiring strategies to improve hiring outcomes for both job seekers and hiring managers.
19 May 2025
A/B testing has become a superpower in product development, enabling data-driven decisions that fuel business growth. But with great power comes a shadow: an over-reliance on testing can lead to incremental tweaks over bold, groundbreaking moves. This talk sheds light on both the superpowers and the shadows of A/B testing, exploring the risks of a test-heavy culture and how it can stifle creativity and big-picture thinking. Discover practical strategies to balance optimization with innovation, fostering a culture that leverages testing without losing sight of visionary product development.
- Harnessing the super powers of A/B testing to make revenue generating business decisions
- Recognizing the limitations of A/B testing and the risks of focusing solely on incremental improvements
- Identifying the “shadow side” of a testing culture on stifling creativity and broader strategic thinking
- How to balance rigorous testing processes without sacrificing creative exploration for breakthrough developments
- Practical steps to push beyond data dependency, fostering a mindset of experimentation that leads to transformative product outcomes.
Past Talks
16 May 2024
The panel explores the significant challenges that UX and product professionals face, particularly in securing executive buy-in for user research and what non-UX executives are looking to see. It delves into the importance of aligning UX strategies with business objectives, demonstrating the tangible impact of user experience on key performance indicators, and leveraging design-driven growth for competitive advantage.
Each person shares their journey and thinking in building a robust UX research operation within a large corporation, emphasizing the critical role of data in demonstrating the business value of UX efforts. The discussion includes practical advice on measuring and presenting UX outcomes to align with executive priorities, the importance of continuous iteration, data-driven design decisions, and integrating UX research throughout the product development lifecycle.
Whether you're a UX professional seeking to elevate your impact across the org, or a product or business leader aiming to harness the power of design, this panel offers essential insights for achieving alignment and driving significant business outcomes.
12 October 2023
In this captivating talk, Ryan shares his career journey, reflecting on key milestones that have shaped his professional trajectory. Ryan will share his entrepreneurial journey en route and will shed light on the challenges of navigating his way back into the design field after his entrepreneurial venture.
He highlights how these milestones have enabled him to make remarkable transformations for his team at Priceline; evolving from being one of the least engaged across the company to the most engaged for two consecutive years. By the end of his talk, Ryan leaves the audience with a fresh perspective on managing career transitions, emphasizing the importance of embracing new opportunities, leveraging past experiences, and maintaining adaptability
17 May 2023
People love to chase what's shiny and new - but everything is a tradeoff. A new framework might solve some of your existing problems, but it might have unintended consequences. How do you know when it's worth the time and investment to switch, or whether it's safer to stick with what you know.
