Agenda
UXDX USA 2021 agenda — talks, workshops, panels and more from leaders sharing how they deliver better products. New sessions announced every week.
Tue15 Jun
Most product teams are starting to adopt discovery best practices (e.g. interviewing customers, usability testing, experimenting). However, many of us are still stuck in a project world. We do research to kick off a project, we usability test right before we hand off to engineers, and our primary means for experimenting is a/b testing. These methods are better than nothing, but the best product teams are shifting from a project mindset to a continuous mindset.
In this talk, we’ll explore the key differences between project-based discovery and continuous discovery and give your team a clear benchmark to aspire to.
All of the new processes, frameworks and ways of working that you learn will involve implementing change on your organisation. This is where a lot of good efforts fail.
In this talk I will cover, with examples,
1. The elements required for change
2. The common mistakes people make
3. How to break down a complex problem
4. Techniques to make change happen
Startups need to focus on product market fit and user acquisition before building the perfect system because things are guaranteed to change.
But what happens after a startup's found product market fit and accrued a mountain of tech debt along the way? In this session Catherine will discuss her teams work at Stash as they navigated their way through an intense growth period and how they tackled paying down tech debt that was impending hyper growth.
- How do you recognise the scaling risks in your systems?
- Trading off challenges between monoliths and microservices
- How reducing cognitive load improves the resilience of a system
- Frameworks for identifying types of tech debt and strategies for approaching them
At Kaplan, Raina was tasked, alongside a digital transformation team, to shift the in-person learning experience for tens of thousands of students to virtual classes. There were many elements at play with a culture shift to being product-led, a business looking to define the ROI of continuous innovation and a single customer experience being designed to serve learners across 10 different courses. So how did Raina's team design and advocate for a single customer-centric UX?
In this session, Raina will talk about her journey through this transformation and touch on:
- Why the team moved from using personas to mindsets in order to create successful and consistent user experiences.
- The metrics for UX she developed to measure success throughout the process, and
- The challenges she encountered in this journey and learnings she picked up along the way
As a Product Manager, your success is directly proportional to the satisfaction of your key stakeholders. If you engage with your stakeholders effectively, you will create a group of advocates who will help you further your cause and your career. If you don’t, it is unlikely, your roadmap will ever become more than a PowerPoint slide.
In this talk, I will share three key principles of effective engagement that will help you bring your stakeholders along as you march toward your vision for your product. You will learn why engaging with stakeholders effectively is one of the key product management skills and a few simple and actionable steps you can take to build strong relationships.
For every UX & product challenge that Reed has encountered, he has always relied on his ability to break down any problems into digestible pieces and reassemble them into new perspectives. This allows the team and stakeholders to get clear on what they are talking about, and gain a deeper understanding of the basic principles of the user problems.
Drawing on the Generic Parts Technique developed by psychologist Tony McCaffrey and Ground Theory developed by two sociologists, Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss, Reed will talk through:
- How he has overcome stakeholder challenges and increased the value of UX throughout his experiences,
- How he has encouraged his product teams to be more involved through the UX process, and
- How this framework has not only lead to a more cohesive and efficient team process but a more innovative culture
Most product teams are starting to adopt discovery best practices (e.g. interviewing customers, usability testing, experimenting). However, many of us are still stuck in a project world. We do research to kick off a project, we usability test right before we hand off to engineers, and our primary means for experimenting is a/b testing. These methods are better than nothing, but the best product teams are shifting from a project mindset to a continuous mindset.
In this talk, we’ll explore the key differences between project-based discovery and continuous discovery and give your team a clear benchmark to aspire to.
All of the new processes, frameworks and ways of working that you learn will involve implementing change on your organisation. This is where a lot of good efforts fail.
In this talk I will cover, with examples,
1. The elements required for change
2. The common mistakes people make
3. How to break down a complex problem
4. Techniques to make change happen
Startups need to focus on product market fit and user acquisition before building the perfect system because things are guaranteed to change.
But what happens after a startup's found product market fit and accrued a mountain of tech debt along the way? In this session Catherine will discuss her teams work at Stash as they navigated their way through an intense growth period and how they tackled paying down tech debt that was impending hyper growth.
- How do you recognise the scaling risks in your systems?
- Trading off challenges between monoliths and microservices
- How reducing cognitive load improves the resilience of a system
- Frameworks for identifying types of tech debt and strategies for approaching them
At Kaplan, Raina was tasked, alongside a digital transformation team, to shift the in-person learning experience for tens of thousands of students to virtual classes. There were many elements at play with a culture shift to being product-led, a business looking to define the ROI of continuous innovation and a single customer experience being designed to serve learners across 10 different courses. So how did Raina's team design and advocate for a single customer-centric UX?
In this session, Raina will talk about her journey through this transformation and touch on:
- Why the team moved from using personas to mindsets in order to create successful and consistent user experiences.
- The metrics for UX she developed to measure success throughout the process, and
- The challenges she encountered in this journey and learnings she picked up along the way
As a Product Manager, your success is directly proportional to the satisfaction of your key stakeholders. If you engage with your stakeholders effectively, you will create a group of advocates who will help you further your cause and your career. If you don’t, it is unlikely, your roadmap will ever become more than a PowerPoint slide.
In this talk, I will share three key principles of effective engagement that will help you bring your stakeholders along as you march toward your vision for your product. You will learn why engaging with stakeholders effectively is one of the key product management skills and a few simple and actionable steps you can take to build strong relationships.
For every UX & product challenge that Reed has encountered, he has always relied on his ability to break down any problems into digestible pieces and reassemble them into new perspectives. This allows the team and stakeholders to get clear on what they are talking about, and gain a deeper understanding of the basic principles of the user problems.
Drawing on the Generic Parts Technique developed by psychologist Tony McCaffrey and Ground Theory developed by two sociologists, Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss, Reed will talk through:
- How he has overcome stakeholder challenges and increased the value of UX throughout his experiences,
- How he has encouraged his product teams to be more involved through the UX process, and
- How this framework has not only lead to a more cohesive and efficient team process but a more innovative culture
Wed16 Jun
Wed16 Jun
Wed16 Jun
Wed16 Jun
Wed16 Jun
Wed16 Jun
Design is more complicated today than ever. The truth is, this is only the beginning. From an array of screen sizes, numerous channels, and choice overload, we have a lot to think about, all while considering a consumer mindset that expects simplicity on demand.
In this talk, Ryan will uncover how his team at Priceline has needed to uncover insights from their users to be able to shift their approaches when designing their products to ensure winning experiences. He will touch on:
- What current design trends are we seeing and what are the challenges associated with them?
- How do you gather your data and insights from your users and what is the best way to prioritise these insights?
- How do you test your designs?
- What advice Ryan has for product designers/product teams to look out for when designing products?
- What he sees in the future for product design?
Collecting and interpreting data to inform product decision making, requires you do so objectively without being influenced by your own emotions and biases. Researchers have to be aware of their internal drivers in order to neutralize them.
During this talk I will share a use case where our research and product team were so overconfident and opinionated in a specific area, we were not open to interpret and appropriately consider the vital information collected from the internal customer support team. The result - the commencement of a project which succeeded in achieving the defined success metrics but completely missed the mark in solving the challenges the internal team originally reported.
During this session I will focus on specific biases to look out for and will share practical strategies to avoid them.
Some of the strategies I will share:
- Research “mindfulness” - practicing self awareness so you are able to identify your internal drivers: regular self check ins before and during projects, writing down your preconceptions and beliefs as well as doing this practice as a team.
- Practicing humility by experiencing being wrong: the A/B test game show where the team “Bets” which A/B test variant will win
- Extending your access to varying points of views by including cross team participants in research think tanks and planning sessions.
As privacy regulations like GDPR or CCPA are put into action, how can designers and UX researchers keep the balance between compliance and design?
In this session, I will talk through how I partnered with the Dropbox Privacy team on a number of projects that culminated in a privacy course for the Dropbox team. Anchored by the Privacy by Design Principles, I will touch on:
- My path and passion for privacy and design.
- How to integrate user consent within the design process
- How to balance legal compliance and product requirements, and
- How you can build transparency and trust with your users by practicing these principles
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and my talk is not legal advice.
Your content team needs to be confident which specific words and phrases are resonating with your audience. And wouldn’t it be ideal to learn which words work before you launch your project or product? In this energizing, hands-on session, you’ll learn methods and tools for objectively evaluating how your customers are reacting to your writing—and most importantly, why they’re responding the way they are.
This is not “regular” UX research with prototypes of both content and visual design. It’s content-only research that helps you pinpoint the just-right words for successful, friction-free user experiences and stronger business results.
When working in companies that use waterfall or the SAFe methodology how do you convince management on the value of UX? And how do you align it with the way that teams work? In their talk, Marc Majers, author of the new book Make Your Customers Dance, will discuss:
1. The value of UX
2. How to get stakeholders engaged
3. Shift from MVP's to MRP's (Market Ready Products)
4. Using a calculator to convince stakeholders of relative priorities
Design is more complicated today than ever. The truth is, this is only the beginning. From an array of screen sizes, numerous channels, and choice overload, we have a lot to think about, all while considering a consumer mindset that expects simplicity on demand.
In this talk, Ryan will uncover how his team at Priceline has needed to uncover insights from their users to be able to shift their approaches when designing their products to ensure winning experiences. He will touch on:
- What current design trends are we seeing and what are the challenges associated with them?
- How do you gather your data and insights from your users and what is the best way to prioritise these insights?
- How do you test your designs?
- What advice Ryan has for product designers/product teams to look out for when designing products?
- What he sees in the future for product design?
Collecting and interpreting data to inform product decision making, requires you do so objectively without being influenced by your own emotions and biases. Researchers have to be aware of their internal drivers in order to neutralize them.
During this talk I will share a use case where our research and product team were so overconfident and opinionated in a specific area, we were not open to interpret and appropriately consider the vital information collected from the internal customer support team. The result - the commencement of a project which succeeded in achieving the defined success metrics but completely missed the mark in solving the challenges the internal team originally reported.
During this session I will focus on specific biases to look out for and will share practical strategies to avoid them.
Some of the strategies I will share:
- Research “mindfulness” - practicing self awareness so you are able to identify your internal drivers: regular self check ins before and during projects, writing down your preconceptions and beliefs as well as doing this practice as a team.
- Practicing humility by experiencing being wrong: the A/B test game show where the team “Bets” which A/B test variant will win
- Extending your access to varying points of views by including cross team participants in research think tanks and planning sessions.
As privacy regulations like GDPR or CCPA are put into action, how can designers and UX researchers keep the balance between compliance and design?
In this session, I will talk through how I partnered with the Dropbox Privacy team on a number of projects that culminated in a privacy course for the Dropbox team. Anchored by the Privacy by Design Principles, I will touch on:
- My path and passion for privacy and design.
- How to integrate user consent within the design process
- How to balance legal compliance and product requirements, and
- How you can build transparency and trust with your users by practicing these principles
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and my talk is not legal advice.
Your content team needs to be confident which specific words and phrases are resonating with your audience. And wouldn’t it be ideal to learn which words work before you launch your project or product? In this energizing, hands-on session, you’ll learn methods and tools for objectively evaluating how your customers are reacting to your writing—and most importantly, why they’re responding the way they are.
This is not “regular” UX research with prototypes of both content and visual design. It’s content-only research that helps you pinpoint the just-right words for successful, friction-free user experiences and stronger business results.
When working in companies that use waterfall or the SAFe methodology how do you convince management on the value of UX? And how do you align it with the way that teams work? In their talk, Marc Majers, author of the new book Make Your Customers Dance, will discuss:
1. The value of UX
2. How to get stakeholders engaged
3. Shift from MVP's to MRP's (Market Ready Products)
4. Using a calculator to convince stakeholders of relative priorities
