Agenda

The world is full of bad software - and our processes are to blame. Researchers research, designers design and developers code. We treat each separately as if we can know how customers will react to our products. But to build great products we need to work in really small batches and iterate based on what we learn. The siloed nature of many organisations makes this way of working very hard.

In this workshop we will go over why we work in our current siloed ways, why it was the most efficient way to do things last century, why it no longer is the best way to work and how we can shift to a new way of working.

This workshop goes beyond just saying things like "work agile together" to dig into the changes required to team structures, planning, funding, governance and more.

You’ll walk away from this workshop with a higher level understanding of the complex challenges facing people at different levels of an organisation and how to improve your processes in a way that works for everyone.

Design organizations function best with transparency and without ego. An easy statement to make, but not so much to deliver on. In this workshop, participants will learn how to clearly manage expectations and outcomes across a series of high risk and high value business scenarios. While this workshop will be led from a design management perspective, it’s not limited to design practitioners.

Product leaders often manage complex product portfolios, where investment decisions can define the trajectory of an entire company. The stakes couldn't be higher, invest in the wrong opportunity, and you've burned your cash while competitors gain ground; hesitate too long, and the market window closes before you even enter. This isn't just about making a single decision; it's about ensuring your limited resources only flow to opportunities with genuine potential. With AI rapidly changing how businesses operate, this skillset becomes even more critical.
This workshop will guide you through a structured, evidence-based approach to opportunity assessment that builds focus and alignment around managing your strategic portfolio. Join Holly Hester-Reilly and Dina Levitan to learn how to gain executive and stakeholder trust through confident, data-driven opportunity assessments.
Key Takeaways:

• Identify Product Sprawl: Learn practical techniques to recognize and address scattered product development efforts that dilute your team's effectiveness
• Develop an Evidence-Based Journey Map: Create visual representations of your product ecosystem that highlight opportunities and strategic gaps
• Crafting Product Opportunity Assessment: Master a repeatable framework for evaluating potential investments using qualitative and quantitative data
• Reduce Complexity in Product Ecosystems: Apply proven methods to simplify your portfolio while maximizing customer and business value
• Build Executive and Stakeholder Confidence: Translate product strategy into business language that resonates with decision-makers

The pace of change in the UX field is staggering: AI is accelerating, roles are shifting, and many professionals are left wondering how to keep up without burning out. Breaking from the design and development of AI-driven experiences, this workshop takes a more personal and empowering approach, helping you evolve with the change, not get swept away by it.
Led by Connor Joyce, a behavioral scientist, AI advisor, and University of Pennsylvania lecturer, this session blends positive psychology, career strategy, and practical task decomposition to help UX professionals future-proof their careers. You’ll reflect on your own path, build clarity around what work will define your future, and develop the mindset needed to thrive in a world where automation is no longer optional.
In this highly interactive session, you'll:

• Deconstruct your role into core tasks and categorize them into three buckets: Let Go, Partner with AI, and Own as Human.
• Learn how to apply a growth mindset to navigate comparison, uncertainty, and reinvention.
• Gain tools to reframe fear, build identity beyond your title, and design your own evolution path.
  This workshop is for anyone feeling the weight, or the thrill, of our industry’s transformation. Whether you’re mid-career, emerging, or evolving, this is your space to regain clarity, reclaim confidence, and reconnect with the parts of your work that matter most.

AI is transforming how users interact with digital products, pushing product teams to adopt new strategies for designing AI-powered experiences. To stay ahead, teams must shift from traditional UX to intent-based interactions that enhance usability and engagement. But how do you make that transition?

In this hands-on, interactive workshop, we’ll explore Cognitive Design Frameworks—Momentum, an HTEC company’s approach to crafting intuitive AI-driven experiences. Through real-world case studies, we’ll examine AI implementations in digital products and uncover key lessons.

This workshop goes beyond understanding the UX of AI—it’s about leading with a human-centered design approach and applying these techniques to build better products. By stepping into users’ shoes, you’ll develop the skills, strategies, and mindset needed to design AI-driven experiences that feel natural, build trust, and deliver real value.

This workshop is open to all disciplines.

Recruiting the right talent today needs to go beyond traditional methods. This hands-on workshop, led by Mrinali Kamath explores how to revolutionize your hiring process by integrating automation with strategic insights. Participants—ranging from Staff Product Designers looking to hire to those looking to understand the hiring process more, will learn how to brief recruitment teams (even those without specialized hiring expertise) to ensure that every candidate is evaluated not only on skills but also on cultural fit no matter what industry they came from.
Key Takeaways:
• Learn to align hiring practices with core cultural values to attract candidates who truly resonate with your brand.
• Develop clear, actionable briefing strategies for recruitment teams to effectively validate and assess talent.
• Gain insights into tailoring hiring frameworks to meet the unique needs of various industries.
• Build a sustainable, iterative approach to continuously improve your recruitment strategy.
• Discover new tools and processes for streamlining your recruitment process and reducing time-to-hire.

Accessibility is not just one project; it's a state of mind that needs to be adopted by all personas inside agile squads. This workshop focuses on embedding accessibility practices throughout the entire product lifecycle, from the initial design phase to the final product release. This holistic approach aims to equip cross-functional teams with the necessary tools to create inclusive products and cater to all users and markets, including those with disabilities.
Key Learning Outcomes:

• Understand how to incorporate accessibility at every stage of the product lifecycle, from pre-design to launch.
• Explore various manual and automated tools to facilitate accessibility and learn best practices tailored to different team sizes and companies.
• Tailor accessibility approaches to the needs of different team members, including designers, developers, product managers, and QA engineers.
• Engage in hands-on activities and practise incorporating accessibility right from the start.
  This workshop is specifically tailored to the entire agile squad, including designers, developers, product managers, QA engineers, and UX researchers who aim to integrate accessibility seamlessly into their product development processes.

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 Michelle Parsons as she explores the art of constructing a balanced product portfolio that delivers immediate value while also validating long-term innovations. This talk will cover methods for integrating research and A/B testing into product development cycles, ensuring that teams can effectively ship features without compromising on quality or strategic impact. Participants will walk away with practical insights on how to manage risk and prioritize features in a dynamic market.
Key Learnings:

• Techniques for balancing short-term wins with long-term product goals.
• Approaches to integrate research and testing in product development.
• Frameworks for managing risk and prioritizing features effectively.

The debate will be centered around how design functions within organizations are frequently misperceived as mere execution hubs rather than strategic partners. Paul Strike and Falguni Desai will share insights from their extensive experience in high-level design leadership, emphasizing the misalignment between business expectations and design capabilities. They will discuss the impact of limited business sponsorship and how this fuels a reactive, output-focused culture.

Defining the Value of Design Beyond Aesthetics:
The problematic perception of designers as "screen producers" and how to reshape this view.
Balancing Strategy and Execution:
Why design teams must operate at dual altitudes, strategic and tactical, and the implications for leadership.
Cultural and Capability Investments:
Highlighting the necessity of business-sponsored design functions for strategic involvement and sustainable growth.
Navigating the Leadership Gap:
Addressing the industry-wide leadership deficit and its effect on design transformation efforts.
Takeaways:

• Actionable strategies for aligning design initiatives with broader business objectives.
• Insights on fostering a culture that champions design as a critical business function.
• Real-life lessons from navigating complex organizational challenges in top-tier firms.

AI is transforming what product teams build. Airtable's engineering team has embraced this transformation while navigating the unique challenges of building AI capabilities that empower users to create their own dynamic workflows. In this session, Jimmy Hillis shares practical insights from Airtable's journey integrating AI into their platform. Key topics will include:

• Understanding changing user needs: How Airtable is building AI-native use cases while keeping workflows intuitive and accessible across different use cases
• Rethinking prototyping for AI: Why teams must show actual AI-generated results rather than static mockups to effectively design, test, and get meaningful feedback on AI features
• Cultivating technical understanding: Strategies for encouraging teams to actively use AI tools, creating a culture where everyone from designers to engineers can contribute effectively
• Balancing automation and control: How to ensure AI enhances productivity without adding unnecessary complexity, particularly within enterprise environments with unique security and compliance needs
• New collaboration patterns: New motions for product, design, and engineering teams when developing AI-powered workflows

In today’s evolving landscape, seamless collaboration between UX Researchers and Product Analysts is critical for building data-driven, user-centric products. In this session, Subhasree Chatterjee will present a comprehensive framework designed to break down silos and enhance communication between UXRs and PAs. By integrating both qualitative and quantitative insights, product teams can more effectively understand user problems, leading to better product outcomes.

Through real-world case studies, Subhasree will demonstrate the tangible benefits of this collaboration, from improved product development processes to measurable business success. Additionally, the talk will provide actionable strategies for integrating these workflows into existing product development processes, even in resource-constrained environments. Attendees will also gain valuable insights on how to future-proof their roles, addressing concerns around job security and the rising impact of AI in UX, data and product analytics. You’ll leave with practical tools and a deeper understanding of how to foster understanding across teams, ensuring a sustainable, user-focused product development cycle

How UX and design professionals can be strategic change-makers in unstable environments, ensuring user needs, ethical considerations, and human-centered values aren’t lost amid layoffs, shifting priorities, and leadership changes.

AI-native products require a new kind of collaboration, one that bridges the gap
between traditional machine learning (bottom-up, data-driven) and the way UX and
product teams typically operate (top-down, user-driven). Too often, these disciplines
speak different languages, leading to misalignment, slow iteration cycles, and missed
opportunities.
This panel will explore how product managers, UX designers, and developers can break
down silos to create AI products that are both technologically feasible and deeply user
centered. We’ll discuss how to integrate AI capabilities into the product development
process, establish shared frameworks for decision-making, and foster a culture of
experimentation.
Key Takeaway:
Whether you're building your first AI-native product or refining your approach, this
session will provide practical strategies to align teams and build better AI
experiences faster, together.

In an industry dominated by rapid change and AI advancements, learn why the "how" of our practices is just as crucial as the "what." In this thought-provoking exploration of the human side of tech discover actionable strategies for infusing empathy into hiring, management, and even layoffs. This talk will challenge product teams to rethink their approach to human interactions in tech, fostering a more compassionate and ultimately more successful industry.

Join Jon Thornton, Principal Engineer at Squarespace, for an interactive forum addressing one of the most challenging aspects of product development: balancing "tech debt vs. feature work." This session will cover key topics including:

• How do you decide how much time to devote to addressing technical debt?
• How do you decide how much product work to commit to in a planning cycle?
• Drawing on his extensive experience leading engineering initiatives, Jon will provide valuable insights into creating sustainable strategies that prioritize both technical health and product innovation.
• Participants will gain practical takeaways on:
• Strategically aligning technical debt management with product roadmaps.
• Making data-driven decisions to balance innovation and maintenance.
• Communicating the importance of technical investments to cross-functional teams.

In this talk, Joann Wu, VP Global Head of Product Design, will share insights from her transformative journey at Uber, where design plays a critical role in driving business impact. She will discuss how her team shifted from a siloed design function to one deeply integrated with business goals, emphasizing the importance of aligning design with strategy to create user-centered products that drive business results. This session will dive into the three levels of transformation—designing for business, elevating product quality, and fostering a customer-centric culture.
Key learnings:

• Empowering the design function to truly understand designing for business
• Shifting the company’s focus from metrics to a more user experience-focused approach
• Real-world applications of a customer-obsessed culture at Uber

Enterprise transformation demands collaboration, creativity, and cutting-edge data strategies. Join Ed Lovely, IBM’s Chief Data Officer, and his colleague Seth Johnson, CDO Design Director, for an honest discussion about navigating the complexities of AI-driven enterprise transformation. From breaking silos to managing priorities in one of the world’s largest companies, they’ll share strategies, lessons learned, and the importance of cross-disciplinary collaboration in tackling today’s business challenges.
OUTCOMES OF THE TALK

• Explore how cross-disciplinary collaboration with diverse teams propels successful enterprise transformation.
• Discover practical strategies for designing and leading with data and AI in challenging, regulated environments.
• Learn how to address team friction, organizational silos, and resistance to change.
• Hear real-world lessons learned while driving large-scale change with creativity and resilience.

Companies are racing to scale research, putting insights in the hands of more teams. But at what cost? Are we truly empowering cross-functional teams to do
better research, or are we flooding our organizations with shallow insights that nobody trusts?
Join Great Question's CEO, Ned Dwyer for a candid discussion about the reality of scaling research. Let’s debate:

• When does democratization improve insights—and when does it backfire?
• Are we overcomplicating things with too many tools, frameworks, and approvals?
• What actually gets used—do stakeholders even trust 'quick' research?
• How do we ensure quality without slowing everything down?
• If everything is research, does anything count as research anymore

Christina Goldschmidt will talk about how her team has integrated design deeply into Warner Music Group’s product lifecycle, transforming their approach to product development. From discovery to iteration, Christina will share how they’ve overhauled their processes by embedding a design lens across cross-functional teams. This talk will explore the challenges of introducing new workflows, the critical role of design systems, and how Christina’s team is experimenting with stakeholder management and design thinking to drive product strategy and transformation. Attendees will leave with insights on how to apply a design-first approach to product strategy and execution within complex organizational structures.

Agency or consultancy relationships can be tricky to navigate. I'll breakdown how to vet and select the right partner for you - ensuring your needs are not only met but exceeded. We'll dive into simple but effective decision frameworks along with negotiating tactics such as:

• Identify your core need and refine your ask (augmentation, strategy, implementation, etc...)
• How to decipher notional knowledge vs. deep expertise in a potential vendor
• Discuss rates and budgets with confidence and empowerment
• Gaining your executive(s) buy-in
• Navigating "red-lines"

Join Alex Burke as he interviews Daniela Jorge, Chief Design Officer at Capital One. This session will unpack Daniela's perspectives on building world-class design organizations at some of the world's most iconic brands.

It will dive into how design at Capital One is helping drive meaningful value for the company and its 100+ million customers, and share Daniela's thoughts on aligning design initiatives with broader organizational strategies.

The session will also explore how design collaborates with business-critical functions to ensure a cohesive approach to product development and organizational growth that is customer-backed and grounded in business priorities.

Key Discussion Points:

• Understanding the strategic role of design in product development
• Aligning design initiatives with company-wide business goals
• Leveraging UX and design to drive business transformation
• Examples of successful design integration throughout Daniela's career and up to now - what’s worked and what hasn’t
• Best practices for creating a unified strategy for design that resonates across the organization

Chris Wiggins, Chief Data Scientist at The New York Times, will share their application of machine learning in refining the effectiveness of their digital paywall. Learn how their paywall strategy has evolved over the past decade, where personalised meter limits are now key to enhancing both user engagement and subscription conversions. This session will offer in-depth insights into the data-driven approaches that power these optimisations, providing valuable lessons for technical professionals.
Key Outcomes Discussed:

• Enhancing user engagement and subscription conversions with personalised meter limits
• Leveraging data insights to guide both unregistered and registered users through the subscription funnel
• Balancing engagement and conversion rates through strategic trade-off management
• Mitigating demographic biases with advanced AI techniques
• Implementing historical data backtesting for continuous optimisation and improvement

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!

With 9,000+ engineers and a product landscape centered around real-time financial data, Bloomberg is a unique environment for UX to thrive - or get lost.
Ash Brown, Global Head of UX, shares what it takes to embed user-centric practices across a complex and engineering-driven organization.
From leading a global team of 150+ designers, researchers, and product documentation specialists to navigating the cultural shift toward UX specialization, Ash has driven change not by chasing visibility but by building internal champions and systems that scale.

This fireside chat explores how they are measuring design impact when client-facing products are released across the desktop, web, and mobile apps, what it means to introduce AI into an already mature UX practice, and how to maintain a focus on the highest priorities amidst endless stakeholder requests.
Ash will also reflect on the evolving role of design in financial software and the realities of advocating for research-led decisions in B2B environments that were not originally built with UX in mind.

In an era where AI threatens job security, Muriel Naim reveals how UX professionals can stay ahead of the curve with a framework for AI-driven UX architecture. Learn meaningful, user-focused AI experiences that go beyond simple implementation. Murial will talk through the framework for AI-driven UX architecture that will make your skills indispensable. This talk bridges the communication gap between designers, engineers, and product managers, demonstrating how to articulate the value of design-centric solutions that truly enhance the customer experience and drive product success.

AI isn’t just another trend; it’s rewriting the rules for product teams everywhere. As AI reshapes industries, product leaders face a new set of challenges: how to integrate AI into their products, how to build teams with the right skills, and how to rethink product portfolio strategies to stay competitive.
This interactive forum is your opportunity to share the challenges you’re facing and hear how others are navigating similar questions. Together, we’ll:

• Compare traditional product leadership expectations with how AI is changing what’s required
• Hear stories of how leaders are evolving their teams’ skills, embedding AI into their product roadmaps, and managing the risks and realities of shipping AI-powered functionality
• Explore how AI disruption forces a shift in product portfolio strategy, balancing core products and AI experiments
• Walk away with a grounded understanding of how to lead in a world where AI isn’t optional, it’s fundamental

How do we ensure that UX research truly drives decision-making and delights customers? Join Amit and Marina for an eye-opening exploration of our journey to creating a unified, impactful measurement framework that transformed our entire organization.

• How to create a measurement culture that prioritizes customer impact and product quality in every launch
• Building and applying an Experience Scorecard to assess and improve product usefulness, satisfaction, and overall performance across stages, from concept to live release
• Setting clear launch criteria with a "passing score" to ensure readiness and alignment with customer expectations
• How to integrate measurement into OKRs, allowing product, design, and research teams to track progress and continuously enhance user experience
• Empowering teams through enablement and education, so they can use measurement tools to make data-informed decisions that drive product success

Generative AI is full of promise but turning that promise into meaningful change takes thoughtfulness and experimentation. In this session, I’ll share how I’ve been using GenAI in my day-to-day product work—from speeding up early research and ideation to improving documentation and internal alignment.
We’ll explore frameworks and exercises that can help you:

• Identify tasks in your workflow that are well-suited for GenAI
• Understand where GenAI adds value (and where it doesn’t)
• Build a sustainable plan that enhances both creativity and efficiency

Join Cliff Seal as he shares insights on fostering career-defining growth and organizational influence as a long-term individual contributor (IC). Drawing from his extensive experience at Salesforce, Cliff highlights the individual and business benefits of staying deeply involved in the design craft over the years. He'll explore how individual contributors can navigate workplace dynamics, build trust, and make a lasting impact—all without managing teams.

• Learn how senior ICs can shape business strategy and influence decisions, regardless of organizational size
• Discover the key benefits of long-term organizational knowledge and its potential impact on career growth and business goals
• Consider how self-guided experiments, personal development, and side projects can support and sustain your career momentum

Teams across industries are ramping up efforts to meet compliance while delivering inclusive, user-friendly experiences. This interactive session will spotlight real-world strategies, challenges, and innovations as teams share their journeys to accessibility compliance.
Join this collaborative forum to:

• Learn how organizations are auditing and adapting their products and services.
• Explore best practices for embedding accessibility into design, development, and testing workflows.
• Discuss the challenges of scaling accessibility across teams and tools.

This session explores how adopting a Founder-Led Product Thinking approach helps teams validate ideas, align early sales efforts with product strategy, and create scalable ventures. Key Discussion Points:

• How to integrate validation, market signals, and scalability into product decisions.
• What it means to approach product development with a venture-building mindset.
• How to navigate stakeholder buy-in, early sales efforts, and funding conversations even inside an established company.
• Shifting from an execution role to making strategic, business-impacting decisions.

In this talk, Dr. Ashley Beecy, Medical Director of AI Operations at NewYork-Presbyterian, will explore the transformative potential of AI in healthcare, focusing on practical strategies for safe and efficient implementation. Ashley will share insights from her leadership in AI governance and deployment across NewYork-Presbyterian and her experience integrating AI into clinical workflows to improve patient care and provider well-being.
Key Learnings you'll get from this talk:

• Deploying AI models in clinical workflows, involving data and MLOps teams, clinical users, informaticians, and researchers.
• Understanding how to balance centralized and decentralized approaches to AI deployment based on specific use cases.
• Practical insights into setting up MLOps and data pipelines to support AI model development and deployment in cloud environments.
• Challenges and strategies for creating effective visualization tools that cater to various healthcare stakeholders, ensuring meaningful data presentation and actionability.

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.

In many organizations, UX is still viewed as a finishing touch - brought in late to improve the look and feel of a product. But in complex organizations, UX is evolving into something much more powerful: a strategic function that shapes how teams work, make decisions, and deliver lasting impact.

In this talk, Marijke Jorritsma shares what it takes to embed UX meaningfully in deeply technical, complex organization. Drawing from years of experience working across disciplines, she’ll explore how UX contributes far beyond the user interface—through service design, systems thinking, and close collaboration with engineering, product, and operations.

This talk is for anyone working cross-functionally who wants to:

• Understand how UX can influence systems, workflows, and strategy—not just screens
• Collaborate more effectively with design in technical, high-complexity contexts
• Break down silos between design, engineering, and product thinking
• Learn how to co-create solutions that are not only usable—but adopted, sustainable, and scalable
• Reframe UX as a partner in innovation, not just execution

Whether you’re building software, shaping policy, or leading programs, this session will offer practical takeaways on how to partner with UX to create more resilient, human-centered systems—together.