UX STRAT 2014: Focusing on UX Strategy

The Conference Program

We have finalized the program for UX STRAT 2014, and it promises to provide a very focused series of workshops and presentations on the topic of experience strategy, giving attendees a comprehensive overview of the key activities comprising the practice of experience strategy. Both the workshops and the conference presentations’ coverage of experience strategy case studies and methods will help UX leaders to improve their approaches to guiding experience strategy, planning, and design.

The following is a complete listing of the pre-conference workshops and conference sessions’ presenters and topics.

Pre-conference Workshops

We’ll present a wide array of hands-on UX strategy workshops on Sunday, September 7—mostly half-day workshops, but also two full-day workshops.

Full-Day Workshops

• Steve Portigal, author of Interviewing Users and Founder of Portigal Consulting—“Immersive Field Techniques: Interviewing and Observing for User Research”
• Dan Saltzman, Director of User Experience at EffectiveUI, and Beth Koloski, Lead Experience Architect at EffectiveUI—“Customer Insight-Driven Design: Really Getting There”

Half-Day Workshops

• Megan Grocki, Experience Design Director at Mad*Pow—“Customer Journey Mapping”
• Phillip Hunter, Formerly Senior Designer at Microsoft—“Growing UX and Product Design Maturity of Practice”
• Jim Kalbach, Principal User Experience Designer at Citrix—“Mapping the User Experience with Alignment Diagrams”
• Dan Klyn, Cofounder and Information Architect at The Understanding Group, and Bill Holsinger-Robinson, Vice President, The Understanding Group—“Deciding Together: Information Architecture Strategy”
• Tim Loo, Strategy Director at Foolproof—“UX Strategy Fundamentals: Experience Visioning and Roadmapping”
• Pamela Pavliscak, Founder of Change Sciences—“UX Metrics 101: How to Measure and Have It Mean Something”
• Sophia Voychehovski, Founder of ReWired UX Studio—“Converting to Cross-Device: A Painless Journey from Desktop-only to Responsive”
• Dr. Amaya Becvar Weddle, UX Research Manager at Immersion Corporation, and Curtis Lefrandt, Vice President of Product & Training at Innovator’s DNA—“Building a Culture of Innovation: A UX Recipe for Success”

Keynotes

There will be four keynote speakers at UX STRAT 2014:

• Dr. Laura Granka, Head of UX Research at Google—“Winning a Seat at the Table: What It Takes to Shape the Direction of a High-Profile Product”
• Theo Forbath, Global Vice President of Innovation Strategy at frog—“The Role of UX in Defining the Future of Products, Brands, and Business Strategy”
• Matthew Holloway, Vice President of User Experience Design at Shutterfly—“Design Your Strategy”
• Jon Kolko, Director and Founder at Austin Center for Design—“Well Designed: Bringing Design Thinking to Product Management in Order to Create Products People Love”

Presentations

Conference sessions range from 60-minute presentations to short, 15-minute vignettes.

• Peter Merholz, Cofounder of Adaptive Path—“Shaping Organizations to Deliver Great User Experiences”
• Dr. Laura Granka, Head of UX Research at Google—“Data and Design Strategy: Effectively Engaging a Multidisciplinary UX Team”
• Todd Wilkens, Design Principal at IBM—“Putting UX and Strategy at the Heart of the Product Team”
• Martin Granström, Head of UX at Nook Media—“UX as a Core Company Strategy”
• Fabio Sergio, Vice President of Creative at frog—“Design for Impact”
• Dan Klyn, Cofounder and Information Architect at The Understanding Group—“Strategy and Structure: Doing It Right, and How You’d Know”
• Ronnie Battista, UX Practice Lead at Slalom Consulting—“Big Love: The Case for Conscious Coupling in UX Strategy”
• Brian Gillespie, Strategy Consultant and, formerly, Principal at Continuum—“How to Avoid Losing Design Strategy to Business Strategists”
• Lisa Estrin, User Experience Architect at Turner Sports—Executing a UX Strategy for NCAA March Madness”
• Dr. Sofia Hussain, Interaction Designer at Finn.no—“Designing Digital Strategies Based on Ecosystem Thinking”
• Jim Kalbach, Principal User Experience Designer at Citrix, “Applying ‘Jobs To Be Done’ to UX Strategy”
• Ashley Halsey Hemingway, Associate Director of User Experience at AppNexus—“Validating UX Strategy Concepts Through Service Design”
• Krispian Emert, Senior User Experience Consultant at BCLC—“Lessons from UX STRAT 2013: Applied to the Real World”
• Bill Rattner, Director of Digital Strategy at CapTech Ventures—“Creating a Long-Term, Unified Plan for Digital Customer Experience”
• Rich Warnaka, Manager of User Experience at Cabela’s—“Using Behavioral Modeling to Engage Customers”

Conclusion

If you are working in User Experience or Customer Experience as a leader, strategist, or senior researcher or designer, the UX STRAT conference committee and I would like to invite you to join us for this engaging and intimate conference. It’s like UX graduate school in a conference!

When: September 7–9, 2014

Where: The Boulder Theater and Boulderado Hotel, in Boulder, Colorado, USA

Early-bird registration ends: July 31, 2014

For more information about the conference, visit the UX STRAT 2014 Web site or send an email message to [email protected].