Thursday, June 22, 2023

Workshops: Choose ONE: Product OR Design Workshop Tracks

08:00 AM – Registration & Light Breakfast

08:30 AM – Workshop #1

12:00 PM – Lunch

01:00 PM – Workshop #2

04:00 PM – Event Closing

Friday, June 23, 2023

Keynotes:

08:00 AM – Registration & Light Breakfast

08:45 AM – Opening Remarks

09:15 AM – Keynote: Coming Soon!

10:15 AM – Keynote: Coming Soon!

11:15 AM – Break

11:30 AM – Keynote: Coming Soon!

12:30 PM – Lunch

01:45 PM – Keynote: Coming Soon!

02:45 PM – Keynote: Coming Soon!

03:45 PM – Panel Discussion: All Guest Speakers

04:15 PM – Closing Remarks / Prize Giveaway

04:30 PM – Event Closing

“Product Management, Customer Value, and Stakeholders” Rich Mironov

This workshop will help you understand various product management organizational models, the value proposition for product folks, and separating product waste from engineering/development waste. You will learn how to discuss customer value semi-quantitatively and how product managers can use that value to better align business stakeholders. 

“Radical Product Thinking (RPT) Workshop: Aligning Your Team on a Strategy and Measuring What Matters” Radhika Dutt

This workshop will help you understand what hypothesis-driven execution means in practice for leaders and individual contributors. You will get hands-on experience in communicating a comprehensive strategy to your team and gain a powerful technique to scale your thinking and increase influence. Finally, you’ll translate your strategy and priorities into how you measure success and what matters for your product. 

“Accelerate Impact: How to Align Design, Data, and Business through Insights and Experiments” Krissi Xenakis & Jocelyne Dittmer

In this workshop you will learn how designers can lead data conversations to solve the challenges that come from aligning design, data, and business. You will gain an understanding of individual teams’ needs, motivations, and approaches for collaboration, a toolkit of activities to help with building alignment on a common goal, and how to articulate the value of this information to stakeholders.

“How to Think About the Future with Strategic Foresight and Speculative Design” Phil Balagtas

In this workshop you will explore key methods and principles across Strategic Foresight and Speculative Design. You will learn the different types of trends, drivers, and forces of change that are constantly pulling and pushing on society and devise new ways to respond to future opportunities by fusing imagination and strategic thinking.

“Bridging the Gap: Creating True Partnership Between Product and Design” Jesse James Garrett

UX industry pioneer and executive design leadership coach Jesse James Garrett dives into the challenges of scope, authority, expertise, and viewpoint that keep design and product leaders at odds. Along the way, we will understand how aligning practices, communications, mindsets, and value propositions can help leaders on both sides of the gap create cross-functional relationships that lead to healthier teams and more successful products.

“Activating Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Strategy through Futures Design & Thinking” Phil Balagtas

Futures Thinking is an emerging field that incorporates principles and methodologies taken from Strategic Foresight, Speculative Design, and Design Thinking. It offers a rich set of tools that designers and product leaders can use to determine our ideal actions in future environments. Phil Balagtas, founder of a global community dedicated to the education and advancement of Futures Thinking, will share examples of futuring across the centuries and stories about practitioners who have made futures work across design and product teams.

“Radical Product Thinking: Transforming Your Organization to Build World-Changing Products” Radhika Dutt

In this thought-provoking talk, Radhika Dutt shares poignant and entertaining examples to illustrate how focusing on iteration to delight customers can go awry, and a radical approach to turn things around. You will learn to diagnose the common product diseases that are often fatal to innovation and gain practical tools to build world-changing products systematically. Whether you’re an executive or an individual contributor, you’ll leave with both the inspiration and the know-how to transform your organization to build radical products. 

“Ways to Measure Design Without Selling Your Creative Soul” Krissi Xenakis

As designers, we value form, function, and, most importantly, intention. But our design values often feel at odds with measuring business value. The stress becomes compacted when business leaders constantly ask designers to calculate their value. Is it possible to align design principles to business metrics? In this talk, Krissi Xenakis will share her journey to finding creative ways to measure design and some quick ways to align user value with business value while advocating for design craft.

“How Effective Communication Gets Design Leading the Conversation” Jocelyne Dittmer

Designers have lots of great insights into user needs, the problem that needs to be solved, and how to get to a solid outcome. The challenge is that we’re not always involved early enough in the conversation to steer the strategy and direction of a project – we’ve all had that brief land on our desk with the technology or solution already identified. Using a model centered on effective communication, Jocelyne Dittmer reveals the pitfalls and lessons learned from leading over 50 client engagements and suggests new tools and techniques we can all use to get design leading the conversation. 

“Product Waste, Discovery, and Stakeholder Input” Rich Mironov

Rich Mironov is sharing insights from his years of serving as a product coach to product executives and design product organizations. In this keynote, he will define product waste, and its distinction from engineering waste. From there attendees will learn the various ways that deep discovery delivers more value in its activity, before discussing the shift from internal stakeholder decisions to end customer outcomes.

1. Exclusive access to industry experts.

We bring the brightest minds shaping the product and design industries. And this year’s lineup is sure to impress – Jesse James Garrett, Rich Mironov, and Radhika Dutt will take to the stage and share insights gained from their years of experience.

2. Connecting with fellow professionals.

Here’s your chance to meet other like-minded people and make valuable connections, whether it be with your Rochester peers or those from across the country. The best part? Everyone at the conference wants to grow into better product and design people. There are plenty of opportunities to talk shop with other enthusiastic folks.

3. The best of both worlds.

Product and design roles come together more frequently than ever, and the P + D Conference provides the space to learn together. The keynote day is your chance to build strong ties with your peers. And if you’re looking for even more product or design, our area-focused workshops give you the opportunity to dig into the skill development opportunity available. A quick dive or a deep dive – the choice is yours.

4. Leveling up your abilities.

You will return to your team with new and sharpened skills transferrable to your everyday tasks. Learn best practices and ways of working that help you move faster and respond to your business’ needs in a more agile and collaborative way.

5. Rochester in summer.

Take a relaxing stroll through Highland Park, check out the local museum and art scene, or grab a garbage plate at the original Nick Tahous! As our conference concludes, the Rochester International JazzFest bursts into action – is there a better way to top off this spectacular event?