Pre-Conference Workshop

"A User's Guide to Managing Experience Teams"

Lead by Margaret Gould Stewart
Manager, User Experience Team for Consumer Products, Google

Last year, Margaret gave a 45-minute talk on techniques for managing design teams. It was our highest-ranked session, so we asked her back to offer a 3-hour workshop that provides more opportunity for discussion, activities and feedback. Learn more.

Confirmed Speakers (more to come!)

Brian Kalma, Director of UX, Zappos.com
Brian Kalma joined Zappos.com in 2003 and is responsible for Zappos.com’s User Experience and Web Strategy. Brian ensures anything that has the Zappos approval stamp in it truly supports the value proposition and is always “Zappos-like.” Brian’s primary project at the moment is the creation and evolution of the Zappos Beta site, where he is planning architectural improvements and new feature roll-out.

Kara Taff, Director of Web Office, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina
Kara Taff started at BCBSNC 12.5 years ago as a Health Industry Analyst in Healthcare Services development. She has taken on a variety of roles with increasing responsibility across Healthcare, Product Management, and eMarketing, leading to her current role as Director of the Web Office reporting the CMO. In her current role she is responsible for building and managing the online efforts of the state’s largest health insurance company. She manages BCBSNC’s corporate Web, drives BCBSNC’s business online, and implements the new Web strategy adopted by BCBSNC in March 2008.

Steven Keith, Senior Vice President, Strategy, Capstrat
Steven has worked with Capstrat, an integrative communications firm in North Carolina, for 5 years. He was initially responsible for building Capstrat’s digital practice area. In that process, Steven designed and differentiated his team around user-experience strategy. In the last half of 2008, Steven accepted a position as the Senior Vice President of Strategy at Capstrat where he leads digital strategy and online product development for Capstrat’s clients.

Jay Herratti, CEO, Citysearch.com
Jay Herratti is the Chief Executive Officer of Citysearch, a leading provider of local search services and an operating business of IAC. In this role, he has been charting the growth of Citysearch's web presence, its distributed local advertising network, and its mobile strategy.

Scott Berkun, author
Scott is a CNBC personality and author of "The Myths of Innovation" and "Making Things Happen" as well as an animated contrarian. He writes and speaks on project management, creative thinking and managing people. A two-time MX speaker, we are thrilled to have him back.

David Butler, VP, Design, The Coca-Cola Company
David leads the vision and management of design for The Coca-Cola Company. He began his career as a graphic designer developing identity systems and print communications and then focused on digital media with the rise and fall of the dot-com era.

Dan Roam, founder of Digital Roam
Dan has applied his business-oriented visual thinking skills while living and working in Switzerland, Russia, Thailand, France, Holland, and the US. His business book "The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures" was published March 2008 by Penguin Portfolio.

Marty Neumeier, President of Neutron
Neutron mixes elements of management consulting, brand strategy, and communication design to provide the "glue" that holds brand teams together. Neumeier is the author of two bestselling "whiteboard" books, "The Brand Gap" and "Zag." A third, "The Designful Company," has just been released."

Bruce Temkin, Forrester Research
Through his research and writing for Forrester, no analyst addresses the value and need for customer experience better than Bruce. His blog, http://experiencematters.wordpress.com/, is a must-read for all in this field, and his reports go beyond the typical analyst fluff to provide true insight into what's necessary to succeed in modern business.

Margret Schmidt, VP, User Experience Design & Research, TiVo
For seven years, Margret's work has been instrumental to the development of the TiVo experience. She now leads the groups responsible for user interface and user experience of TiVo's TV, PC, Mac, mobile, and Web products. And she's won an Emmy!

Margaret Gould Stewart, Manager, User Experience, Google
One of MX 2008's highest-rated speakers, Margaret returns to provide the tools she's developed over 15 years of managing user experience teams, including her most recent efforts managing the Consumer Products team at Google.

Sara Beckman, Co-Director of the Management of Technology Program, Haas School of Business
We're excited to bring Sara back into the Adaptive Path fold -- we first worked with her in 2003 on our groundbreaking report, "Leveraging Business Value: How ROI Changes User Experience." With one foot in business and the other in academe, Sara, brings both a practical and research orientation to her understanding of how design drives business value.

Who Should Attend?

If you are a VP, director, or manager involved in product strategy, product development, service design, or design management, this is a prime opportunity to join peers from around the world for two days of inspiration, education and networking, removed from the hustle and distraction of your working life.

Highlights from MX 2008

Highlight Reel

In just a few minutes, you'll get a glimpse of the best from this year's MX conference.

MX2008 | Highlights from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.

Ryan Armbruster

In this session we learned Ryan's proven techniques for integrating the complexity of human emotions into all elements of experience design.

Stephen Anderson

To understand how unorthodox ideas can make it through an organization, Stephen looked outside the design industry to filmmaking. Specifically, he analyzed at what it took to make the one of the most influential — and disruptive — films of all time: the original Star Wars movie.

Björn Hartmann

Björn unveiled his leading work in design tools for pervasive computing, sensor based interactions, and design by modification.

Cordell Ratzlaff

Drawing on experience from Apple, frog design, and Cisco, Cordel helps us understand what it takes to create a culture that fosters breakout products.

MX 2008 | Cordell Ratzlaff from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.

Peter Coughlan

Peter Coughlan describes some organizations that currently deliver great customer experiences, and suggests how organizations might go about strengthening experience design capabilities when this has not been a focus.

MX 2008 | Peter Coughlan from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.

Matt Jones

Matt Jones cites examples from the development of Dopplr and other services, as he discussed recent trends in social software, object-centered sociality, the beginnings of social infrastructure (opensocial, xfn, hcard, openID), personal informatics, and approaches for baking social ettiquette into the design.

MX2008 | Matt Jones from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.

Margaret Gould Stewart

Margaret Gould Stewart, User Experience Manager at Google discusses the traits that make some managers particularly effective, how she has customized her management style over the years to both corporate context and the individuals on the teams she has led, plus some specific tactics and tools she uses to refine and improve her management practices.

MX 2008 | Margaret Gould Stewart from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.

Chip Conley

Chip Conley, CEO of Joie de Vivre Hospitality, spoke at Adaptive Path's MX: Managing Through Creative Leadership conference. His keynote talk titled, PEAK: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow explores how to transform the workplace via the three key relationships in business with employees, customers and investors.

MX 2008 | Chip Conley from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.

Stephen Anderson of Viewzi presented:
"Leading the Rebellion: Turning Visionary Ideas into Reality"

A Graphic Guide to MX

Ryan Armbruster encouraged audience participation during:
"How Emotion Transforms Experience"