IEEE Computer Society, GBC/ACM and BostonCHI

informal networking via virtual whiteboard and Zoom coordinated by BostonCHI at 6:30 pm
online only this year via Zoom

[Admission is free, but you must register at https://jaredspooljan2021.eventbrite.com/?aff=gbcacmwebsite"]

The UX Leaders' Secret Guide to Innovative, UX-Driven Product Roadmaps

Jared M. Spool, Maker of Awesomeness at Center Centre - UIE

Most UX professionals feel that they're at the mercy of their organization's product roadmaps. They're on the receiving end of decisions about what the team is building and when they're building it. These decisions are often not informed by their products' users' true needs. Instead, the decisions are driven by the stakeholders' beliefs that they must match competitive offerings.

The result is that UX teams are constrained to researching and designing in far too short a time period, where the problem isn't identified and the nature of the solution isn't well understood. They subsequently struggle to deliver what they believe to be the best possible product or service, feeling like they've busted their butts to only achieve mediocre results.

In this presentation, Jared will share the secrets that successful UX leaders have employed to take control of their product roadmap. You'll see what it takes to escape the misery of reactive UX practices by integrating key user research and design efforts directly into the roadmap planning process. You'll discover how UX leaders can work closely with their partners in product management to increase their organization's delivery of innovative products and services.
Jared M. Spool is a Maker of Awesomeness at Center Centre - UIE.

If you've ever seen Jared speak about user experience (UX) design, you know that he's probably the most effective and knowledgeable communicator on the subject today. He started working in the field of usability and user experience in 1978, before the terms "usability" and "UX" were ever associated with computers.

While he led UIE, the industry research firm he started in 1988, the field of UX design emerged and Jared helped define what makes UX designers successful all over the world. UIE's world-class research organization produces conferences and workshops all over the world and for companies in every industry.

In 2016, with Dr. Leslie Jensen-Inman, he opened Center Centre, a new school in Chattanooga, TN to create the next generation of industry-ready UX Designers. They created a revolutionary approach to vocational training, infusing Jared's decades of UX experience with Leslie's mastery of experience-based learning methodologies. UIE joined forces with Center Centre and now delivers the best professional development workshops, masterclasses, and conference in the UX Design industry.

For 23 years, he was the conference chair and keynote speaker at the now retired annual UI Conferences and UX Immersion Conferences, and he manages to squeeze in a fair amount of writing time. He is a co-author of Web Usability: A Designer's Guide and Web Anatomy: Interaction Design Frameworks that Work.

You'll find his writing at uie.com. You can also follow his adventures on the Twitters at @jmspool, where he tweets daily about UX design, design strategy, design education, and the wondrous customer service habits of the airline industry.

This meeting will be held online only due to the ongoing pandemic.