When and where is it on?

UXDX EMEA takes place from 11th – 13th October in the RDS in Dublin. The conference can be accessed both in-person as well as online.

How many years has it been going?

UXDX started in 2016 so this is our 8th year in Dublin. But we also run conferences around the world such as our New York event which took place in May.

UXDX returns 11th – 13th October

What was the inspiration to start it?

Every time a company studies how well its software is performing it highlights that 85%+ of software features fail to deliver the expected value. And that is somehow accepted as something we have to live with. Fortunately, there are companies who are experimenting with better ways of working and that is what UXDX is all about.

We want to help companies improve the odds of successful product development by learning from the companies that are leading the way.

Many conferences have consultants or software vendors on stage, and this is great because these people have a lot of broad experience. But theory isn’t where the problems are. That’s why we get industry leaders to share how they are actually delivering the changes in practice, as well as the challenges along the way.

What exciting things can people look forward to?

We have over 30 talks and panels designed to inspire and motivate people on topics ranging from how to empower product teams to getting into the nitty gritty of UX, design and dev practices.

For example, we have an AI track but rather than looking at what AI might deliver we are looking at what it has delivered. CTO of King Games, Steven Collins, will be sharing how they use AI to augment their development process and Director of Machine Learning at Intercom, Fergal Reid will share how they built an AI chatbot on top of GPT-4 that is actually solving real problems in the wild.

But, while talks may be inspiring, there can often be questions about how one approach might be better than the alternatives because talks are positioned from one point of view. That’s why we are running multiple debates at UXDX this year to argue about important industry topics such as whether teams should go product-led or sales-led for their growth, whether it is better to be a generalist or a specialist and whether you can decentralise functions like research and keep high quality.

What opportunities are on offer for those attending?

Networking is one of the most important elements of a conference. But it can be hard to walk up to a stranger and start a conversation. That’s why we run Forums – interactive sessions to dive deep into a topic. The purpose is to get people to share the problems that they are facing and see if others have overcome the same challenges.

But they have a secondary purpose – it highlights who in the audience people have something in common with. At our USA event in May people highlighted that this made meeting new people much easier and of higher quality.We also host multiple networking activities such as a walking tour of Dublin, an after-party and a 5k run around the city.

Who will be speaking?

We have over 40 speakers including

• Steven Collins, CTO of King Games,
• Kent Eisenhuth, Staff UX Designer at Google,
• Sudev Balakrishnan, Chief Product Officer at Fis,
• Shilpi Sinha, Head of UX Research, Partners at LEGO Group,
• Andres Lopez Josenge, VP, Global Head of Product Design at Visa,
• Alberta Soranzo, VP, Global Customer Experience at Sage

and many, many more.

What tips would you give to people attending to get the most out of it?

Keep an open mind about the way that you work and the practices that you follow. Processes are a collection of the best practices at a certain point in time. But contexts change. By hearing how other people are tackling the same problems that you are facing you might learn how to increase your odds of success and build products that customers love.

How can people book tickets?

People can book tickets through our webpage www.uxdx.com/emea/2023/tickets

Anything else you’d like to add / we should have asked?

There are lots of Product conferences, UX conferences, Design conferences and Development conferences out there. The challenge is that people go to those conferences and learn practices that don’t take into consideration the other functions that all contribute to successful products and it perpetuates the siloing of different functions.

At UXDX we see the team as a single unit of product development so we invite Product, UX, Design and Dev together so that they can learn how each other contributes towards successful products and how to work better together. It takes a team to build awesome products!

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