By Joe Welinske
This year at ConveyUX, we’re excited to explore content, design, leadership, and research with industry experts; share our best practices; and engage with our community. The conference will feature more than 60 speakers and more than 40 sessions and is 100% virtual, so you can attend from wherever you are.
Check out this article for a list of the Blink speakers at this year's conference:
What UXR Can Learn From [Insert Field Here]
Tulsi Desai — UX Researcher, Blink
May 2, 2023, 10:30-11:15 a.m. PT
If you’re trying to break into UX Research from a seemingly different field of work, chances are you’ve had these questions: Where do I start? How do I connect the dots between my previous field and UX Research without sounding like I don’t have UX research skills? And how do I articulate my winding career path as a cohesive story to hiring managers?
This talk will provide practical tips to navigate transitioning your career into UX research, talking through real-life examples from those who have gone through this journey.
Turning UX Stakeholders Into UX Advocates
Kate Ronkainen — Research Director, Blink
May 2, 2023, 1:30-2:15 p.m. PT
UX research is critical to the design process. It works best in collaboration across impacted functional departments and leadership hierarchies. Unfortunately, organizations tend to silo day-to-day work across practice areas. Solutions presented at any level through the lens of “user focus” don’t always resonate with stakeholders, especially analytical partners, and leadership.
What can we do, within our smaller purview, to lead with design?
Equitably Growing Diverse Design Teams: The Workshop Edition
Scott Lambridis — Vice President of Design, Blink
May 3, 2023, 12:30-3:00 p.m. PT
Imagine a world where you can hire people based on skills — not inherent biases — and a place where you can match designers to projects based on where they are in their career path and their skills. As businesses get better at prioritizing equity and diversity in the technology we design, teams need a framework to demystify how to manage people objectively.
Blink has crafted tools for reducing subjective bias across its design practice — hiring, onboarding, staffing, professional development, promotions, and, yes, raises — all while taking advantage of each team member’s unique background, skills, and experiences. The result? Team members who want to stay because they feel seen, supported, and have a clear path for growth.
Last Night a PM Saved My Life
Alexi Glines — Director of Project Management, Blink
May 3, 2023, 12:30-3:00 p.m. PT
Project management may not be the most glamorous part of a project — spreadsheets, am I right? — but a sound PM practice is often critical to project success. Whether you’re part of a team with a dedicated project manager or wearing multiple hats as a practitioner, this session will provide an experienced perspective on what to give your PM and what to expect from them in return so that your project will come in on time, on budget, and on scope.
In this interactive session, Alexi will share what project management looks like at Blink and how it fits into the UCD process. She covers everything from project planning and stakeholder management to tracking deadlines, deliverables, and budgets. Along with sharing insights from the project management process at Blink, there will be hands-on activities to illuminate the role of the project manager in the design and how to leverage project management practices in your work.
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: Quick and Efficient Ways to Incorporate Desk Research in Every Study
Anirudh Kedia — UX Researcher, Blink
May 4, 2023, 10:45-11:45 a.m. PT
Every project needs desk research, just like it needs a research design, session guide, and analysis plan. Desk research can increase knowledge about unfamiliar topics and meaningfully inform your research. However, “desk research” can be a slippery slope, taking a lot of time and rigor as part of the formal study design. You can sidestep these problems by simplifying and condensing desk research principles to provide additional context!
How can you work within project timelines and still include desk research in your study?
This talk will arm your researcher toolkit with the best practices of doing desk research, allowing you to work within project timelines while proactively gathering the background knowledge for the study’s success, increasing rigor, productivity, and efficiency across the board. Smart desk research can help you create better research designs, ask more meaningful questions, cut through domain-specific jargon, unlock new interview themes, and even gain actionable insights when primary research is impossible.