Freelancing 101: Learn to thrive as a UX Freelancer

Curious how to break into freelancing or take your freelance work to the next level? Come learn from seasoned independent designers and researchers who will share what really works: how they built their businesses, navigated challenges, found clients, set rates, and stayed sane. Whether you’re just starting out or are already juggling clients, this is your chance to learn the practical, gritty truths of freelancing in design.

Moderator:
Ben Holland-Arlen is a product designer with 12+ years of experience spanning agencies, startups, and enterprise tech. He currently works at ServiceNow, creating experiences that make work life easier for millions of employees worldwide. He also has deep knowledge freelancing, having spent his first several years of his career working as a freelancer before starting his own independent design agency and working with other freelancers to help create products and experiences for clients.
Outside of work, he’s passionate about music, neurodiversity advocacy (as someone with ADHD and dyslexia), and experimenting in the kitchen. He lives in San Diego with his wife, son, and two dogs.

Panelists:

• Mary Knight (Product Design Freelancer) Mary is a freelance product designer who helps social impact founders and teams create products that balance user needs with business goals. With a background in product strategy, user research, and experience design, she’s led design at multiple early-stage startups. Beyond her design work, Mary mentors designers and entrepreneurs, facilitates team development programs at UCSD’s Challenge Course, and recently hosted her first yoga retreat. (Website LinkedIn)
• Daniela Surra (UX & Website Designer) Daniela Surra is a UX and Website Designer with a background in Communications who transitioned into UX after a career in Early Childhood Education. She founded her own design consultancy to continue growing as a designer despite a challenging market for juniors, and now works full-time with clients across industries. Daniela is passionate about designing technology that improves people’s lives and helping mission-driven companies strengthen their business through thoughtful web design. (Website LinkedIn)
• Gina McKinna (Freelance Graphic Designer & Brand Consultant)
• Christine Louie (UX Researcher Consultant) Christine is a UX research consultant currently supporting product and marketing teams at Adobe with community-based insights. She is experienced at leading exploratory research for brand new products in the 0 to 1 space, creating research programs, and is a proud co-founder of San Diego UX Researchers, the first professional research group in the area. (LinkedIn)
• Harriet Wang (Senior Product Designer - Independent Contractor) Harriet is a contract product designer at Intuit. She is currently embedded in a platform team and work on a variety of customer and developer experiences. Harriet came over to the US in 2016 from China to study Computer Science, and fell in love with UX Design along the way. Harriet has worked in a variety of positions between Design and Development since school, out of either necessity or passion, or both. Now, as life happens, found herself in the world of contracting as a designer since 2023, often as the solo contract designer in a team. (Website LinkedIn)

📝 KEY TOPICS

• Realistic paths into freelancing
• Finding clients, marketing yourself, and maintaining client relationships
• Setting rates and negotiating contracts
• Time management, boundaries, and avoiding burnout
• Pros and cons of full-time work vs. contract roles

🚀 AUDIENCE TAKEAWAYS

• Tips on launching or leveling up your freelance UX practice
• Strategies to find and retain clients
• Approaches for pricing, billing, and running the business side of design
• Real stories (including mistakes, pivots, and wins) from real freelancers

🕰️ AGENDA (PT):
5:30 pm - Doors Open / Networking
6:00 pm - Opening statements / Announcements
6:15 pm - Panel discussion
7:15 pm - Audience Q&A
7:30 pm - Optional post-event networking at Eureka at UTC Mall.

🏢 VENUE SPONSOR
**ServiceNow **puts AI to work for people. For more than 20 years, ServiceNow has been helping people work smarter. The Now Platform®  is purpose-built with native AI for quick deployment into workflows. It's the trusted AI platform for business transformation. ServiceNow offers custom AI tools for every department and industry to bring actionable AI to every corner of your business.