Data Driven or Data Distracted!

Our CCX Sydney October event features a very lively and topical panel discussion entitled Data Driven or Data Distracted
We will be applying a $10.00 cover charge to cover Food and drinks and on this occasion will be kindly hosted by the ONSET
https://theonset.com.au/

About the session
How Product, Design & Engineering actually use evidence to make decisions
How much data do we really need to make better product decisions? And when does being “data-driven” start getting in the way of good product thinking?

For this CCX Sydney session, we’re bringing together four practitioners from different corners of the product ecosystem — analytics, strategy and service design, UX/CX, and engineering — to explore the role data and evidence actually play in product development and delivery.

Each speaker will have 15 minutes to make their own case for — or against — being DATA-DRIVEN OR DATA-DISTRACTED. Rather than presenting a single view, they’ll challenge us to look at how research, analytics, customer insight, AI, product requirements engineering and data can influence the decisions we make — from defining the problem and creating the PRD through to designing, building and releasing the product.

Our speakers bring four very different perspectives: Olga Pasikova, Senior Analytics Director; Rob Tot, Strategy & Service Design Lead; Thomas Shillingford, UX | CX | Strategy | AI and Author; and David Berigny, Forward Deployed Engineer.

Each panel member will bring their own experience, provocations and examples to the question: when does data help us make better decisions — and when does it simply give us more information to react to?
Then we turn up the heat.

Following the four presentations, Sophie Greenfield, Senior Product & AI Designer at CBA, will lead a lively panel discussion, bringing the speakers together to challenge each other's perspectives and explore the tensions between data, evidence, intuition, customer understanding and design judgement.
Because being data-driven sounds simple. Knowing what data to trust, what it actually means, and when to ignore it is where things get interesting.

About our Panel:

### Olga Pasikova

Senior Analytics Director
Olga Pasikova is a Senior Analytics Director and experienced digital analytics specialist with more than a decade working across data, analytics and digital measurement. She brings a strong ability to translate complex analytics challenges into clear strategic direction, helping teams use data to understand behaviour, measure outcomes and make better-informed decisions. Olga is also an active member of Sydney’s data and analytics community.

### Rob Tot

Strategy & Service Design Lead
Rob Tot is a Strategy and Service Design Lead who works at the intersection of customer needs, business strategy and service innovation. His work brings together strategic thinking and human-centred design to help organisations navigate complex problems, uncover opportunities and turn insight into meaningful product and service outcomes.

### Thomas Shillingford

UX | CX | Strategy | AI | Author
Thomas Shillingford is a UX and CX strategist, designer, author and speaker with extensive experience across digital products and customer experiences. His career has included work spanning research, customer journeys, interaction design, usability, design strategy and large-scale digital transformation. More recently, Thomas has been exploring the impact of AI on design practice, including how AI is changing design systems, strategy and the role of human judgement.

### David Berigny

Forward Deployed Engineer
David Berigny is a Forward Deployed Engineer working at the intersection of technology, product development and real-world customer problems. His role brings engineering directly into the product development process — translating customer and business needs into practical technical solutions, testing ideas in the field and using evidence from real-world implementation to inform what gets built and how it evolves.

### Sophie Greenfield FACILITATOR

Senior Product Designer & Facilitator
Sophie Greenfield is a Senior Product Designer at Commonwealth Bank with more than 20 years’ experience across UX, product design, research and digital strategy. Her career has spanned product strategy, customer research and experience design across organisations including CommBank, Westpac and ING Direct.
Sophie has a particular interest in the intersection of data, customer insight, product strategy and AI-enabled design. She has been exploring and teaching AI-enabled design practices, from research synthesis and hypothesis validation to rapid prototyping and new ways of working for designers.

For DATA-DRIVEN OR DATA-DISTRACTED?, Sophie will facilitate the conversation between our four speakers, challenging their perspectives and helping unpack the bigger question: when does evidence genuinely improve product decisions — and when can data become a distraction from understanding the customer?

We are so excited to be wrapping up the year with this awesome panel discussion hosted by new friends of CCX Sydney,
the ONSET. https://theonset.com.au/

Lastly make sure you Join us for sponsored drinks post the event at a nearby bar
more details to follow. Regards Kevin, Lydia, Sylvia, James and Carolina.