This is HCD: Tackling a designers biggest challenge

TALK:
This is a talk about something all designers have experienced. That out-of-body moment where the world around you feels like it’s working differently. You question the work you are doing and the role you have. It’s easy to look inward when it happens, but those moments tell us a lot about our skills, specialities, and value as a designer. This session is a reminder of how normal that feeling is, and what we can do to learn from it. With the help of psychologist Dr Paul Philips, we take a look at why we feel that way, and we’ll hear from 4 experienced design leaders about times it’s happened to them.

Don’t forget to come armed with questions for our panel of designers – with 50+ years of collective experience they really have seen it all!

SPEAKER PROFILE:
Meera Pankhania - Founder at Propel Design
As a design leader, Meera helps organisations take a human-centric approach to service transformation and helps deliver impactful, pragmatic outcomes while building capability and leading teams through growth and change. She co-founded Propel Design after 15 years of experience working in areas such as the Australian Public Service at the Digital Transformation Agency, where she led the design and innovation lab. Meera also got the opportunity to work as a senior policy adviser to the NSW Minister for Customer Service, Hon. Victor Dominello MP.

Rich Brophy - Senior Service Designer at Digital NSW
Rich Brophy is a stand-up comedian-turned-strategic designer with a knack for bringing people together.
Rich’s experience-led approach to design focuses on the way we collaborate, playing with framing and environments to deliver killer outcomes.

Zoe Rosen - Research Lead and Service Designer at NSW Department of Customer Service
Zoe is currently leading research initiatives for Lighthouse projects at NSW Department of Customer Service. Prior to this, she worked as a UX/CX Research and Strategy Lead at UBank.

Andrew Woodhead - Product Manager at batyr
Woody is a proud Yorkshireman that has gone walkabout, and has found himself in Sydney, via London! He is a Product Manager at batyr and is leading the development of their first mobile phone app - OurHerd. He draws on his own lived experience of mental ill-health which saw him set up The Finch Foundation and produce a beautifully illustrated short story book called LIGHT. This was the start of his journey to help people and he joined batyr in December 2019 to push his passion even further forward! He hopes to create an app that will provide hope and help to 1 million young people by 2022! A Computer Science graduate from Loughborough University, he has spent his career in tech and innovation and has a special interest in Human Centred Design (HCD). Outside of work he is sports mad! A lover of cricket, football (soccer), golf and a former international ping pong player. Lastly and very importantly he is a huge Sheffield Wednesday fan!

TJ Harrop - Product Manager - NSW Design System
TJ is a design manager, born-again coder, and over-keen amateur chef.
He helps grow design teams by making processes, tools, and standards that can scale and improve quality at the same time.

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