Design Groups Melbourne
Explore Melbourne's vibrant design communities
Where do you thrive? Your product fit across startup, scale-up & corporate
Thu, Aug 6, 7:30 AM**Where Do You Thrive?** *Finding your product fit across startup, scale-up and corporate* Managing a product at a 10-person startup looks markedly different to managing one at a scale up or established corporate. While the title is identical, the day-to-day job requirements, the influence, the pace, and the path forward have key differences. So how do you know where you thrive most? Join Product Women Melbourne for a panel conversation with product leaders who've built careers across startups, scale-ups and corporates. We'll explore: · What actually changes about the role at each stage — and what stays the same · The trade-offs nobody tells you about (autonomy vs. resources, speed vs. structure, ambiguity vs. process) · How to know if you're in the right environment for where you are in your career · What it's really like to move between stages — and what surprised our panellists most **Panellists:** [Anna Kelk,](https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-kelk-743587a7/) Chief Product Officer, Splose [Kelly Nguyen](https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellynnguyen/), Senior Product Manager APAC, Heidi [Teresa Huang](https://www.linkedin.com/in/teresajhuang/), Head of Product Bupa Whether you're considering your next career move, curious about a different kind of company, or just want to know if the grass really is greener in a different setting, this session is for you. Expect honest conversation and insights and time to connect with the Product Women Melbourne community afterwards. **Venue**: Preacta, 260 Collins Street, Melbourne (Melbourne CBD) **Date:** 06 August 2026 **Time:** 5:30-7:30pm Kindly sponsored by Preacta: Talent Acquisition Solutions and Recruitment
Is Organisation Design Keeping Up?
Thu, Aug 6, 7:30 AM**Organisations are being asked to redesign faster. Is organisation design practice keeping up?** At our August meetup, Martin Foster will unpack insights from the Organization Design Forum’s latest global practitioner survey and report, revealing how organisation design is actually being commissioned, practised and evolved. The findings present an intriguing tension: experienced practitioners, strong craft foundations and senior sponsorship, alongside uneven technology adoption, AI used more to support the work than reshape operating models, and “continuous organisation design” still emerging as a practice. We’ll explore what is changing, what is not, and what these global findings might mean for Australian organisations. This session is for anyone shaping operating models, transformation, workforce, technology or ways of working. Not only those with “organisation design” in their title. More on Martin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinfoster/ Thanks to TeamForm, our event sponsor for providing a great place to meet and refreshments. Look at teamform for visualising your delivery teaming structures whether they be persistent or project based, and for desigining and operating the workforce behind them - given the work, aligning the right roles today and into the future. https://teamform.co/
AI-Native Teams: Beyond Product & Engineering Roles
Wed, Jul 29, 7:30 AMAI isn't just changing the products we build. It's changing the teams that build them. Hosted by **LTP Events** and generously supported by **Easygo** at their Melbourne CBD headquarters, this special evening brings together the below speakers for a candid panel discussion exploring one of the biggest questions facing our industry: * **[Mark Oliver](https://www.linkedin.com/in/markdavidoliver/)**, GM of Professional Services @ Brainmates * **[Adel Smee](https://www.linkedin.com/in/adelsmee/)**, Head of Engineering @ Up * **[Bryn Stone](https://www.linkedin.com/in/brynstone/),** Senior Product Operations Manager @ Easygo As AI becomes embedded in product discovery, software delivery, customer research, planning, and decision-making, leaders face a challenge far greater than adopting new technology: rethinking how Product and Engineering teams are structured, how decisions get made, and where accountability sits. From both a Product and Engineering perspective, this raises some uncomfortable questions. Are our current operating models fit for purpose? Which roles become more valuable, and which begin to disappear? Should organisations continue optimising for specialist roles, or move towards more autonomous, AI-enabled builders? Yet while leaders are designing for a future state, they must also lead today's teams. How do we build AI-native organisations without leaving current teams behind? How do we create space for experimentation while maintaining delivery commitments? And what capabilities should Product Managers, Engineers and leaders be investing in right now? Join **Mark, Adel**, and **Bryn** as they explore the tension between designing the teams of tomorrow and helping today's teams evolve quickly enough to thrive in an AI-native future. Following the panel discussion, we'll open things up for audience Q&A before continuing the conversation over drinks and networking with Melbourne's Product and Engineering community. **Evening timeline** **5.30 – 6.15pm:** Arrive, grab a drink, and connect **6.15 – 7.15pm:** Panel discussion and audience Q&A **7.15 – 8.00pm:** Networking, conversation, and connection We'll have light food and drinks covered—all we ask is that you bring your curiosity, your questions, and your perspective. **Reserve your spot today - RSVPs will close 48 hours before the event.**
🤖 Group Therapy: An Honest Session on How We Actually Feel About AI
Thu, Aug 13, 8:00 AMWe are finally doing it. A talk themed around AI. But we know it's session nobody wants to admit they need. We've all heard the AI buzzwords - "excited," "leaning in," "embracing the tools", "It's about Taste" But what's the version we tell our partner at 11pm? This session is a confession booth disguised as a meetup: no corporate talking points, no performative optimism, just a room full of professionals finally saying the quiet part out loud. What you'll hear: ✨ The mood ring check-in: Has your relationship with AI actually evolved - curiosity, to fatigue, to something like grudging acceptance? Or are you stuck on repeat? ✨ Empowered or expendable: The gap between the tools making us faster and the fear that "faster" was never really the point ✨ The honesty audit: Are we saying what we actually feel, or reciting the script we think we're supposed to perform? ✨ Slop or stealth: Is AI-generated mediocrity actually improving - or has it just gotten better at hiding in plain sight? ✨ The invoice after the honeymoon: Businesses got the discounted intro rate. Is anyone budgeting for what this actually costs once the novelty pricing ends? ✨ Who's actually watching the risk: How leaders are (or aren't) identifying, assessing, and managing AI risk before it becomes a headline 👉 The debate on the table: "Most people are more anxious than they admit" vs "People are largely fine and adapting" Pick a side. Defend it. Or admit you're not sure, which might be the most honest answer in the room. 📌 The details: * Date: Thursday 13th August * Host: Melbourne Design Thinking Meetup x Scyne Advisory * Refreshments included: Pizza and fizz! Our Speakers: **Liz Collins León** *Experience Architect \| Design Operations Strategist* Liz is an Experience Architect with over 15 years designing systems, campaigns, and communication solutions across retail, telecommunications, and front-to-back office operations. With tenure at Telstra, Google, and more recently Genesys, she is a design leader and mentor whose passion for creating inclusive experiences expands beyond delivering data-driven, digital products. Whether fostering a community effort to found a greenbelt reserve, designing learning spaces, or promoting psychological safety in the workplace, she endeavors to strengthen communities through online and offline connections. **Gemma Mooney** *Product Design Lead \| RACV* With over 20 years of experience spanning UX, digital product design and design leadership. She specialises in helping organisations understand customer needs and translate insights into improved products, services and experiences. At RACV, Gemma leads strategic discovery, research and experience design initiatives across a range of member experiences, including onboarding, emergency roadside assistance, payments, chat and AI-enabled digital services. She also led the design of the RACV app from concept through to launch, helping shape the vision, user experience and member proposition for one of RACV's most important digital products. More recently, she has been helping embed AI into the design practice, developing practical approaches for using tools such as Copilot to support research, synthesis, journey mapping and opportunity identification. Prior to RACV, Gemma was UX Manager at Intrepid Travel, where she established the company's UX practice and championed user-centred design across the organisation. She also led Intrepid's first innovation hackathon, bringing together cross-functional teams to solve customer and business challenges through design-led thinking. Throughout her career, Gemma has been passionate about creating evidence-based, customer-centred experiences and helping teams use research and emerging technologies to drive better outcomes for customers and organisations alike. Her work has been recognised with Intrepid Travel's Outstanding Achievement Award and Travel Weekly's Women in Travel Award. **David Cullen** *Managing Director, Scyne Advisory (GAICD)* David has spent two decades on the front line of Australia's cyber resilience — the kind of career where "incident response" isn't a slide in a deck, it's a 3am phone call. As Victoria's former Chief Information Security Officer, he built the state's Cyber Incident Response Service from scratch and led the response to Victoria's largest-ever public sector cyber-attack, all while establishing the frameworks that now coordinate cyber emergencies statewide. At the national level, David represented Victoria on the National Cyber Security Committee and built the National Operations Subcommittee to get states talking to each other before a crisis, not during one. He's now a Managing Director at Scyne Advisory, leading national incident response capability and helping organisations across the public and private sector get serious about cyber preparedness before they need to. David holds a Master of Public Policy and Management, is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and is a recipient of the Resilient Australia Award. He brings a rare thing to a stage: someone who's actually been the person picking up the phone when it all goes wrong — and has the scars, systems, and stories to prove it.
Denim and Lingerie Workshop
Sun, Jul 26, 3:00 AM
From Search to AI: Building Smarter Applications with Elastic & GenAI
Wed, Aug 5, 6:00 AMAI applications are only as good as the data behind them. Join us for an evening exploring how modern teams are using search, retrieval, and GenAI to build intelligent experiences powered by real-world data. Whether you’re experimenting with LLMs, building RAG pipelines, or looking beyond AI demos into production systems, this meetup brings together developers and builders working at the intersection of search and AI. Connect with the local community, hear practical stories from the field, and explore how Elastic helps bridge the gap between raw data and intelligent applications. **What You’ll Explore: ** * The Search Layer Behind Modern AI: See why search has become a key building block for AI applications and how retrieval, relevance, and indexing shape better user experiences. * RAG, Vector Search & LLM Workflows: Learn how teams are connecting language models with enterprise and application data using modern retrieval techniques. * Building AI Systems That Scale: Go beyond prototypes and explore practical approaches for creating systems that are reliable, observable, and ready for production environments. * Turning Data Into Intelligent Experiences: Understand how structured and unstructured data can work together to create smarter products, workflows, and applications. **Speakers:** To be announced soon, stay tuned! **Location:** The Wharf Hotel Melbourne - Portside Room. 18/38 Siddeley St, Docklands **Agenda:** 4:00 pm: Doors open; say hi and eat some food 4:25 pm: #Talk 1 & QnA 4:55 pm: #Talk 2 & Q&A 5:30 pm: Networking, Capturing image and event wrap-up 6:00 pm: Event closes **Who Should Attend:** This meetup is designed for a wide range of participants: * Developers and engineers exploring GenAI or search * Builders working with LLMs, RAG, or vector databases * Anyone curious about how AI works with real-world data * Elastic users looking to deepen their understanding * Professionals interested in scalable AI system design No matter your experience level — if you’re interested in the intersection of AI and data, you’ll feel right at home. **Interested in giving a talk?** Have you ever considered presenting on your Elastic use case? We welcome lightning talks of 5-10 minutes, 45-minute deep dives, and everything in between. If you're interested, please submit via our [CFP](https://sessionize.com/elastic-meetups) or email us at kartikay@elastic.co
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