WXG SIX, get to know our speakers
Before we get started I need to ask you a question.
Do you have your tickets yet? You don’t? Then you should go and buy some right now…don’t worry, I’ll wait for you.
But seriously, it’s shaping up to be an amazing event and tickets are going fast and I promise you won’t regret it. Just a couple of clicks here and the tickets will be in your hands!
Ok, you’ve got some now? Great, let’s get on with this then!
We’ve got just over two months until our sixth WXG, and we’ve pretty much got this one in the bag. Between Kyan and Wirehive we have assembled some of the cleverest people we know and I for one am seriously excited about having the opportunity to hear them all speak in one place.
But rather than expect you to take my word for it, the WXG team sent a short list of pre-event questions to the speakers so you could hear it straight from the source.
So without any further ado, Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present Chad Jennings — Chief Product Officer at MOO 👏🏼
Talk Title
Fooling Ourselves with Data
Talk overview
Almost all businesses these days love to shout about being “data-driven.” Data is obviously fundamental, yet deep insights and break-through innovations are likely to come from understanding those who never show up in your dashboards and models. Let’s stop navel gazing and consider how we can better uncover insights that can drive growth, as well as useful, usable and delightful products.
1) What do you think attendees will get out of your talk?
Data and insights are a fundamental and increasingly important to doing our jobs. However, it is also highly biased and most critically, is likely taking our focus away from where true insights and massive growth may lie. This talk will hopefully help us be more aware of our biases and share a few tactics for getting to the insights (and growth opportunities) we are likely neglecting.
2) How did you get into your field?
I discovered user-centred design at the Institute of Design in Chicago in the late 90’s which brought together my interests in tech, research, design and business frameworks and I was lucky enough to land in San Francisco during the first dot com boom (and bust). I cut my teeth via consulting at Method and Smart Design then co-founded Blurb (blurb.com), the creative publishing platform. In a start-up you get to do a bit of everything, which led me directly to my recent roles leading Product Strategy, Product Management and Design at design conscious tech companies.
3) What advice would you give to someone new to the industry?
Consulting as part of a team or agency is a great place to start your career as you have opportunities to solve many different problems, learn how to manage clients and present, and tend to be surrounded by mentors and highly experienced people within your discipline to learn from directly. This provides a great foundation for then going in-house, joining, or creating a start-up where you get to dive very deeply into a domain and will thrive with the soft skills learned through client work.
4) What do you think is going to be the big “Thing” this year within the technology sector?
In April I am moving to Babylon Health where I’ll be leading Product and Design as CXO. Babylon is using machine learning to enable Doctors, companies and governments to bring more affordable and accessible healthcare to patients. After years of experimentation it looks like machine learning is poised to move from labs to broad, real-world applications — solving real problems for real people.
5) Who inspires you?
I am continually inspired by my 11 year old daughter. Children approach the world with such passionate curiosity and a real lack of presumptions about how our world should work. She has an openness to new ideas that reminds me to be open as well. She’s likely to have a job that doesn’t even exist today. In a world where we are drinking from the (mostly negative) firehose of information. She is an inspiring reminder that we can still build a better future if we are open to continually learning and questioning our own biases and solutions.
In our next blog, we will be introducing you to Jess White, Developer and founder of Women In Tech, Nottingham
#WXGSIX
