Rosenverse

This video is only accessible to Gold members. Log in or register for a free Gold Trial Account to watch.

Log in Register

Most conference talks are accessible to Gold members, while community videos are generally available to all logged-in members.

Opening Remarks

Gold
Wednesday, November 29, 2023 • Design in Product 2023
Share the love for this talk
Opening Remarks
Speakers: Louis Rosenfeld and Christian Crumlish
Link:

Summary

Lou Rosenfeld of Rosenfeld Media opens the Design and Product conference by sharing the collaborative and iterative process behind its creation, emphasizing community involvement and preparation with speakers. He introduces key contributors like Lauren Cantor, the conference librarian, and Manuel Herrera, the sketch noter, who help enrich the attendee experience. Lou details practical information about the conference's website, Slack channels, cohorts, and accessibility-focused sponsor sessions by Sam Pru at Fable. Christian Crum, the conference curator and product leadership consultant, follows by explaining the core rationale of the event: addressing the ongoing challenges UX practitioners and product professionals face around defining their roles and working better together. Christian outlines three main conference themes: achieving role alignment and clarity, understanding how strategy and priorities are set and defended, and effectively managing and influencing stakeholders including leadership. He notes the intention to foster open conversations through the conference and the associated Slack community, with the goal of advancing the field and resolving the tensions between design and product roles. The day’s program is designed to present coherent ideas that build on these themes, supported by diverse speakers and interactive experiences.

Key Insights

  • The Design and Product conference was developed over many months through iterative collaboration among curators, advisors, speakers, and participants.

  • Role ambiguity and collaboration challenges between UX practitioners and product managers remain a primary issue in the industry.

  • Conference themes emerged from community user research, capturing real concerns about role clarity, strategy setting, and stakeholder management.

  • Achieving mutual respect and clear agreements on roles is foundational before advancing productive design and product teamwork.

  • Both UX professionals and product managers can feel sidelined or overruled in prioritizing roadmaps and strategies.

  • Successfully influencing non-design or non-product-savvy stakeholders is critical for delivering results.

  • Supplemental conference resources such as sketch notes, written notes, and curated resource lists help attendees focus and retain information.

  • Virtual cohorts and social activities like Cozy Juicy Reel foster networking and deeper connections among attendees.

  • The conference includes highly regarded sponsor sessions, such as Sam Pru’s on accessible online shopping, which are open to the public and often requested for recording.

  • The conference aims to create an ongoing conversation and learning community via a Slack channel, extending beyond the event itself.

Notable Quotes

"This is a beautifully aged stew, delicious ideas that have a sum that’s greater than the parts."

"The conversation about design and product collaboration is happening privately inside businesses or from coaches and mentors."

"There is no one size fits all answer, but there’s also not even a common everyday answer to how design and product roles work together."

"If you don’t clarify the roles and who does what, it’s kind of impossible to do anything else."

"Product managers can feel like they have no say about priorities just like UX practitioners do."

"How do you influence bosses who don’t understand design, product, or technology? That’s a key challenge."

"Please come away from this conference with at least one contact, maybe even a friend."

"We want you to put your pencil down and pay attention because you have access to sketch notes, recorded talks, decks, and written notes."

"Sponsor sessions at our conferences are often so good that people ask for recordings — that’s unusual."

"Design and product is more about making sure design is part of product than implying any subordination."

Ask the Rosenbot
Feleesha Sterling
Building a Rapid Research Program
2023 • Enterprise Community
John Calhoun
Meters, Miles, and Madness: New Frameworks to Measure the (Elusive) Value of DesignOps
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2024
Gold
Rachael Dietkus, LCSW
Leading through the long tail of trauma
2022 • Advancing Research Community
Nathan Curtis
Beyond the Toolkit: Spreading a System Across People & Products
2016 • Enterprise UX 2016
Gold
Brian Moss
What Does it Mean to be a Resilient Research Team?
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Saara Kamppari-Miller
Inclusive Design is DesignOps
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Michael Land
Establishing Design Operations in Government
2021 • DesignOps Community
Bria Alexander
Opening Remarks
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Kit Unger
Theme 1 Intro
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
Maria Rosala
Research Repositories
2026 • Advancing Research 2026
Gold
Nina Jurcic
The Design System Rollercoaster: From Enabler and Bottleneck to Catalyst for Change
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Meredith Black
Building Community and Common Trends to Look for in 2021
2020 • DesignOps Community
Lona Moore
Scaling Design Beyond Designers
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Karen McGrane
AI for Information Architects: Are the robots coming for our jobs?
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Tim Parmee
Changing Our Design Pressure Points
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
George Zhang
UX Research Excellence Framework
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold

More Videos

Rebecca Gimenez

"If you ask our partners what we do, they might say I’m not totally sure, but I know that we need it."

Rebecca Gimenez

Work in Progress: Service Design at Airbnb

December 3, 2024

Lada Gorlenko

"IBM pivoted its design education program from in person to online very quickly and successfully."

Lada Gorlenko

Theme 2 Intro

June 9, 2022

Brigette Metzler

"Research Ops needs an operational brain — it’s not the kind of brain researchers usually carry."

Brigette Metzler Dana Chrisfield

Research Repositories: A global project by the ResearchOps Community

August 27, 2020

"We used standard metrics like task success, time to complete, number of errors, confidence, and delight."

Discussion

June 9, 2017

Sarah Brooks

"Community and ‘the phone a friend’ are what get you through the hardest parts of working in government."

Sarah Brooks Jennifer Pahlka

Fireside chat with Sarah Brooks and Jen Pahlka

October 21, 2021

Lisa Spitz

"We actively coach Department of PFML staff to shadow and eventually run their own research sessions so they’re empowered long-term."

Lisa Spitz Nikki Brand

Building Trust Through Equitable Research Practices

November 18, 2022

Theresa Neil

"You aren't going to understand the healthcare ecosystem right off the bat; it’s incredibly complex."

Theresa Neil

Designing for Wellness: Specializing in Healthcare

May 22, 2024

Maverick Chan

"Feeding interview data into ChatGPT helped us develop realistic character profiles and dialogues."

Maverick Chan Claire Lin

From Doodle to Demo: AI as Our Storytelling Partner

October 23, 2025

Alla Weinberg

"If there isn’t safety and connection, you get a culture of transaction and silence that kills innovation."

Alla Weinberg

Design Teams Need Psychological Safety: Here’s How to Create It

September 8, 2022