Collaboration between UX and Product Management

The user experience of a product is crucial in driving customer adoption, engagement, and satisfaction. As product team structures vary across industries and products, our discussion this evening focuses on the best process and model for enhancing collaboration, decision making, and execution between UX and Product Management stakeholders.

In this open panel, our guest speakers invite the audience to ask questions and contribute to the discussion. Speakers will also offer their perspectives and experience progressing in their own UX and Product careers. Please be sure to bring your questions!

Topics to address during presentation and panel discussion:

• Challenges of collaboration day to day in your organization
• Potential misalignment between UX and PM, and the reason behind them
• Method for decision making and prioritizing UX
• Career transition between UX and PM paths

Agenda for the event:

• 6:15 pm: Registration opens
• 6:15 - 7:00 pm: Networking (light refreshments)
• 7:00 - 8:15 pm: Presentation & Panel Discussion
• 8:15 - 8:45 pm: Wrap Up and Additional Networking

Registration is limited. Online purchases only. All ticket types are sold online via Eventbrite.

Moderator:

Bill Albert, Ph.D., Executive Director, User Experience Center at Bentley University

Bill brings more than 15 years of experience in user experience research and design to his role leading the center. He has expertise in user interface design, information architecture, qualitative and quantitative research techniques, and user experience strategy. Prior to joining Bentley, Albert was Director of User Experience at Fidelity Investments, Senior User Interface Researcher at Lycos, and Post-doctoral Research Scientist at Nissan Cambridge Basic Research. Albert is currently an adjunct professor in the graduate program in Human Factors in Information Design at Bentley University.

Speakers & Panelists:

Jessica Griffin - Vice President of Global Product Management, Kronos Incorporated

Jessica leads the Product Management and User Experience teams for Workforce Ready, Kronos’ cloud based HCM Solution. Previously she held product management positions at SAP, Frictionless Commerce and IBM. Jessica has degrees from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and Westfield State University.

Malini Rao - Senior Manager User Experience, Kronos Inc.

Malini leads the User Experience team of Workforce Ready at Kronos. She is a pragmatic UX leader that has spent almost 2 decades practicing and leading design at a wide variety of organizations such as Oracle, Red Hat, Siemens Medical, Acquia etc. With the mantra of ‘creative adaptation’, she proposes that out-of-the-box creativity should not be limited to the design of efficient and delightful user experiences alone but also to the methods of doing design itself.

Thomas McNamara - Manager, Product Management, Kronos Inc.

Tom is a seasoned Software Product Manager with progressive experience supporting SAAS/ASP applications within the Human Capital industry. He is experienced in leading teams through the full product life cycle including roadmap/strategy, requirements definition, prioritization and validation, user experience, and engineering development within Agile/Scrum environments. Previously he held product management positions at SkillSoft, Brassing, HireSystems and Monster. Tom earned his degree from Bridgewater State University.

Lori Yaverbaum - VP Experience, Commonwealth Financial Networks

Lori began her career in customer service, transitioned to online communications and then website design and development. In 2001, she joined Commonwealth, where she started the User Experience department, eventually overseeing product management, training, web production services, usability design, front-end development, and the development of a fully customized website program for small business owners. In her current role, she is responsible for the experience that employees and external customers have working in and with Commonwealth’s technology and the technology department. Lori has an MS in Finance from Lehigh University, and MBA from Boston University, and an MSHFID from Bentley University. In her free time, she loves to be outside, traveling, or just hanging out with her family and her pups, Oscar and Gracie.

Keri Donahue - Director Front End Development & Technology Training, Commonwealth Financial Networks

Keri oversees UX strategy at Commonwealth Financial Network, and directly manages two of the UX teams, ensuring that in-house applications and trainings are designed and built to provide the best possible user experience. She has over 20 years’ experience in the financial services industry, and 15 in the field of UX. Her work involves understanding the strategies behind the company’s various tools and creating designs and experiences that are in line with them. To do this, she works closely with clients, visual designers, UX Designers, and Front-End Developers. Keri received her undergraduate degree at Bentley and has attended too-many-to-count trainings, workshops and seminars in the field of User Design and Experience, including Bentley’s UX bootcamp. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with family and friends, being active outdoors, and traveling.

Jennifer Sawan - Product Manager, Commonwealth Financial Networks

Jennifer manages Commonwealth’s suite of products designed for advisors and their clients to access their account information, view statements and documents, and create financial plans. Jennifer spends much of her time working with advisors and their clients to better understand their needs and subsequently shares that knowledge with a team of analysts, developers and UX Designers who help create an indispensable and integrated experience for our end users. She works in an agile environment and prioritizes the work for the scrum team. Jennifer received her MBA at Babson, has over 15 years’ experience in the financial services industry and enjoys spending time with her husband, three children and new dog, Gary in her spare time.

Registration is limited. Online purchases only. All ticket types are sold online via Eventbrite:

• Advanced: $5
• At the door: $10
• Members of the UXC and Bentley HFID Faculty: Free
• BPMA members will receive $5 discount upon checkout. Please enter your BPMA member account email address as the promo code.

Note: At-the-door tickets are sold only via EventBrite app or Eventbrite website on the day of the event. No cash payments accepted. Please kindly purchase your ticket(s) online before 9PM on May 17th, 2018.