the lineup
More than 75 speakers from around the globe will join us at Config 2024 to share how they’re thinking, what they’re making, and what's next.
Attendees will leave feeling more connected to a community of builders and to the future of product development.
Aashrey Sharma
he/him
UX Designer at Epic Games
Host-
Bio
- Aashrey is a UX Designer based in Seattle, WA. He works on Fortnite at Epic Games where he designs social and safety features for players of all ages. He's also the developer of Figma plugins like Prototyper, Radial Generator and Button which enable thousands of designers to do their best work in Figma.
Alex Hsiao
He/Him
Vice President, Product Design at CNN
LEADERSHIP COLLECTIVE-
Bio
- Alex Hsiao, Vice President of Product Design at CNN Digital, steers the global product design and user experience across platforms including mobile and web, establishing CNN as the top online news outlet. An acclaimed design leader and entrepreneur, Hsiao has driven startups and global companies towards impactful user experiences and design-led success. His portfolio boasts collaborations with industry giants like Netflix and Marriott, earning him recognition such as Gold Horizon, AVA Digital Awards and features in the Wall Street Journal. Hsiao, a cum laude graduate in Graphic Design from American University, lives in Washington, D.C., and is a founding member of the Design Executive Council.
Alexis Gay
she/her
Comedian
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Bio
- Alexis Gay is a comedian and podcaster known for satirizing tech culture and her own neuroses. Her viral videos have received over 21mm views. Across 106 episodes of her podcast, Non-Technical, she interviewed influential tech and business folks about everything except their resumes. Guests included entrepreneur Mark Cuban, journalist Kara Swisher, and presidential candidate Andrew Yang. Alexis previously worked in the tech industry running Business Operations and Creator Partnerships at Patreon. She’s been profiled by Fast Company, Nightline, Business Insider, SFGate, and CNBC. Alexis will return to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2024 with her debut solo show, “Unprofessional.”
Alice Grandoit-Šutka
she/her
Independent Researcher
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Bio
- Alice is a research-based designer, host, and publisher who has developed an expansive practice that is equal parts experimental, referential, and relational, existing at the intersections of art, design, community building, and food. Among these expressions, Alice is interested in building infrastructures for convening that open up our capacity to feel deeply and orient towards liberatory futures. Alice co-founded Deem Journal, and is currently head of Public Discourse at re:arc institute.
Andy Allen
he/him
Software Designer at !Boring
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Bio
- Boring designer making not boring software.
Aravind Srinivas
he/him
Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder at perplexity.ai
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Bio
- Aravind Srinivas is the CEO of Perplexity, the conversational "answer engine" that provides precise, user-focused answers to queries — with in-line citations. Aravind co-founded the company in 2022 after working as a research scientist at OpenAI, Google, and DeepMind. To date, Perplexity has raised over $100 million from investors including Jeff Bezos, Nat Friedman, Elad Gil, and Susan Wojciki. He has a PhD in computer science from UC Berkeley and a Bachelors and Masters in Electrical Engineerin
Barron Webster
he/him
Product Design Manager at Replit
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Bio
- Barron is a designer, writer and educator who was the victim of a hit-and-run at the intersection of art and technology. Before managing the product design team at Replit, he worked at the Google Creative Lab bringing AI/ML tech to market — launching the Google Assistant, Google Lens, Teachable Machine, LAMDA and more. He likes making computers easier and has 2 cats.
Ben Fryc
he/him
Staff Designer (3D / Motion) at Wealthsimple
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Bio
- Ben is a 3D artist, motion designer, and illustrator with over two decades of experience in the design industry. He has worked with brands such as Google, Figma, Loom, and Wealthsimple to create motion-driven visuals and storytelling. Recently he has also been bringing to life a keyboard called the k.no.b.1 in partnership with Work Louder.
Bennett Miller
he/him
Filmmaker & Visual Artist
LEADERSHIP COLLECTIVE-
Bio
- Bennett Miller is an Academy Award nominated filmmaker and visual artist, renowned for directing critically acclaimed films like "Capote," "Moneyball," and "Foxcatcher." His work has earned significant accolades, including two Academy Award nominations for Best Director and the Best Director Award at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival for “Foxcatcher”. His transition into the art world has been marked by two celebrated exhibitions with the Gagosian Gallery, where his AI-generated prints have received considerable recognition.
Brian Douglas
he/him
Chief Executive Officer at OpenSauced
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Bio
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Brian Douglas is the founder and CEO of Open Sauced where he works on increasing the knowledge and insights of open-source communities. In the past he’s lead Developer Advocacy at GitHub by fostering a community of early adopters through content creation showcasing the newest Github features.
Brian has a passion for open-source and loves mentoring new contributors through Open Sauced, the platform that empowers the best developers to work in open-source.
Cam Worboys
he / him
Head of Design, OS at Cash App
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Bio
- Cam is a hands-on design director currently working at Cash app. Prior to Cash, Cam has led award winning work for Wise, Beats by Dre and Apple. His background primarily focuses on large-scale consumer-facing products, with an emphasis on core experience teams and global design systems. Some of his most notable work includes the recent Wise Rebrand and the redesign of Beats' digital experiences.
Cassidy Williams
she/her
Chief Technology Officer at Contenda
Host-
Bio
- Cassidy loves to make memes and dreams and software. She's currently the CTO at Contenda. She's worked for a variety of companies, large and small, advises startups, and she's had the honor of working on the board of various non-profits. She's active in the developer community, and one of Glamour Magazine's 35 Women Under 35 Changing the Tech Industry and LinkedIn's Top Professionals 35 & Under. As an avid speaker, Cassidy has participated in many events including the Grace Hopper Celebration for Women in Computing, TEDx, the United Nations, and hundreds of other technical events.
Cecilia Uhr
she/her
Co-founder & Chief Product Officer at Bezi
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Bio
- Cecilia is a Co-founder and CPO at Bezi, a collaborative, web-based 3D design and prototyping tool. She is a designer who loves the process of diving deep into a problem and coming up with a solution that feels elegant and well-crafted. Prior to Bezi, she built products at Oculus and worked with clients such as Instagram, Unicef, and the De Young Museum at design agencies in San Francisco. In her spare time, she can be found trying out a new recipe or at a dog park.
Christina Goldschmidt
She/her
Vice President, Product Design at Warner Music Group
LEADERSHIP COLLECTIVE-
Bio
- Christina Goldschmidt, VP of Product Design at Warner Music Group, is celebrated for scaling product design teams for major impact, utilizing data to foster cultures that advance business and social outcomes. With 25 years of experience at companies like Etsy and American Express, her work spans digital innovation and cross-functional leadership. A mental health advocate, she promotes authentic management styles. Christina is a founding member and board advisor for the Design Executive Council. Holding an MBA from NYU Stern, where she's a leading lecturer, and a B.S. in design from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, her expertise is recognized across the design and business sectors.
Claire Vo
she/her
Chief Product Officer at LaunchDarkly
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Bio
- Claire is the Chief Product Officer at LaunchDarkly, leading the tech team across product, engineering, ecosystem, and design. She brings a breadth of startup leadership experience, including roles as CPO at Color Health and Optimizely, which acquired Experiment Engine, a company she founded and led as CEO, in 2017. Outside her role at LaunchDarkly, Claire is an active speaker, advisor, board member, and angel investor, as well as the founder of ChatPRD, an AI copilot for PMs.
Daisuke Sakai
he/him
Co-founder at teamLab
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Bio
- Daisuke Sakai, born in Japan, 1978, graduated from the University of Tokyo's Department of Mechanical and Information Engineering. He co-founded teamLab in 2001, an international art collective exploring the convergence of art, science, and technology. With exhibitions in 27+ countries, teamLab pioneers global art and advances technology in system development and digital content creation, and is committed to pushing boundaries and redefining the possibilities of interdisciplinary collaboration.
Dale Sande
he/him
Principal Engineer at Alaska Airlines
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Bio
- Dale has worked as a Senior Engineer with companies like Getty Images, BestBuy, Microsoft, REI, AppDirect, and others. He currently leads development for the Auro Design System as a Principal Engineer with Alaska Airlines based in Seattle. Dale continues to be involved in the front-end community, both locally and nationally having co-authored two books on Sass, appeared twice as a guest instructor with Treehouse and continues to write instructional tutorials.
Dan Mall
he/him
Founder at Design System University
Host-
Bio
- Dan Mall is a husband, dad, teacher, creative director, designer, founder, and entrepreneur from Philly. He runs Design System University, where he creates, collects, and curates curriculum, content, and community to help enterprise teams design at scale. Previously, Dan ran design system consultancy SuperFriendly for over a decade. Dan writes about design systems, process, and leadership and other issues on his site danmall.com, in his weekly newsletter, and on Twitter and Instagram.
Dare Obasanjo
He/him
Lead Product Manager at Meta
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Bio
- Dare Obasanjo, Lead Product Manager at Meta, leads the team responsible for the in-app browser and key ad platform technologies for Facebook and Instagram experienced by billions of people. Prior to that he led multiple developer platforms at Meta including the Metaverse (Horizon Worlds) and Login with Facebook. He also spent 17 years at Microsoft where in his last role, he contributed to Bing Ads' growth to $1B quarterly revenue. Dare holds 20 US patents and is a prolific tweeter.
Diana Mounter
she/her
Head of Design at Github
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Bio
- Diana is GitHub’s Head of Design, where she and her team strive to deliver a developer experience that empowers and transforms the world of software development. She oversees Product Design, Design Infrastructure, Brand and Marketing, Customer Research, and Design Engineering. Her team is responsible for the end-to-end user experience of GitHub's features—such as Pull Requests and Copilot—as well as brand direction for events such as GitHub Universe, and delivering compelling launch campaigns.
Dmitry Belyaev
he/him
Principal Front-end Engineer at Booking.com
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Bio
- Dmitry Belyaev is a principal front-end engineer at Booking.com working on design systems and tooling. With over a decade of experience in UI development, he has specialized in leading design system initiatives. In his free time, Dmitry is helping design and development communities learn more about design systems through multiple public resources like Design System Checklist and interviews with leaders in the design systems domain.
Dylan Field
he/him
Chief Executive Officer & Co-founder at Figma
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Bio
- Dylan Field is the co-founder and CEO of Figma. Dylan studied computer science and mathematics at Brown University where he and his co-founder, Evan Wallace, first started experimenting with design tools built on (and for) the web. With funding from a Thiel fellowship, they began Figma. Prior to Figma, Dylan interned at O'Reilly Media, LinkedIn, and Flipboard.
Ellen McGirt
she/her
Editor-in-Chief at Design Observer
LEADERSHIP COLLECTIVE-
Bio
- Ellen McGirt is an author, podcaster, speaker, community builder, and award-winning business journalist. She is the editor-in-chief of Design Observer, an independent media company that has maintained the same clear vision for more than two decades: to expand the definition of design in service of a better world. Ellen established the inclusive leadership beat at Fortune in 2016 with raceAhead, an award-winning newsletter on race, culture, and business. The Fortune, Time, Money, and Fast Company alumna has published over twenty magazine cover stories throughout her career, exploring the people and ideas changing business for good. Ask her about fly fishing if you get the chance.
Emily Sneddon
She/her
Design Director at COLLINS
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Bio
- Emily Sneddon is an Australian designer working at COLLINS in San Francisco. She has helped to create brands and campaigns with some of the world’s leading creative agencies for clients such as Freeform, Youtube, Figma, and Spotify. She's contributed to work that has been awarded by D&AD, ADC Awards, Best Awards, and the AGDA Design Awards. Through design and storytelling, she aims to create work that is visually potent and grounded by ideas.
Ethan Eismann
he/him
Senior Vice President Design at Slack
LEADERSHIP COLLECTIVE-
Bio
- Ethan Eismann is the Senior Vice President of Design at Slack, where he leads a fantastic team that makes people's working lives more pleasant, simple, and productive. Prior to Slack, Ethan led Airbnb's design team focused on home-sharing, which was responsible for the majority of Airbnb's revenue and the core Airbnb experience. Before that Ethan led the Design team at Uber and the Commerce Design team at Google. Ethan started his design career as a designer at Adobe.
Eugenia Kuyda
she/her
CEO at Replika
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Bio
- Eugenia Kuyda is founder and CEO of Replika, the world's first AI friend. She is a former investigative reporter.
Dr. Fei Fei Li
she/her
AI Researcher & Professor, Stanford University; Co-Director, Stanford Human-Centered AI Institute
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Bio
- Join groundbreaking and author of “the worlds I see” AI innovator Dr. Fei Fei Li as she gets real about how AI will change how we interact with the world and one another - and the messiness we need to embrace. We’ll talk AI ethics, implications of the technology she developed, and her personal journey through education and research into a new space.
Garrett Hope
he/him
Vice President, Consumer Product Development at Paypal
LEADERSHIP COLLECTIVE-
Bio
- Garrett led product strategy and product management for multiple retail ads growth verticals at Google. He spent close to a decade working on marketplace product strategy and design for Expedia Group and Vrbo. Currently Garrett is responsible for end-to-end product development for consumer products and platforms and integration all common PayPal and Venmo products as consistent solutions. Products include PayPal and Venmo Apps, Shopping, Rewards, P2P and PayPal Promotions/Ads capabilities.
George Kedenburg III
he/him
Lead Product Designer at Humane
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Bio
- George is a Lead Product Designer at Humane, helping make technology feel exciting and magical again. Before that, George spent over 7 years at Meta working on video products like Facebook Live and creation experiences in Instagram Stories and Reels. George thrives on tinkering and experimenting, always eager to turn fresh ideas into reality.
Gonzalo Vasquez
he/him
Senior Product Designer at Zalando
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Bio
- Gonzalo is a Chilean senior product designer based in Dublin, Ireland. Currently part of the Zalando Design System team focused on designing and developing solutions with a systems lens connecting teams and platforms that impact Zalando’s customer experience. Designer by trade with a visual communication background and design and motion graphics experience. Outside work, he loves live music shows, cooking and travelling around the globe.
Gordon Ching
He/Him
Founder & Chief Executive Officer at Design Executive Council
LEADERSHIP COLLECTIVE-
Bio
- Gordon Ching, Founder & CEO of the Design Executive Council (DXC), champions strategic design leadership alongside influential senior executives, CEOs and board directors. Noting that only about 5.3% of Fortune 1000 companies have a chief design executive, DXC aims to boost this number, enhancing the influence and value of design functions in companies. Under his leadership, DXC has emerged as the premier member network for global design executives and board directors, providing executive networking, research, advisory, and business insights. With a background in design, research, and marketing at leading companies like Apple and Affirm, and a Master's in Design Management from SCAD, Gordon is at the frontier of elevating and integrating design's strategic role in transforming businesses worldwide.
Helen Hey
She/her
Digital Domain Lead at Commonwealth Bank of Australia
Leadership Collective-
Bio
- Helen Hey is the Digital Domain Lead at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the largest bank in Australia. Helen leads the team behind the Commbank App and Website, where one third of the Australian population log on daily. Prior to Commbank, Helen was an internationally awarded Marketer working on brands such as Discovery Channel, IBM, Westfield and Audi, before making the pivot to Founder, launching and scaling two corporate ventures for ASX30 companies.
Imran Chaudhri
he/him
President & Chief Designer at Humane
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Bio
- Imran is a British-American inventor and innovator and the President & Chief Designer at Humane. Prior to co-founding Humane in 2019, Imran was Director of Design at Apple. He worked at Apple for over two decades, joining as an intern in 1995. There he worked closely with Steve Jobs and Jony Ive, designing Apple's most iconic products, including the iPhone, Mac, iPod, iPad and Apple Watch. He is credited for features that define the functional aesthetic of Apple, including the single home button and slide to unlock. Imran has over 1000 patents in the field of human-computer interaction.
Jason Ballard
he/him
CEO & Co-founder at ICON
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Bio
- Jason Ballard has dedicated his life to working on big problems in service to humanity, most notably as the co-founder and CEO of ICON, the construction technology company developing robotic and AI systems to lower the cost and increase the speed and quality of construction. Raising $451 million to date in funding, ICON has delivered communities of 3D-printed homes in the U.S. and internationally and forged partnerships with world-renowned architects, builders and housing organizations missionally aligned to shift the paradigm of homebuilding. Ballard has been named to TIME100 Next as one of the emerging leaders shaping the future as well as Newsweek’s America's Greatest Disruptors: Visionaries and Innovators Who Are Changing the World.
Jason Lengstorf
he/him
Developer Media Consultant at Learn With Jason
Host-
Bio
- Jason Lengstorf is a creative technologist, filmmaker, and developer-focused marketing strategist. He works with tech companies to help them create mutually beneficial relationships with developer communities. A lifelong learner, Jason advocates for play and collaboration as a path to skill growth, career advancement, and increased happiness. He’s trying his very best to follow his own advice. He lives in Portland, Oregon.
Jason Yuan
he/him
Chief Design Officer at New Computer
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Bio
- Co-founder and Chief Design Officer of New Computer. Former member of Apple Design Team where he worked on the future of intelligent, expressive computing. Founder and co-inventor of MakeSpace (now known as Sprout), a multi-player-first telepresence platform. Creator of mercuryos.com and helped pioneer ideas in generative UI. As a designer, worked with clients like Klim Type Foundry, Blackpink, Chanel, Vogue, Jackson Wang, The MET Gala, Nike, Christina Aguilera, FKA Twigs and The Weeknd.
Jenny Arden
she/her
Chief Design Officer at Zillow
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Bio
- Jenny Arden is the Chief Design Officer for Zillow Group brands, overseeing design and research. She is a veteran design leader known for bringing new, large-scale initiatives to life through innovation and high quality design. She has served on design leadership teams at Nike, Lyft, Airbnb and Google connecting consumer technology, brand, business strategy, and innovation. She’s also a graduate of RISD and Brown University, bringing a multidisciplinary view into the field of design.
Jesper Kouthoofd
he/him
Head of Design & Chief Executive Officer at Teenage Engineering
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Bio
- Jesper Kouthoofd is a renowned Swedish designer, celebrated for his central role in Sweden's visual and technological landscape. As the founder and visionary behind teenage engineering, his contributions have revolutionized the electronic music scene with instruments that combine form, function, and fun in new ways. His work, spanning from directing iconic commercials to establishing billion-dollar companies like the fashion house Acne, showcases his versatile talent and originality. Kouthoofd's collaborations with global brands and celebrities highlight his influence in the design world. His projects, characterized by creativity reflect a unique approach to design and invention.
Jessica DeJong
she/her
Managing Director, Design at One North
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Bio
- Jessica leads the Design discipline at One North, a full-service digital agency and TEKsystems company. The One North Design team encompasses brand, visual, product, and motion design as well as front-end development. Jessica's background is in graphic design and human-computer interaction, and she has led teams working with United Airlines, Meta, and Booking.com. Outside of work, she is a mom of 3, hot sauce connoisseur, and avid Michigan Wolverines fan.
Jessica Hische
she/her
Lettering Artist at Jessica Hische Inc.
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Bio
- Jessica Hische is a lettering artist and New York Times Best-selling author based in Oakland, California. She specializes in typographical work for logos, film, books, and other commercial applications. Her clients include Wes Anderson, The United States Postal Service, Target, Hallmark, and Penguin Books. She's the author / illustrator of 4 picture books including the forthcoming My First Book of Fancy Letters (PRH, Oct 2024).
Jhey Tompkins
he/him
Senior DX Engineer at Vercel
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Bio
- Jhey brings ideas to life with code. He is a highly regarded developer, content creator, and speaker whose work has inspired countless people around the world. With over a decade of experience in tech, Jhey has become a leading voice on topics related to web development and creativity. Jhey has worked with and for names such as Vercel, Google, Nike, OMM, NearForm, Uber, Eurostar, Barclaycard, ATG, O2, and M&C Saatchi. His work has been featured in many publications around the world.
Jiaona Zhang (JZ)
she/her
Chief Product Officer at Linktree
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Bio
- Jiaona “JZ” Zhang is the Chief Product Officer at Linktree, the world’s leading link-in-bio platform empowering 45M+ creators, brands, and SMBs worldwide to grow, engage, and monetize their audience online. JZ joined Linktree from Webflow, where she was SVP of Product, crafting visually stunning creator-centric products. Previously, she led teams at Airbnb, WeWork, Dropbox, and teaches at Stanford University and Reforge. Based in Berkeley, CA, she lives with her husband and two young children.
Jonathan Gay
he/him
Founder at Freestone Ranch, Former CTO of Macromedia (Flash)
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Bio
- Jonathan pioneered the use of digitized sound and professional animation in early Mac games with Dark Castle. Moving into creative tools, he explored constraint-based drawing with Intellidraw. Dreams of drawing like pencil on paper led to SmarkSketch. Jonathan helped bring rich media interfaces, casual games, and video to the web with Flash and Flash Communication Server. His focus now is regenerative agriculture, indigenous food production systems, and landscape healing at Freestone Ranch.
Josh Wardle
he/him
Artist & Software Engineer at Gremco Industries, Creator of Wordle
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Bio
- Josh Wardle is an artist and software engineer living in Brooklyn, NY. His works ‘The Button’ (2015), ‘Robin’ (2016) and ‘Place’ (2017), explore human interaction at scale. In 2021 he released the viral word game ‘Wordle’, which he sold to the New York Times in 2022.
Joyce Croft
she/her
Senior Human-Centered Designer at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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Bio
- Joyce Croft is a Senior Lead Human-Centered Designer at NASA. She is working to drive the success of human-centered design across the Jet Propulsion Laboratory located in Pasadena, California. Before JPL, Joyce worked as a multi-disciplinary designer in Silicon Valley in startups, namely PagerDuty, and Fortune 500 companies, including Google and Amazon. She has a BFA from SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design).
June Lee
she/her
Product Designer at Alaska Airlines
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Bio
- June is a Product Designer at Alaska Airlines, part of the Auro Design System team. Passionate about uncovering patterns and enabling creativity through systems, June describes herself as having the heart of a designer and the mind of an engineer. She has been part of multiple startups and is dedicated to using her skills for the kingdom of God. In her free time, you can find June getting her hands on anything and everything crafty.
Karla Mickens Cole
she/her
Product Designer & Brand Lead at The Browser Company
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Bio
- Karla Cole, a Product Designer at The Browser Company, leverages experiences from Facebook/Instagram, The New York Times, and Big Spaceship. A VCU BFA graduate and published artist, she merges art and tech to transform digital experiences.
Kevin Systrom
he/him
Former CEO at Instagram, CEO at Artifact
LEADERSHIP COLLECTIVE-
Bio
- Kevin Systrom is an American entrepreneur who co-founded Instagram. Born in Holliston, Massachusetts, Systrom graduated from Stanford University with a degree in Management Science and Engineering. He started his career as an intern at Odeo, which later became Twitter and then worked at Google. In 2010, Systrom co-founded Instagram with Mike Krieger, and within a few years, the app had hundreds of millions users. Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012 for $1 billion, and Systrom continued to lead the company until 2018. He then resigned to pursue research for his next company, Artifact, a personalized news and content reading application driven by the latest advances in machine learning.
Kylor Hall
he/him
Principal Engineer at Atlassian
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Bio
- Kylor has been driving the adoption, standardization, and productivity initiatives for the Atlassian Design System over the past 18 months with a keen interest in having data support decisions without blocking them.
Lane Patrick Shackleton
he/him
Chief Product Officer at Coda
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Bio
- Lane Shackleton is the Chief Product Officer at Coda, a new all-in-one platform for businesses. Lane leads product, design, & marketing. As one of Coda’s earliest employees, he helped grow the company from private beta to usage by more than a million users globally, including customers like Figma, the New York Times & DoorDash. Prior to Coda, Lane spent nine years at Google & YouTube, where he helped create a cost-per-view video advertising solution called TrueView.
Laura Llewellyn
she/her
Creative Director at BBC Studios
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Bio
- Laura leads a global team as Product Creative Director at BBC Studios for Digital News & Streaming, driving the UX and design strategy that helps bring the best of BBC's news and factual content to international audiences. With a career focused in content and publishing, digital storytelling has always been at the heart of Laura's product design practice.
Lenny Rachitsky
he/him
Author at Lenny's Podcast // Lenny's Newsletter
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Bio
- Lenny writes a popular newsletter Lenny's Newsletter.com (top business newsletter on Substack) and hosts Lenny's Podcast (top product podcast globally), angel invests, and advises startups on product and growth. Previously, Lenny spent seven years at Airbnb leading initiatives in growth, quality, and community. Before Airbnb, Lenny was a founder (sold to Airbnb), and engineer.
Leonie Proske
she/her
Senior Product Designer at Zalando
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Bio
- Leonie is a senior product designer based in Berlin. With a background in industrial design and visual communication, she spent the first years of her career working in branding and marketing before transitioning into design systems within Zalando. In her current role she enjoys connecting different disciplines and teams at the intersection of brand and product. Off-duty, she loves exploring modern art galleries, sketching and experimenting with new sports, the current fixation being surfing.
Linda Dong
She/her
Design Evangelist at Apple
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Bio
- Linda is a Design Evangelist at Apple. She helps designers and developers in the community create great experiences on Apple platforms – especially for visionOS and games.
Llisa Demetrios
She/her
Chief Curator at Eames Institute
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Bio
- As chief curator of the Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity, Llisa Demetrios is responsible for stewarding the Eames Collection. As a sculptor and archivist, Demetrios worked for years alongside her mother, Lucia Eames, at the Eames Ranch in Petaluma, CA, where they welcomed guests to immerse themselves in this unique body of work. Today, at the newly-opened Eames Archives in Richmond, CA, Llisa continues to share learnings from her legacy through exhibitions, events, and public tours.
Margarita Popova
she/her
Chief Product Officer at Replika, Blush
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Bio
- Rita Popova’s enthusiasm for nurturing relationships, engaging in meaningful conversations, and promoting emotional well-being fuels her work at Replika. With more than half a decade's experience in developing an AI companion, she has come to realize communication with machines can enhance our human qualities and foster a deeper comprehension of ourselves and those around us.
Maria Hristoforova
She/her
Senior Product Designer at Uber
Host-
Bio
- Maria is a senior product designer on the design systems team at Uber, where she focuses on solving foundational design architecture problems while bringing the realms of design and engineering closer together. She values honesty in feedback as a means to push creative boundaries and uplevel the quality of design solutions. Outside of work, you can often her traveling around the world, exploring new coffee shops, or behind the pottery wheel.
Meghan Borsic
she/her
Senior Vice President, Design at Disney Entertainment and ESPN
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Bio
- As Disney's SVP of Design, Meghan Borsic champions the art of imagination in product design, guiding teams to craft experiences that embody the essence of possibility. With a deep belief in creativity's boundless potential, she leads teams to infuse each project with innovation and meticulous attention to detail. Her leadership ensures that Disney's products not only captivate but also carry the unique magic and craftsmanship synonymous with the brand.
Michael Di Genova
he/him
Co-founder at Work Louder, Inc.
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Bio
- Michael Di Genova is an entrepreneur, content creator, proud new dad and one of two co-founders at Work Louder. He specializes in creating products people want. As Pharmacology graduate, Michael self-taught himself business and design over his 10 years, and 2 previous startups, as a business owner. Due to his drive, and commitment to listening to user feedback, he has quickly turned Work Louder into one of the fastest growing and most beloved hardware companies in the indie tech space today.
Mike Stern
He/him
Design Evangelism Manager at Apple
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Bio
- Mike manages the Design Evangelism team at Apple. He helps designers and developers in the community create great experiences on Apple platforms (which sometimes involves pitching in on Apple's design resources for Figma).
Misha Sallee
he/him
Chief Executive Officer at Curio
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Bio
- Misha is CEO and co-founder of Curio. Before joining Curio, he ran a start-up studio called Kiwi Studios. This gave rise to numerous start-ups that were financed by companies such as Sequoia Capital.
Myriam El Harraq
she/her
Senior Vice President, Brands UX Innovation at ACCOR
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Bio
- With more than 15 years of experience in the digital field, Myriam began her career in a digital communication agency before working in the telecom industry, focusing on digitizing customer relations and e-commerce. Then, she shifted towards the travel sector, dealing with innovation, customer experience, and voice of the customer issues. Today, Myriam manages over 80 experts in these areas, with a constant focus on customer demands and business impact.
Nan Yu
he/him
Head of Product at Linear
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Bio
- Nan Yu is head of product at Linear, the modern software development platform that product teams love to use. Before his work at Linear, he was VP of product at Mode Analytics, and served as CTO at Everlane. He's based in Brooklyn, New York.
Nashilu Mouen
she/her
Head of Storytelling at The Browser Company
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Bio
- Nashilu is the Head of Storytelling at The Browser Company, where she leads the team in redefining how a tech company shows up and feels through brand, positioning, and go-to-market. Before then, she led go-to-market at Clay, and invested in brilliant people taking big swings at First Round Capital. A firm believer in telling the stories that have yet to be told, in the hours outside of work, you’ll find her somewhere in Brooklyn, writing about the world around us and asking what could be.
Nate Baldwin
he/him
Principal Product Designer at Intuit
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Bio
- Nate has worked in design systems for a decade. He's built white-label, multi-brand, and single-brand design systems at an enterprise level. Nate is passionate about design quality and systems-oriented design practices. He is the creator of design system tools LeonardoColor.io and Proportio.app. He is a color nerd and maintains the free resource ColorAndContrast.com.
Neha Batra
she/her
Vice President of Engineering at Github
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Bio
- Neha Batra is a VP of Engineering at GitHub, where she leads the Core Productivity org that focuses on the tools in developer’s daily workflows from seeing work in a project board to merging that PR into your Repo. She enjoys foodie adventures, planning trips, and collecting national park magnets. If you want to hear her ramble on a topic, ask her about experimenting with manager processes and playbooks or how much she misses Miami and its cafecitos.
Noah Levin
he/him
VP, Design at Figma
LEADERSHIP COLLECTIVE-
Bio
- Noah Levin is VP of Product Design at Figma, overseeing the Product Design, UX writing, and Design Ops functions. His job includes a lot of things, but primarily he’s responsible for attracting and retaining talented designers, setting and sharing context, providing actionable feedback, creating a healthy environment for design, and helping other design teams in the industry do the same. He truly believes design is best done collaboratively and in the open, and believes Figma‘s products are the best way to facilitate that.
Olena Musatova
she/her
Senior Software Engineer at Booking.com
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Bio
- Olena Musatova is a senior software engineer at Booking.com, working on design systems and tooling. With extensive experience in software development and deep expertise in the Figma API, Olena builds advanced tools that improve design and development workflows, always with an eye for quality and efficiency.
Oliver Sommermann
he/him
User Researcher at Ableton
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Bio
- A user research by trade and music maker by heart, these days Oliver is a generalist who contributes to the Ableton Note product across all disciplines, from Research and Design to Prototyping and Development in SwiftUI.
Ovetta Sampson
she/her
Director of UX Machine Learning at Google
LEADERSHIP COLLECTIVE-
Bio
- After a 22-year career in journalism, Ovetta earned her MS in CS with an HCI emphasis, becoming a Design Research Lead at IDEO. There she specialized in developing human-centered AI/ML design and research practices including IDEO's first AI Ethics guidelines. As Principal Design Director at Microsoft she led a team building designs for the world’s largest companies. Then as VP, Head of Design Machine Learning & Responsible AI at Capital One, she continued to deepen her expertise in ML/AI. She’s currently the Director of UX, Machine Learning at Google. Ovetta focuses her work on finding ways to maximize the positive potential of AI while minimizing its human engagement risks.
Pablo Sánchez
he/him
Principal Designer at Ableton
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Bio
- Pablo Sánchez is a designer for music and film. He works as a principal designer for Ableton building digital tools for music makers, and he creates opening title sequences for film. Pablo has published articles on interfaces and digital culture and collaborates as a teacher in different design universities such as BAU College of arts & design and Elisava school of design and engineering (Barcelona). He studied design and has a master’s degree in philosophy.
Peter Yang
he/him
Product Lead at Roblox
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Bio
- Peter is a Product Lead at Roblox. He cares about crafting quality products with customers and has done so at Meta, Twitch, Reddit, and Roblox. He writes about these topics in a newsletter read by 80,000+ tech professionals.
Phillip Maggs
he/him
Creative Director at Superside
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Bio
- Phillip Maggs, Creative Director of New Horizons at Superside, is at the cutting edge of blending Generative AI with creative services. Since November 2022, he has spearheaded a tenfold growth in his GenAI team, product integration, and project delivery for the world's leading companies such as Google, Meta, Amazon, Salesforce, Red Bull, and Boston Consulting Group. His efforts encompass AI-enhanced advertising creative, brand design, video production, and more.
Purvi Shah
She/her
Vice President, Head of UX Design, Research, and Accessibility at Target
LEADERSHIP COLLECTIVE-
Bio
- Purvi is a seasoned design leader with extensive experience in global payment, commerce, and retail. With roles at Target, Amazon, and Visa, she’s driven large-scale transformations, enhancing design maturity, digital innovation, and business impact. Currently, as VP, Head of UX Design, Research & Accessibility at Target, she oversees all aspects of guest and team member experiences, aiming to boost UX’s strategic value in the company’s vast operations. Her background includes positions at Amazon and Visa, focusing on design excellence and global strategic design, respectively. Purvi’s diverse experience spans multiple industries, contributing to her adaptive and business-focused approach. She holds degrees from Parson School of Design and is a founding member of the Design Executive Council.
Rachel Kobetz
she/her
Chief Design Officer at PayPal
LEADERSHIP COLLECTIVE-
Bio
- Rachel Kobetz is the Chief Design Officer of PayPal. Previously, Rachel held prominent leadership positions at Expedia Group, Bank of America, Amazon, and Samsung. She is the founder of Design Leadership at Scale, a Founding Member of the Design Leaders Community, Fast Company Executive Board member, ADC Jury Member for The One Club For Creativity, and writes the Defining Experience newsletter.
Raphael Schaad
he/him
Founder & Designer at Cron (acquired by Notion)
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Bio
- Raphael is a designer and engineer. He aims to create software that works and feels like a fine Swiss watch — in part by setting examples for craft, and in part by setting teams up to do their best work. Most recently, he set out to build a best-in-class calendar experience by founding Cron. Now as part of Notion, he's helping to make software tool-making ubiquitous. Raphael studied at the MIT Media Lab and originally hails from Switzerland. In his free time, he runs through forests.
Rasmus Andersson
he/him
Software Painter at Playbit
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Bio
- Rasmus is a designer and software painter. He's worked as a creative- and art director, product designer and software engineer at a number of different companies, large and small. Currently Rasmus is working on building a new operating system at Playbit. He was the founding designer at Spotify and went on to build products at Facebook and Dropbox before joining Figma as an early principal designer. At Figma he was foundational in developing many of the underlying models that power how the tool functions today. He is also the creator of the typeface Inter, which he made free and open sourced for the community.
Refik Anadol
he/him
Director at Refik Anadol Studios
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Bio
- Refik Anadol is an internationally renowned media artist, director, and pioneer in the aesthetics of data and machine intelligence. Anadol’s work locates creativity at the intersection of humans and machines. Taking the data that surrounds us as primary material, and the neural network of a computerized mind as a collaborator, Anadol offers us radical visualizations of our digitized memories and expands the possibilities of interdisciplinary arts. Anadol’s works encourage us to rethink our engagement with the physical world, collective experiences, public art, decentralized networks, and the creative potential of AI.
Reginé Gilbert
she/her
James Weldon Johnson Professor at New York University
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Bio
- Reginé Gilbert, an internationally revered expert in user experience design, seamlessly integrates roles as a designer, speaker, educator, and author. Holding the distinguished James Weldon Johnson Professorship at New York University, she is a symbol of excellence in the field. Her acclaimed debut book, "Inclusive Design for a Digital World," and forthcoming collaboration on "Human Spatial Computing" with Doug North Cook highlight her commitment to innovation.
Sam Drury
he/him
UX Director at UIC Digital
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Bio
- Sam and his team at UIC Digital have been building ground-breaking digital products for over 15 years. Sam also heads up UIC Labs, an innovation hub focussed on imagining and bringing to life the next generation of user experiences.
Sam Eaton
he/Him
Founder, Chief Toymaker at Curio Interactive
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Bio
- Sam is one of the founders of Curio. He previously engineered at Roblox and founded the Growth Engineering teams at InVision and Qualtrics.
Sam Whitmore
Co-founder & CEO at New Computer
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Bio
- Sam is co-founder & CEO of New Computer, a startup reimagining personalized computing for consumers in the age of AI. Formerly, she was Head of Engineering at Kensho, a company which used early NLP techniques to organize information for financial clients, including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and JP Morgan Chase. Kensho was acquired in 2018 by S&P Global for $550mm, at the time the largest Al acquisition in history.
Sara Vieira
she/her
Developer Relations Engineer at Orama
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Bio
- Sara is a developer relations engineer at @AskOrama. A retro game enthusiast and all around nerd.
Saron Yitbarek
she/her
Creator at Not A Designer
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Bio
- Saron Yitbarek is a 2x founder, creator of Not A Designer (design newsletter for devs), creator of Big Cash Money (a community of professionals with multiple streams of income), and founder of Disco (a tool for people with multiple revenue streams). She's also a developer and podcaster, and the founder of CodeNewbie (acquired).
Sheryl Bagga
she/her
Senior Product Manager at Zalando
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Bio
- Sheryl is a senior product manager from Canada, based in Germany. In her current role, she is responsible for evolving Zalando’s design system as a product, driving long-term impact of the system through a compelling vision and product strategy. With a background in digital media marketing she has built multiple digital experiences for telco and consumer brands before working in e-commerce. Outside of work, you'll find her travelling, crafting ceramics, or styling spaces.
Shishir Mehrotra
he/him
Chief Executive Officer & Co-founder at Coda
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Bio
- Shishir Mehrotra is CEO and Co-founder of Coda, the all-in-one platform for business, which combines documents, spreadsheets, and applications into a single canvas. Before founding Coda, he co-ran YouTube as the CPO / CTO, overseeing the YouTube product, UX and engineering. Prior to Google, Shishir spent 6 years at Microsoft and held leadership roles in the Windows, Office, and SQL Server divisions. Before Microsoft, Shishir was the founding CEO of Centrata. Shishir is an MIT graduate, and was awarded the Technology Review's TR35 ("35 innovators under 35") award in 2012. He has been an advisor to Spotify since 2015 and joined the board in June 2017.
Sho Kuwamoto
he/him
VP, Product at Figma
LEADERSHIP COLLECTIVE-
Bio
- Sho Kuwamoto is Vice President, Product on Figma editor. Prior to that he held product leadership positions at Medium, Macromedia, and Adobe. He’s known for having deep customer focus and a love for helping people create.
Simon Green
he/him
Lead Creature Artist at ILM/Disney, Dneg, MPC
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Bio
- Simon is a Lead Creature Artist, creating creatures, animals and monsters for the Cinema & Series at VFX studios such as Industrial Light & magic, Dneg & MPC. Simon has worked on projects for clients such as Disney, Warnerbros, Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Marvel, DC and more. He also has a specialist knowledge in animal evolution and biology, giving lectures at the London Science Museum, Trojan Horse is the Unicorn, Industrial Light & Magic and Dneg exploring these concepts.
Simone Giertz
She/her
Inventor, Robotics Enthusiast, YouTuber
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Bio
- Simone Giertz, the "Queen of Shitty Robots," is a trailblazing inventor and creator known for her unique approach to engineering and design. Her journey began with intentionally impractical robots, showcasing her commitment to embracing failure as an integral part of the creative process. With a global YouTube fan base (2M+), Simone shares humorous adventures in building, breaking, and reimagining robots, inspiring a new generation of makers to find joy in failure. Beyond YouTube, Simone captivates audiences with her blend of humor, storytelling and engineer expertise to deliver a fresh perspective on innovation, creativity, and the importance of embracing imperfections. Featured on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Wired Magazine, and a TED talk with millions of views, Simone Giertz continues to prove that innovation is not just about success but also the adventure and lessons found in the pursuit of the unknown.
Steve Dodier-Lazaro
they/them
Design System Engineer at France Télévision
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Bio
- Steve combines their engineering and design research know-how to build tailored processes and tools that support product organisations in their goals. Steve is trained in software engineering and human-computer interaction, and has worked as a frontend engineer, product designer and user research consultant, with a heavy focus on building and scaling design systems in recent years.
Suzie Prince
she/her
Head of Product, DevOps at Atlassian
LEADERSHIP COLLECTIVE-
Bio
- Suzie Prince is the Head of Product, DevOps at Atlassian. She has 20 years of experience building developer tools. Suzie has been leading high-performing teams at Atlassian for 4 years, delivering products that power software development teams worldwide. Before Atlassian, she spent 15 years at Thoughtworks, where she introduced Agile and DevOps practices to global Fortune 500 businesses. Suzie is passionate about empowering teams to deliver value quickly, frequently and sanely.
Taamrat Amaize
She/her
Chief Strategy Officer at COLLINS
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Bio
- Taamrat is driven by mining insights that challenge clients’ assumptions and inspire fresh, honest ways to design business and brand transformations. Taamrat is passionate about the intersection of race, representation, and the socioeconomic patterns that shape today’s macro and micro-cultures. She’s most interested in the brands that are willing to confront the issues shaping our future—climate, developing economies, and human rights.
Thomas Vidal
he/him
Head of Design at ACCOR @ Thiga
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Bio
- With 15 years in B2B/B2C digital design, Thomas focuses on design team scaling and strategic vision. As a Principal at Thiga, a premier digital consultancy in Paris, he currently serves as Head of Design at Accor, a global hospitality leader. He leads 35 product designers, creating exceptional digital experiences. One and a half years ago, at Decathlon, an international sports retailer, he expanded the design team from 20 to 120, a notable achievement in France, enhancing global experience development.
Tregg Frank
he/him
Cofounder & Designer at Divinate
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Bio
- Tregg is a leader, product designer, and side project cooker. He's also severely deuteranopia colorblind. As a result, Tregg has often found himself being the primary advocate for accessibility in the teams he's found himself on. When he isn't designing or trying to start things, Tregg can be found hanging out with his toddler or playing electric guitar.
Yuhki Yamashita
he/him
Chief Product Officer at Figma
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Bio
- Yuhki Yamashita is the Chief Product Officer at Figma, where he leads the product and design teams. Before joining Figma, he was at Uber for over 4 years, where he led the redesign of both the rider and driver apps. Prior to that, he was responsible for the YouTube app on iOS at Google.
Zulhilmi Icksan
he/him
Lead Product Designer at Open Government Products
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Bio
- Zul is part of the design leadership at OGP (open.gov.sg), building products for public good. Many of the products are ground-up initiatives, launched within weeks and embraced by millions of residents in Singapore. Zul has a decade of product experience. He has held roles at ExpressVPN, Pivotal Labs, and various startups. Outside of work, Zul plays with crypto to fund his vacations with his wife and two beautiful daughters.