Program

Jeddi kicks off the day with heart, humour and what to expect. Settle in, get your bearings and get ready for a day of big ideas and shared energy.

What happens when you loosen the grip on structure in a role built on process? Georgia Rust explores how embracing messiness can unlock greater creativity, connection and momentum. By deliberately making space for ambiguity, she reveals how new ideas and unexpected impact can emerge. Drawing from her own experience disrupting the expected, Georgia shares practical ways to rethink routines, challenge rigidity and lead with curiosity. This session is an invitation to let a little chaos in and see what changes.

Digital products rarely fall apart all at once. More often, they slowly drift away from what users need, becoming cluttered, unresponsive, and driven by the wrong metrics. Tim Hardaker names this slow decay for what it is and shows how to stop it in its tracks. With examples from his work leading ABC’s digital platforms, Tim shares how to reconnect product strategy with real audience needs. Expect sharp insights, practical methods, and a compelling case for always-on listening.

What does it take to run fast when the destination is still forming? Tarra van Amerongen shares hard-won lessons from design-led transformation inside Atlassian, where imperfect conditions, bold bets, and deep partnerships delivered unexpected outcomes. This is a story of shaking up the status quo, building belief in the unknown, and creating space for product and design to move together at pace. Expect practical insights, surprising turns, and a fresh perspective on what it means to lead through uncertainty.

As pressure mounts to deliver faster, better, and more collaboratively, the relationship between product and design is being rewritten. In this fireside chat, Pete Bradd from Miro and Che Douglas from Xero explore the evolving dynamics between these disciplines and what it means for building great products. Together, they unpack how alignment, trust, and shared ownership are becoming the new markers of success. Expect candid insights, lively debate, and fresh thinking on how to lead through collaboration.

What does personalisation look like when your mission is to serve everyone? Stephanie Saad takes us behind the scenes of ABC iview’s transformation, where public service, editorial integrity and a digital-first mindset had to coexist. It’s a story of careful risk-taking, reframing personalisation as a tool to elevate curatorial voice, not replace it. This session offers real-world lessons in leading innovation through complexity. Expect strategies for aligning stakeholders, building trust, and delivering value without compromising your organisation’s purpose.

What does it take to craft travel experiences that feel seamless, personal and unforgettable? Shay Hamama shares how Luxury Escapes blends content, commerce and customer signals to design journeys that inspire loyalty from first glance to final stay. Drawing on data, mindset frameworks and real-world applications, Shay explores the tension between discovery and decision-making, and how intent shapes design. This session offers a practical, strategic look at full-funnel experience design in an industry built on emotion and expectation.

Growth isn’t about shouting louder. It’s about tuning in. Hayley Rose introduces Magnetic Growth™—a framework for building brands people are drawn to, not targeted by. In a landscape overwhelmed by AI churn, trend fatigue and copycat thinking, this talk is a reset for those ready to lead with clarity. With lessons from global brands and high-growth scale-ups, Hayley offers practical ways to slow down, align your energy and build something original, resonant and impossible to ignore.

From childhood dreams of becoming Alicia Keys to boardroom transformation, Sathya shares a powerful reflection on who gets permission to speak up, stand out and shape what’s next. Through humour, storytelling and lived experience, she invites us to question how inclusion really shows up in creative and corporate spaces. This session offers practical ways to unlock innovation by creating environments where all voices are heard. Expect honest provocation, fresh perspectives and the kind of questions that make better ideas possible.

What if the biggest barrier to starting isn’t your experience, but your hesitation? In this energising session, BuildPass co-founder Matt Perrott shares his leap from civil engineering and corporate safety into construction tech, despite knowing nothing about the industry. Through personal stories and honest lessons, Matt explores how to navigate doubt, build conviction and back yourself when no one else will. This is a talk for anyone stuck on the sidelines, ready to move from hesitation to action.

What if the real measure of leadership is how well your team performs when you’re not in the room? Neha shares her experience building empowered, self-sufficient teams that continue to deliver through change, allowing leaders to focus on the bigger picture. With lessons from scaling global design practices, she offers practical hacks to embed ownership, accountability and growth. Grounded in the philosophy of head, heart and gut, this session is a guide to leading with intention and designing teams that flourish.

What does it take to launch a product in a world that won’t sit still? In this candid session, Fingertip co-founders Matt Blode and Olly Hoffman share the real story behind building a platform for modern creators and service-based businesses to show up online with less friction and more freedom. From pressure-cooker decisions to unexpected pivots, they unpack the lessons, challenges and values that shaped Fingertip. This is a story of resilience, simplicity and building something that sticks.

Tired of AI panic and the myth of the 10× PM? Sam Chan cuts through the noise with four moves to keep product leaders grounded, focused and delivering work that matters. From rejecting busywork to rallying teams and resonating with users, this is product leadership without the fluff. Blending provocation with practical tools, Sam shares candid stories from the trenches and rapid-fire tactics you can test straight away. If you’re ready to lead with clarity and impact, this one’s for you.

Jeddi returns to help us land the day, tie the threads together and leave with purpose.

Purpose

This session invites participants to locate their current practice within the evolving orders of design—and to explore how and when to move between them. The aim is to build individual and collective readiness for fluid, adaptive design practice.

Framing

Designers are increasingly called on to work across boundaries—of discipline, context and convention. This is not new, but the pace and ambiguity of current conditions demand a more intentional response. The capacity to read a situation, to understand where we are designing from, and to recognise what kind of design is required, is becoming critical.

To navigate this, we need a kind of observatory—a way to see not just the system we’re in, but how that system connects to others. Research, critique and co-inquiry are no longer peripheral—they’re central to practice.

This session offers a shared inquiry. It draws on the concept of design ‘orders’—from form-giving and systems shaping to culture shifting—to provoke reflection on the work each of us is doing now, and the work we might yet be able to do.

You’ll be invited to bring your own knowledge and experience into the room. Through a series of prompts and provocations, we’ll surface the strategies that support a practice able to move confidently—between craft and leadership, strategy and imagination.

Whether you’re launching a new idea or scaling an established product, the choices you make early on can shape every version that follows. In this practical session, product leaders, designers, and founders will learn how to scope and prioritise more effectively, reduce delivery risk, and know when to scale their team with the right kind of frontend support. 

You’ll walk away with proven strategies for managing risk across product phases - from launching your MVP to scaling towards Version 3 - so you can deliver fast, clean, and future-ready interfaces without accumulating technical debt.

Explore how AI is changing what your teams build, how they build it, and who they are building it for. Share how your leadership is evolving in response to new expectations, faster cycles, and shifting team dynamics.

This session is ideal for Heads of Product, Directors, VPs, and CPOs

As AI changes what you're building, how you're building it, and how fast you're expected to move, new challenges are emerging in how teams work. In this roundtable, we will explore the impact of new tools, shifting team habits, and rising delivery expectations. 

This session is ideal for Product Managers, Designers, Researchers, and Engineers

Amanda Brown and Tegan Henderson from Mantel Group will share a tactical framework for running impactful workshops Participants learn how to define outcomes, manage group dynamics, and drive clarity and follow-through—ensuring their workshops deliver alignment, insight, and results, not just vibes and Post-its.

If you’ve ever walked out of a workshop wondering what just happened or why it happened at all, you’re not alone.
But when done right, workshops are one of the most powerful tools in your design toolkit for alignment, insight, and momentum.
In this fast-paced and practical session, well break down how to run workshops that are genuinely useful, not just vibes and post-it notes.
 

You’ll learn how to:

• Define clear outcomes tied to product and design goals
• Work on your invitees to include the right mix of voices and avoid fatigue
• Plan and facilitate sessions that move from chaos to clarity Handle tricky dynamics without killing the vibe
• Follow up so decisions actually stick and next steps happen

Whether you’re running a discovery sprint, ideation session, design critique, or roadmap planning session, this workshop will transform the way you workshop.
 

Framing

You’ll join a rotating panel of 4–5 participants, guided by a host, to explore a selected topic from your perspective. Panels will rotate in 20-minute blocks depending on total participants (e.g. 3 panels for 15 people; 2 for 10).

The session will be recorded and live-broadcast to the regular #work_out_loud community (typically 20–30 attendees), with added visibility to conference delegates.

You’ll receive on-the-spot guidance on framing your stance, working in a conversational mode, and communicating clearly and persuasively on camera.

Come ready to share, reflect and speak with purpose.

This workshop explores how playful design and gamification can make complex ideas more engaging for your audiences. Over the course of three hours, participants will collaborate, brainstorm, and build a simple game, bringing ideas to life in a fast-paced, hands-on environment Whether you're jamming on new concepts or refining existing ones, this is a space to push boundaries and explore fresh ways to make products that resonate with a diverse audience. 

At the heart of the session is creation—expect to make something tangible. Perhaps it’s a card game, a board game, or even a high-energy round of charades, tailored to spark conversation and innovation. 

The goal isn’t perfection—it’s experimentation, fun, and maybe even a little chaos. By the time you step out, your brain will be buzzing, your perspectives challenged, and your creativity shaken up. 

Expect to leave inspired, energised, and thinking in new ways!