You have a decision to make, an investment to secure, a prioritization to inform or an experience to build. We’ll talk about how you can design research to evoke the right stories that will be most impactful for these needs.

We’ll learn a framework that you can apply across professional contexts, starting with your desired result and impact. We’ll work backwards from here to craft the research and stories that will help enable your outcome.

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Being able to tell a compelling story about a user problem and advocate for a solution in a way that proves its value and impact on the company doesn't always come easy. How do you help people understand the problem space and how do you get alignment so that you can better make decisions?

Join Alan for an interactive session to help you learn storytelling frameworks for how to communicate user needs, so that you can work towards common language in problem solving.

You've got a great idea, but you need to convince your team that it's worth exploring. Learn to pair user problems with concrete business outcomes and turn data points into a narrative that helps you build an all-star support team. 

Figure out how to tailor your story to align with different stakeholder priorities and audiences. Use language to find the fun in your proposal, then watch your dream become a success story.

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Design systems critique sessions at Pinterest are open to all designers and engineers from different product areas, enabling cross-functional collaboration and diverse perspectives. It isn't just how we determine the success of a design concept but also how we drive our work forward. We've learned that what sets a valuable critique apart is the story we tell and how we engage with our audience. It can be challenging for people who work in completely different product areas to join a cross-functional design critique on a weekly basis to provide helpful feedback if the narrative is not precise.

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In this interactive session learn how to perform a design critique by refining your storytelling skills and using words purposefully, focusing on inclusive design best practices. In addition, you will understand how to communicate the problem with clarity in a design critique, and how to engage with your audience by using different storytelling techniques and approaches to better frame the feedback you seek.

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Today, billions of people across a wide array of interests rely on data to make critical decisions. Data visualization is a go-to approach because it leverages our natural abilities as humans to see trends, spot patterns, and identify outliers. A good visualization amplifies cognition and improves decision-making.  

So the question is this: How do we represent data in a way that provides the same value to everyone, regardless of ability? As a co-author of Material Design’s Data Visualization Guidelines, Kent will discuss Google’s six principles for data visualization and outline how his team applies them at scale to create more inclusive and accessible representations of data that supports rich storytelling and helps people make better design decisions.

Presentations help us win our next job and win over stakeholders. They can also give us heartburn. This workshop will cover creating narratives for two common scenarios: the portfolio presentation and the stakeholder review.

Introduce yourself more confidently, give your presentation focus, and learn frameworks to help get you started the next time you have to present.

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