Rob Grady

As UX 2006 finished up (for me) yesterday, it certainly exceeded my expectations. It’s important to consider since there are organizational expectations that I will ‘learn something’ and subsequently ‘apply’ this to organizational initiatives as well as ‘teach’ these learnings to others. To evaluate it, I consider the conference on a number of levels including: Speakers, Relevance, Takeaways, and People from the perspective of a Product Manager and a User Experience Designer.

The speakers were great. The two tracks allowed me to pick the sessions that would be most appropriate for me. As a product manager who is responsible for managing the user experience, I come at it with a business bend. The sessions outlining the business value were a good refresher for the business side and it had been a few years since I heard NPV (net present value). Most of the topics were relevant and I definitely had some good takeaways from the sessions that I can apply. The people I met were terrific and it is always beneficial to have the discussions with folks who are as passionate about the topic as I am.

As I went through the seminar, I began to think about what would make this experience more tangible, more of a practical learning experience. I have to write up my notes immediately after the seminar so I have artifacts to jog my aging memory. What might be very cool for the good folks at Adaptive Path to consider is taking a day and break the attendees out to work on a ‘practical’ project for a non-profit.

Each team could work with a facilitator to come up with a topical deliverable. While it would certainly would be a challenge to come up with a discrete deliverable in a day, it would be very cool if it could be used for a practical purpose. If time is a factor, perhaps it could be an ‘on-going’ project. That would let team members continue their contact beyond the conference.