Fail Faster

Todd Unger is the Chief Experience Officer of the American Medical Association, where he has driven record growth and gained international recognition for their CX program. A transformational marketing and digital executive, Unger's experience places him at the nexus of e-commerce, content, technology, product development and marketing, the building blocks of today's customer experience. Unger spent a decade at marketing powerhouses Procter & Gamble and Leo Burnett (where he helped invent GladWare Containers) before he leapt into the exploding digital world as a product manager in the early days of America Online, leading the $100 million AOL Local business and pioneering a predecessor to today's Yelp. As a Chief Digital Officer and CMO, he's since led digital and marketing teams across large and small media companies, including Lifetime Television, Time Inc. and the DailyRacing Form.

Jeremy Abrams is a self-taught UX practitioner. His unique blend of formal education and self-led learning led him through the rough-and-tumble world of startups to his current role as UX Director at Prosper Marketplace. Jeremy values leading with empathy, learning through failure, and fostering shared trust to empower his team. Prior to Prosper, Jeremy spearheaded the design of remote healthcare products at Anthem Insurance (now known as Elevance Health). As a staunch advocate of independent learning, Jeremy mentors aspiring UX professionals in his free time.

Elizabeth Benker is a user experience and product design leader. She builds design teams that launch human-centered products. In her 20+ years in the tech industry, she's helped over 50 companies design flagship products that work better for people. Currently, she is head of user experience and global content at Alteryx, the leading analytics cloud platform.

Dave Clark believes that the right design approach can create amazing experiences, solve practically any problem, and create massive business value. He is the VP of Experience Design at Kin + Carta, a global digital transformation consultancy, and oversees digital product design across a wide range of F1000 clients in Aviation, Healthcare, FinTech, Agtech and Aerospace. Prior to joining Kin + Carta, Dave spent two decades designing digital experiences and leading design and innovation teams at agencies in Chicago, San Francisco, and Southern California. When he isn't thinking about design, Dave is spending as much time as he can with his wife and their three wonderful children.

Michael Hough is a highly skilled designer with over 23 years of experience. He has held various roles, including Flash animator, HTML email designer, web designer, front-end developer, visual designer, and now specializes as a UI/UX designer.

During his 13-year tenure as a freelancer and contractor, Michael became adept at user research, wireframing, basic UX principles, and prototyping. He unknowingly performed UX work before the term gained popularity. Recognizing the value of his skills, he embraced the role of a UX designer, propelling his career forward.

Today, Michael's holistic approach to design combines aesthetics and functionality, ensuring seamless user experiences. With a track record of successful projects, he continues to evolve and stay ahead of industry trends. Michael Hough's extensive expertise, dedication to self-improvement, and ability to adapt make him a highly sought-after UI/UX designer, shaping the design landscape with his remarkable talent.

Yannis Paniaras is an accomplished Principal Level Director and Designer with extensive experience in leading multidisciplinary product development and design management teams across the United States, Europe, and China. Currently, Yannis is a founding member of Microsoft Digital's AI Center of Excellence, where he spearheads AI investments and experiences for various employee experiences within Microsoft. He has also transformed the creative direction for Microsoft Employee Experiences (EE) through close collaboration with the UX Strategy team in the Employee Experience Studio, setting a new standard for user-centric design and innovation. Yannis holds a Master of Arts degree from Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland, and has received comprehensive education in Italy, the United States, Finland, Sweden, and China.

As Head of Product Design & Research at Oracle, Jod Kaftan leads a design practice that strives to meaningfully impact climate change and provide SaaS solutions that bring critical energy services to populations globally. Jod has more than 20 years of extensive end-to-end expertise in the enterprise and at both agencies and start-ups, driving cross-channel experiences across platforms for blue-chip clients such as Sony, Microsoft, Riot Games, Google and Wells Fargo. Before leading design teams at Oracle and Accenture Song, Jod was an experience designer and strategist at shops such as Razorfish and Possible, where he's been exposed to a large spectrum of business models and design problems, from CPG, Financial Services and Entertainment to Non-Profits, start-ups and innovation labs. When not at home in Los Angeles, Jod is probably hiking with his wife, 12-year-old son and dog in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Jeremy Smith is an analytical creator who believes that there is an underlying structure to every experience and outcome we have. His efforts to decode solutions have led him down many paths of exploration, ranging from human behavior and psychology, cybernetics and systems thinking. Jeremy's schooling and early career focused on print design and branding, then shifted from experiential moment-making toward user experience, and is now focusing on designing enterprise systems and approaches that enable those moments and experiences. For the past 10 years, Jeremy has been working in the healthcare technology space and is constantly looking for ways to enable evolved experiences for all participants in the healthcare ecosystem. Outside of work, Jeremy enjoys running long distances and testing performance, nutrition, hydration and recovery approaches on himself.

Kevin Braun has over 20 years of leadership experience managing teams of UX designers and developers. In that time the work he has done has helped improve user experiences for world-class companies including Google, Samsung, Rolex as well as many smaller companies. Along with his professional experience, he has more than ten years of experience teaching college-level user-centered design. His book, From Chaos to Concept - A Team Oriented Approach to Designing World Class Products and Experiences was an Amazon #1 new release in UX back in 2021 and has done well since its launch in South Korea back in 2022.

Sergio Trevino is a creative-thinking manufacturing engineer with a deep passion for problem-solving by design. He graduated from UANL, Nuevo Leon State public university, as a Manufacturing Engineer with a minor in Product Design. Sergio is currently working on getting an MBA at Jack Welch Management University. He wants to help everyone use their resources better, deliver a manufacturable product to reach all the places, and still provide nice-to-see results. Sergio always strives to go beyond expectations to leverage operations with what he is learning, and designing. Moreover, develop business with his passions: manufacturing, design, and leadership.