First up was the show-stopping tale from Benjamin Earl Evans, Airbnb’s Product Inclusion Lead. Benjamin emphasized that we all have a responsibility to design services that make everyone, everywhere feel included. All too often our own biases lead us to create services that marginalize or exclude. By recognizing implicit bias and truly iterating on research and prototypes, you can redesign systems and experiences to increase equity and customer satisfaction.

To wrap the evening, Sarah Drummond, CEO of Scotland-based Snook, presented her case on why having designers on a team doesn’t necessarily mean a user-centered organization. Our everyday micro decisions add up to the overall experience our users have and we as designers must acknowledge our influence. Whether it’s how you finance the products, what your outcome measurements are to what your staff deliver on the ground, we all impact the user experience. It’s easy to believe that the size of your team and design system is a measure of how much your organization has invested in design. But when you look beyond the invisible boundaries of your team and platforms, does everyone in the business really have a literacy of what good products and services look like?

Check out these link for the sketch notes!