Cascade SF Events

Cascade SF is an experience design org. based in San Francisco, CA.  We produce live events, lectures, and mentor programs for UX Design professionals and aspiring UX Designers.Learn UX • Subscribe to our YouTube!youtube.com/designcareernetwork

Cascade SF

Designers share how to design exceptional experiences for technology.

Learn methods and design patterns to create accessible, ethical, and humane technology.

Learn how One Medical designs for remote care with service design and UX.

Designing for Remote Care with One Medical


This Virtual UXNight will be about the intersection of research and design.  We'll explore research operations, processes, and methods to improve collaboration and be more effective. 
Each talk will run about 25 minutes, then we'll have a 15 minute Q&A moderated by Andi Galpern, Founder of Cascade SF.  This is a virtual event that will take place on Zoom.  All registered attendees will receive a customized link with a password to attend the talks. 
Schedule
5:00pm:  Introduction and Announcements with Andi Galpern
5:10pm: "How UX research feeds into design" with Alex Goldman 
5:50pm: "How to write an iterative UX research plan" with Michele Ronsen
6:30pm: ""How to make a big impact with scrappy user research" with Megan Kierstead
7:10pm: ""Interviewing and hiring: What makes a great UX research portfolio?" with Daniel Camilleri
 
Presentation Descriptions
"How UX research feeds into design"
Alex Goldman, Design Research Lead Consultant (Past: LendingClub)
Researchers run surveys, ethnographic studies, user testing, and perform methods to add context and insights into the design process.  But what does that process look like?  In this talk, Alex will share the research and design process and how they work together.   

"How to write an iterative UX research plan"
Michele Ronsen, Design and UX Research at Curiosity TankIt's important to ensure that researchers get the entire team involved and continue to evolve their research plan.  Watch Michele Ronsen, expert user researcher, will walk us through her blueprint of how to create an effective UX research plan for you and your team.  

"How to make a big impact with scrappy user research"
Megan Kierstead, UX Research Consultant  (Past: Trifacta and Salesforce)
User research is important, yet some companies don't have the budget or timeline for UX research.  In this presentation, Megan will teach us how to move the needle with user research.  

"Interviewing and hiring: What makes a great UX research portfolio?"  
Daniel Camilleri, UX Research Lead Consultant (Past: Uber) 
Daniel will show us what he looks for when hiring UX researchers, how to explain the bottom line and show impact when interviewing for a user research role.  


Meet the speakers


Alex Goldman, Design Research Lead Consultant
Alexander Goldman is a UX/ Design Researcher with expertise in mixed methods research, strategic research, and the fintech industry. 
Most recently he served as Design Researcher for the personal loans business line at LendingClub, where he worked with design, product, and marketing to analyze and develop improved UX across the customer experience, including both strategic and tactical projects.


Michele Ronsen, Founder, Educator, and Design Researcher at Curiousity Tank
Michele Ronsen is the Founder of Curiosity Tank, a design and user research firm based on San Francisco, CA. 
“We are curious as hell and proud of it. Our mission is to identify customer insights and put them into action. The result is confident product and service decision-making.  The only thing that excites us as much as activating insight is empowering teams to fly themselves. We teach, mentor, and train teams and individuals to up their curiosity skills.” 
In February 2020, Curiosity Tank workshops launched. These one day, remote, deep dive classes are designed to provide temporary, accidental and aspiring with hands-on experience to improve their user research skills and confidence. Each class is packed with examples from extensive experience in the trenches of some of the most iconic brand-name companies in the world. Learn more at curiositytank.com/workshops. 



Megan Kierstead, UX Research Leader (Formerly at Trifecta and Salesforce)
Megan Kierstead has over a decade of experience in building out pragmatic, scrappy research teams across a variety of industries including healthcare, financial services, retail, and other notoriously complex areas.  

Daniel Camilleri, UX Research Lead Consultant (Past: Uber) 
Daniel is a registered Psychologist who specializes in User Experience Research, Design and Behavioural Economics. At Uber he worked on building a bank and helping to improve Driver financial health. Prior to that he co-founded a 3 day music festival and conducted VR research for the army. 

UXNight is produced by: 
Cascade San Francisco is an experience design organization, teaching you how to create the ultimate product experiences for technology.  We are based out of the Bay Area, but organize virtual events internationally, to give everyone a chance to learn.  Visit cascadesf.com for more details.


Partners

Curiosity Tank offers one-day, remote, and deep dive classes for working and aspiring user researchers.  Each class is packed with examples from extensive experience in the trenches of some of the most iconic brand-name companies in the world. Learn more at curiositytank.com/workshops. 






 
FAQs
Where is this event located? 
This event will be held on Zoom.  Prior to the event, you will receieve a unique webinar URL with a password.  
Can I watch the talks after the event date?  
Yes!  We will send you a private link to all of the talks 1-2 days after the event, and include a list of relevant resources.  
How can I contact the organizer with any questions?
Email andi@cascadesf.com with any questions you may have relating to this event. 
 
What's the refund policy?
All tickets available on a first-come-first-served basis.  If the event is cancelled because of the Coronavirus, we will reschedule and offer a refund to those who request one, up to 1 week prior to the event date.   


This Virtual UXNight will be about the intersection of research and design.  We'll explore research operations, processes, and methods to i

2020 is here, which means it's time to get clear on goals and define our path for the future. Join us for an evening of UX design mentoring and networking at Adobe HQ!  
Mentor night is all about dissolving the competition and coming together to learn and grow as individuals. Connect with designers in the community, get product design feedback, share ideas, and collaborate.

Get 1-1 product feedback from product design experts in 20-minute sessions 
This event is anyone who works at the intersection of design and technology
Sign up to get design advice, portfolio feedback, and strategic career advice
Light food and drinks served

 
 
Schedule: 
5:45 pm               Registration opensSign up on site to meet with a designer mentor for 20 minutes.  
6:15 pm - 8:15 pm     Speed Mentoring
8:15pm - 8:45 pm      Hang out and network
 
 
 View the official mentor lineup at cascadesf.com 
 
Past Mentors*
*This is NOT the official mentor list, but an example of our usual mentors.  As we move closer to the event we will announce our official list.  





Aniruddha Kadam
UX Design Manager
LinkedIn
LinkedIn



Corie Johnson
Lead Designer
ZenBusiness
LinkedIn
Twitter





Carola Pescio Canale
Product Designer
Dropbox
Portfolio
Dribbble
LinkedIn






Kristine Yuen
Design Lead
LinkedIn
Portfolio
LinkedIn
AngelList




Chris Gallello
Senior Product ManagerStrava
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn



Devin Fountain
Product Designer
Zoosk
Dribbble
Twitter 
 




Sunny Patel
User Experience Researcher
LinkedIn
LinkedIn



Johnatan Uribe
Product Designer
Okta
Website
LinkedIn



Paolo Ertreo
Product Designer (Growth)
Dropbox
Portfolio
Dribbble
LinkedIn
 




Christine Bower
Instructional Designer
LinkedIn
Portfolio
Twitter



David Holl
Founder and CEO, Design Sprints
Postobject
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn



Nicole Wang
Associate Creative Director, UX
Firewood Marketing
Portfolio
Angel.co
LinkedIn
 



Courtney Escanio
Product Designer & Art Director
Rodan + Fields
Portfolio
LinkedIn



Tyler Wilson
User Experience Designer
Helios Interactive
Portfolio
Twitter



Chris Liu
Senior Product Designer
Mercedes-Benz Research
Twitter
LinkedIn
 




Rachel Chung
Product Designer
AngelList Venture
Portfolio
LinkedIn



Christina Connolly
UX Designer
Apple
Behance
LinkedIn



Meritt Thomas
Senior Product DesignerMasterClass
Co-founder at RocketDept
Dribbble
Twitter
Instagram
 




Amy Ni Pan
Art Director & Designer
Hero Digital
Portfolio
LinkedIn



KaL MichaeL
Visual & Product DesignIndependent
Portfolio
Twitter
Dribbble



Chad Whitaker
Product Designer
AngelList
AngelList
Dribbble
Twitter
 



Luna Chen
Senior Product Designer
Instacart
LinkedIn



Garron Engstrom
Product Designer
Facebook
Website
LinkedIn
Medium



Jon Hall
Product Designer & Cofounder / Organizer
Hack the Future
Twitter
General Assembly
LinkedIn
 



Samantha Salvaggio
Senior Marketing Designer
Epic!
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn



Benjamin Rodigas
Senior Product Designer
LifeDojo
Portfolio
LinkedIn
 


Jay Stakelon
Product Designer
Oculus
Portfolio
LinkedIn
Twitter
 



Marek Szeszycki-Truesdell
UX Design Lead
Gap Inc.
Portfolio
LinkedIn



Adam Nedelman
UX Web Designer
Killer BrokerageFormerly at Salesforce
Portfolio
General Assembly



Elina Lin
Product Designer, Growth
LinkedIn
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn



 

Will Vaughan
Senior UX/UI Designer
Amazon Web Services
Portfolio
LinkedIn



Asim Khan
Product Designer
Netflix
LinkedIn
 


Olga V. Ivanova

Founder/Product Designer VR Oxygen
Portfolio
VR Oxygen
LinkedIn




 

Lukasz Lysakowski
Design Director

Peek
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn



 
 




Attention Senior Designers:  Be a Mentor.  Share Your Knowledge. 
Want to mentor?  Our mentors have 4+ years of experience working as a product designer, product manager, director, principle designer, content strategist and user researcher for technology.  Interested?  Email Lukasz at lukasz@cascadesf.com.

Hosted by   
  
Frequently Asked Questions
Where can I contact the organizer with any questions?
E-mail Andi Galpern at andi@cascadesf.com or Lukasz Lysakowski at lukasz@cascadesf.com with any questions you might have.
What is the refund policy?
All tickets are non-refundable and available on a first-come-first-serve basis. 
Am I guaranteed a mentor spot?  
By signing up for a ticket you are guaranteed at least 1 (one) 20-minute session with a mentor.  


2020 is here, which means it's time to get clear on goals and define our path for the future. Join us for an evening of UX design mentoring 

Learn how to run meaningful experiments to drive business impact.

Learn how to scale products with design and strategy
Join us for an after-work mini conference on how to scale your product in an organic and meaningful way. We aim to increase the talent pool of growth designers and help companies deliver more value to their users.




Target Audience
Product Designers, Product Managers, Marketers, Entrepreneurs, and anyone interested in the intersection of design and technology
Important
Each night will take place at multiple venues in San Francisco, CA from 6:00pm - 9:00pm

Food & Drinks served

Schedule
Monday, July 29, 2019 • 6:00pm – 9:00pm
Day 1: A Primer on Growth Design
Venue: Instacart HQ, 50 Beale Street Suite 600, San Francisco, CA 94105We’ll kick off The Growth Design Series with an overview of what growth design is, how to hire a growth designer, skills you need, opportunities, and how great design and an open mindset impacts the success of a company. 

Schedule for Monday, July 29, 2019
5:45 PM  Doors open, networking hour, food and drinks
6:45 PM  Introduction and Announcements by Andi Galpern, Director & Producer at Cascade SF
7:00 PM   “Practicing Growth Design”  with Lex Roman, Growth Designer at the Black Tux
7:30 PM   “Leading Design for Growth” with Chetana Deorah, Design Director, Growth, (formerly at Netflix)
8:00 PM   Fireside Chat with Bangaly Kaba, VP of Growth at Instacart

“Practicing Growth Design”
Lex Roman, Growth Designer at The Black Tux
Lex Roman is an advocate for growth designers based out of Los Angeles, CA. She organizes communities for growth design, gives talks, and has worked as a Digital Product Designer for Growth for the last five years. In this presentation, Lex will explain what growth design is, why it matters, and how it differs from core product design. ‍You’ll also learn:


How to make a case for your work with analytics


The step-by-step process to practice growth design 


How businesses can benefit from growth design 


Resources to expand your knowledge and skills



“Leading Design for Growth”
Chetana Deorah, Design Director, Growth (formerly at Netflix)
Chetana Deorah is a seasoned leader and builder of high performing product design teams. Her deep expertise is in consumer products and innovation for emerging markets. Most recently as Design Director at Netflix, she led product design for global acquisition & growth. In her presentation, she will provide a primer on leading design for Growth as it relates to product, people & process. You will also learn:


What designing for Growth is


The core essence of Growth UX


Why there's an emerging focus on Growth Experience Design


How to hire product designers for Growth UX


What makes a successful Growth team?



Fireside Chat with Bangaly Kaba, VP of Growth at Instacart
Bangaly Kaba oversees growth initiatives for Instacart, to build experiences that drive customer acquisition, retention and long-term engagement. In this fireside chat, we'll talk 1:1 with Bangaly to learn how he structured the growth team at Instacart and makes strategic product decisions at the top level.


Tuesday, July 30, 2019 • 6:00pm – 9:00pm
Day 2: Experimenting with Data + A/B Testing

Venue: Thumbtack HQ, 1355 Market Street, San Francisco, CA
On Day 2 of the Growth Design Series, we’ll explore how to use data to inform design decisions. We’ll cover areas like qualitative and quantitative research, how to carry ideas into multiple rounds of iterations, and define and execute A/B tests.

Schedule for Tuesday, July 30, 2019
6:00 PM  Doors open, networking hour, food and drinks
6:30 PM Thumbtack team serves us dinner (yay!)
6:55 PM  Announcements by Andi Galpern, Director & Producer at Cascade SF
7:00 PM   “A/B Testing and Designing for a Global Audience” with Derek Collins, Product Designer, Growth at Netflix
7:30 PM"Growth Strategies to Design Successful Products" with Paolo Ertreo, Product Designer, Growth at Dropbox
8:00 PM Panel with the Thumbtack Growth Team

“A/B Testing and Designing for a Global Audience”
Derek Collins, Product Designer, Growth at Netflix
Derek Collins works at Netflix as a Product Designer for Growth. Over the last year, Netflix has transformed their thinking of how they approach design for a global audience. In this presentation, Derek will share insights on how Netflix tests and scales design around the world. You'll learn how to:


Define hypotheses and evaluate metrics with global data


Combine quantitative and qualitative research to uncover problems and opportunities


Uncover local problems in a global marketplace


Approach to product design for growth from Netflix's perspective



"Growth Strategies to Design Successful Products"
Paolo Ertreo, Product Designer, Growth at Dropbox
As a Product Designer for Growth at Dropbox, Paolo Ertreo combines UX design methodologies with product management techniques to generate new ideas, identify high potential growth opportunities and create new business solutions. In this presentation, Paolo will cover:


How to cultivate a growth mindset


Product frameworks used to meet KPIs


How to validate ideas efficiently and expedite learnings


How to run quick iterative experiments to discover opportunities


+ a panel featuring the Thumbtack Growth team



Wednesday, July 31, 2019 • 6:00pm – 9:00pm
Day 3: Engagement + Metrics + Scaling Quality

Venue: LinkedIn HQ, 222 Second Street, San Francisco, CA 
On Day 3 we'll talk about how to deliver value to create returning customers, how to define what quality is and use it as a guide to create an exceptional experience, how to optimize your career as a designer, and how to measure growth.

Schedule for Wednesday, July 31, 2019
5:45 PM Doors open, networking hour, food and drinks
6:45 PM Announcements by Andi Galpern, Director & Producer at Cascade SF6:50 PM "Growth Lessons to Accelerate your Design Career" with Elina Lin, Product Designer, Growth at LinkedIn7:10 PM "Meet the LinkedIn Growth Team" 7:30 PM "How to Measure Growth" with Robbie Allan, Product Manager at Intercom8:00 PM "Designing with Data" with Ran Liu, Senior UX Designer at Amplitude


“How to Measure Growth”
Robbie Allan, Product Manager at Intercom
Growth metrics are the core of your business. They tell you whether or not you’re solving a problem for your customer. Yet, how do you know what to measure? How do you identify the key action that determines the success of your business?
In this presentation, Robbie Allan, Product Manager at Intercom, will teach us how to measure growth at a high level. You’ll discover that measuring growth doesn’t have to be a complex math problem. With Robbie’s guidance you’ll learn how to measure the right kind of engagement, keep the users you already have, know what's possible, and build something that people want.
"Designing with Data"
Ran Liu, Senior UX Designer at Amplitude
Amplitude helps product and growth teams instantly understand their users, build engaging experiences, and grow their business.  Over 12,000 companies use Amplitude including Microsoft, Twitter, Atlassian, and Paypal.  
For this presentation, Ran Liu, Senior UX Designer at Amplitude Analytics, will show us how to design with data.  She’ll talk about


How to evaluate design success with data 


How to use qualitative feedback and quantitative data to inform your design decisions


Product strategies to measure feature success


How to convert more customers with metrics



"Growth Lessons to Accelerate your Design Career" 
Fireside chat with Elina Lin, Product Designer, Growth at LinkedIn
It takes a unique type of person to be successful on a growth team.  The individual must be a strategic thinker, an inclusive collaborator, be flexible to change, understand data, and take ownership on projects. Elina Lin, Product Designer on LinkedIn’s Growth team, possesses all of these qualities and more. 
In this fireside chat, we’ll talk one-on-one with Elina about her journey to designing products for LinkedIn. With an unconventional and multi-disciplinary background, Elina evolved her design career using principles of growth design through rapid experimentation and learning, a growth mindset, and resourcefulness.Prior to LinkedIn, Elina made big impacts at startups including Simple Habit, where she led the design team to grow their user base from zero to two million users.  This fireside chat aims to inspire you to overcome your fears, challenge your own preconceptions, and lean into your strengths so you can reach your full potential.

Panel: "How Growth Works at LinkedIn"
Featuring Liz Li, Director of Product Management at LinkedInand Elina Lin, Product Designer, Growth at LinkedIn
With over 630 million users across the globe, The LinkedIn Growth team drives quality growth with a vision to create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce.  In this panel, we’ll explore how LinkedIn’s growth team works together to influence positive change in the product.  We’ll also learn about:‍•  The types of projects the LinkedIn Growth team works on •  Organizational structure and how they collaborate with other teams•  What a typical work week looks like•  How LinkedIn’s Growth team increases engagement and revenue•  Responsibilities and impact on the company•  How they run experiments •  And anything you want to learn – just ask! 


Thursday, August 1, 2019  • 6:00pm – 9:00pm
Day 4: User Activation + Onboarding + Notifications

Venue: Adobe HQ, 601 Townsend, San Francisco, CA
On Day 4, we'll explore how to onboard new customers, show them around your product, educate them on new features, create meaningful notifications, and build habits. 
Schedule for Thursday, August 1, 2019
5:45 PM  Doors open, networking hour, food and drinks
6:45 PM  Announcements by Andi Galpern, Director & Producer at Cascade SF
6:55 PM  "The Challenges of Optimizing your Onboarding Flow" with Chris Gallello, Senior Product Manager at Strava
7:30 PM  "Building an Effective User Onboarding Flow for Adobe XD" with Raghu Thricovil, Group Product Manager at Adobe 
8:00 PM  “How Adobe's Growth Team Works Together to Increase Product Activations” with Dustin Nguyen, Group Product Manager at Adobe + the Adobe Growth team

"The Challenges of Optimizing your Onboarding Flow"
Chris Gallello, Senior Product Manager at Strava
User onboarding is tricky but crucial. It takes a lot of trial error and experimentation to get it right. Chris Gallello, Senior Product Manager at Strava, will walk through tips on how to optimize your onboarding flow for maximum retention and comprehension. You'll learn about: ‍


Designing for different types of users who sign up


How to prioritize the different actions you want a user to take


Balancing speed vs. scientific perfection when testing


"Building an Effective User Onboarding Flow for Adobe XD"
Raghu Thricovil, Group Product Manager, Growth at Adobe
Raghu is a Group Product Manager for Growth at Adobe, where he works on product activation and user onboarding on Adobe XD.  Raghu creates intuitive onboarding experiences to guide customers on how to use Adobe XD in minutes.  In this presentation, you’ll learn:‍• Where to start when creating an onboarding experience • Essential elements of great onboarding• How to help the user build a habit for the product• How to motivate users to keep them engaged• How Raghu collaborates with marketing and design teams to run campaigns and A/B tests to improve acquisition and reacquisition KPIs• How to analyze the user journey to activate new and existing customers

“How Adobe's Growth Team Increases Product Activations”
Dustin Nguyen, Group Product Manager at Adobe + the Adobe Growth team
Dustin Nguyen, Group Product Manager, Growth at Adobe's Flagship Products, will lead us through his process on how he works with his team at Adobe to increase product activations and educate new and existing customers about features in the app.  We'll talk about how to 


Deliver the most value to customers within the first few interactions 


Design, test, and iterateson onboarding experiences to educate customers about new and existing features in the app


How Product Managers and Product Designers work together to increase product activations and reduce churn


and more.  



Jobs from our Sponsors




More than 35,000 companies, including half of the top 100 brands in the world, have adopted UserTesting to build better products, inform business decisions, and gain insight on customers to deliver amazing experiences. Checkout available jobs and apply! 


UX Writer Help shape the UserTesting product experience by crafting human and clear UX and UI copy. From ideation through implementation, you'll participate in all phases of the design and development processes to create a great user experience. Apply to be a UX Writer at UserTesting. Product Marketing ManagerUserTesting is looking for an experienced Product Marketer to own and drive the go-to-market strategy and execution of new products and solutions for our enterprise customers.. If you are a combination of master strategist, execution perfectionist, and storytelling wizard – they'd love to hear from you. ‍View the job listing and apply. User Research ManagerUserTesting is in hyper-growth mode and is looking for a User Research Manager to drive professional development amongst researchers at the company, and evolve the skillset of the team. Apply here





Millions of customers use Thumbtack technology to find and hire small businesses across the country. Checkout jobs from Thumbtack!   Thumbtack is hiring a Product Designer and Product Writer.  Apply at thumbtack.com/careers.






Only Adobe gives everyone — from emerging artists to global brands — everything they need to design and deliver exceptional digital experiences.
The Creative Cloud Growth team is looking for a Sr. Product Manager who specializes in Growth to join the team in San Francisco. You'll blend qualitative/quantitative insights, marketing and product skills to surface opportunities to the product teams, and run experiments.  Apply here.









Instacart is building the best way for people anywhere in the world to shop for groceries. Every day, they solve incredibly hard problems to create an experience for our customers that is absolutely magical. 


Product Design Manager, ShopperInstacart is looking for a creative leader who will help shape and build the digital experience for our Shoppers while maintaining a balance in the whole 4-sided marketplace ecosystem. Apply hereSenior Product Designer, RetentionWe're looking for a creative and thoughtful designer to lead our Retention Growth team, which is responsible for increasing customer adoption, preventing churn, and iterating on Instacart Express. View the job listing and apply





FAQs
How can I contact the organizer with any questions?Please email andi@cascadesf.com with any questions. Can I purchase tickets for individual days?Individual tickets will go on sale in the next few weeks.  Stay tuned.  ‍What's the refund policy?Tickets are non-refundable, but transferrable to another attendee and available on a first-come-first-serve basis. Although we anticipate that everything will go as planned, venue and speakers are subject to change in the case of an emergency.  





Learn how to scale products with design and strategy
Join us for an after-work mini conference on how to scale your product in an organic an

Join us for an evening of UX design mentoring and networking!
Mentor night is all about dissolving the competition and coming together to learn and grow as individuals.  Connect with designers in the community, get product design feedback, share ideas, and collaborate.

Get 1-1 product feedback from product design experts in 20-minute sessions 
This event is anyone who works at the intersection of design and technology
Sign up to get design advice, portfolio feedback, and strategic career advice
Food served and sponsored by Rodan + Fields 

Schedule: 
5:30 pm               Registration opens.  Sign up on site to meet with a designer mentor for 20 minutes.  
6:00 - 8:30 pm    Speed Mentoring
8:30 pm               Doors close
 
Our Mentors: 





Aniruddha Kadam
UX Design Manager
LinkedIn
LinkedIn
 



Corie Johnson
Lead Designer
ZenBusiness
LinkedIn
Twitter



Kristine Yuen
Design Lead
LinkedIn
Portfolio
LinkedIn
AngelList






Chris Gallello
Senior Product ManagerStrava
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn



Sunny Patel
User Experience Researcher
LinkedIn
LinkedIn



Johnatan Uribe
Product Designer
Okta
Website
LinkedIn





Christine Bower
Instructional Designer
LinkedIn
Portfolio
Twitter



David Holl
Founder and CEO, Design Sprints
Postobject
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn



Carola Pescio Canale
Product Designer
Dropbox
Portfolio
Dribbble
LinkedIn





Devin Fountain
Product Designer
Zoosk
Dribbble
Twitter 



Paolo Ertreo
Product Designer (Growth)
Dropbox
Portfolio
Dribbble
LinkedIn



Nicole Wang
Associate Creative Director, UX
Firewood Marketing
Portfolio
Angel.co
LinkedIn





Tyler Wilson
User Experience Designer
Helios Interactive
Portfolio
Twitter



Courtney Escanio
Product Designer & Art Director
Rodan + Fields
Portfolio
LinkedIn



Chris Liu
Senior Product Designer
Mercedes-Benz Research
Twitter
LinkedIn





Rachel Chung
Product Designer
AngelList Venture
Portfolio
LinkedIn



Christina Connolly
UX Designer
Apple
Behance
LinkedIn



Amy Ni Pan
Art Director & Designer
Hero Digital
Portfolio
LinkedIn





Meritt Thomas
Senior Product DesignerMasterClass
Co-founder at RocketDept
Dribbble
Twitter
Instagram



KaL MichaeL
Visual & Product DesignIndependent
Portfolio
Twitter
Dribbble



Chad Whitaker
Product Designer
AngelList
AngelList
Dribbble
Twitter





Luna Chen
Senior Product Designer
Instacart
LinkedIn



Garron Engstrom
Product Designer
Facebook
Website
LinkedIn
Medium



Jon Hall
Product Designer & Cofounder / Organizer
Hack the Future
Twitter
General Assembly
LinkedIn





Samantha Salvaggio
Senior Marketing Designer
Epic!
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn



Benjamin Rodigas
Senior Product Designer
LifeDojo
Portfolio
LinkedIn



Jay Stakelon
Product Designer
Oculus
Portfolio
LinkedIn
Twitter





Marek Szeszycki-Truesdell
UX Design Lead
Gap Inc.
Portfolio
LinkedIn



Adam Nedelman
UX Web Designer
Salesforce
Portfolio
General Assembly



Elina Lin
Product Designer
LinkedIn
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn





Will Vaughan
Senior UX/UI Designer
Glooko
Portfolio
LinkedIn



Asim Khan
Product Designer
LinkedIn
LinkedIn
 



Olga V. Ivanova
Design Director
Peek
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn





Lukasz Lysakowski
Product Designer at Kraken
Founder/Product Designer at VR Oxygen
Portfolio
VR Oxygen
LinkedIn


 


 




 

Attention Senior Designers:  Be a Mentor.  Share Your Knowledge. 
Want to mentor?  Our mentors have 5+ years of experience working as a product designer, product manager, director, principle designer, content strategist and user researcher for technology.  Interested?  Email Lukasz at lukasz@cascadesf.com.

Sponsored by 
 
Rodan + Fields is redefining skincare products in the digital age.  They are hiring UX Designers and Marketers. Check out available job opportunities here.  
  
Frequently Asked Questions
Where can I contact the organizer with any questions?
E-mail Andi Galpern at andi@cascadesf.com or Lukasz Lysakowski at lukasz@cascadesf.com with any questions you might have.
What is the refund policy?
All tickets are non-refundable and available on a first-come-first-serve basis. 
Am I guaranteed a mentor spot?  
By signing up for a ticket you are guaranteed at least 1 (one) 20-minute session with a mentor.  
 

Join us for an evening of UX design mentoring and networking!
Mentor night is all about dissolving the competition and coming together to l

The Holidays are here, and we want to celebrate with you! Join us for a festive Mentor Night.  Let's eat, drink, be merry, and talk about design.
Mentor night is all about dissolving the competition and coming together to learn and grow as individuals. Connect with designers in the community, get product design feedback, share ideas, and collaborate.

Get 1-1 feedback from design experts in 20-minute sessions 
This event is anyone who works at the intersection of design and technology.  
Sign up to get design advice, portfolio feedback, and strategic career advice
Food and drinks served and sponsored by Rodan + Fields 

Schedule: 
5:30 pm                 Registration opensSign up on site to meet with a designer mentor for 20 minutes
6:00 - 8:00 pm      Speed Mentoring
8:00 - 9:00 pm      Schmooze and hang out
 

Attention Senior Designers!  Be a Mentor.  Share Your knowledge. 
Want to mentor?  Our mentors have 5+ years of experience working as a product designer, content strategist, product manager, and user researcher. 
Interested?  Email Lukasz at lukasz@cascadesf.com

 
Current Mentor LineupThis is the current lineup but we are still signing up more Mentors!






Alex Goldman
VR Development and Design Strategy
Wells Fargo
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn




Marc Greenberg
Product & UX Lead
Postmates
Portfolio
Dribbble
LinkedIn



Marek Szeszycki-Truesdell
UX Design Lead
Gap Inc.
Portfolio
LinkedIn





Adam Ruf
Product Designer
AngelList
Portfolio
Twitch
LinkedIn



Ran Liu
Senior UX Designer
Amplitude Analytics
Portfolio
Dribbble
LinkedIn
 



Josh Puckett
Founding Design Partner
Combine VCFormerly Led Dropbox, Wealthfront, and Groupon
Portfolio
LinkedIn






Laura Mattis
Design Manager
Grove Collaborative
Portfolio
LinkedIn



Colin Toomey
Senior Product Designer
Consultant
Portfolio
LinkedIn



Johnatan Uribe
Designer
Okta
Portfolio
LinkedIn





Christine Bower
Instructional Designer
LinkedIn
Portfolio
Twitter



David Holl
Founder and CEO, Design Sprints
Postobject
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn



Alastair Warren
Senior Product Designer
Forward
Twitter
LinkedIn





Kai Gradert
Product Designer
AngelListPreviously Google and Adobe
Website
Angel.co
LinkedIn



Maggie Armstrong
Product Designer
WW (Weight Watchers)
Portfolio
LinkedIn



Carola Pescio Canale
Product Designer
Dropbox
Portfolio
Dribbble
LinkedIn





Nisa Andrews
Product Designer
Uber Electric and Independent Blockchain Designer
Portfolio
Dribbble
LinkedIn



Olga Ivanova
Product Designer and Founder
Kraken and VR Oxygen
Portfolio
LinkedIn



Joey Isaacson
Senior Product Designer
Uber Elevate
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn





Phil Ohme
Sr Manager, UX
Rodan+Fields
Angel.co
LinkedIn



Paolo Ertreo
Product Designer
Dropbox
Portfolio
Dribbble
LinkedIn


Nicole Wang

Art Director and Lecturer
Firewood Marketing
Portfolio
Angel.co
LinkedIn






Ryan Cunningham
Product Strategy
Uber
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn



Elina Lin
Senior UX Designer
LinkedIn (Growth Team)
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn



Asher Blumberg
Product Designer
TaskRabbit
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn





Tyler Wilson
User Experience Designer
Helios Interactive
Portfolio
Twitter




Dan Shilov
Senior Product Designer
Instacart
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn



Constance Smith
Product Designer
SoFi
Portfolio
Dribbble
LinkedIn





Jonathan Hull
Cofounder / Organizer
Hack the Future
General Assembly
Twitter
LinkedIn



Kritika Kushwaha
Product Designer
Uber Eats
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn



Trisha Suri
Product Designer
Uber Driver
Portfolio
LinkedIn





Adam Nedelman
UX Web Designer
Mulesoft
Portfolio
General Assembly



Ben Rodigas
Lead Product Designer
LifeDojo
Portfolio
LinkedIn



Alexa Herasimchuk
Product Designer
Zendesk
Portfolio
Instagram
Twitter





Cameron Turner
Design Lead
Amazon Web Services
Portfolio
Dribbble
LinkedIn



Elliot Onn
Lead Designer & Researcher
PagerDuty
Portfolio
LinkedIn



Maura Hoven
Product Designer
User Testing
Dribbble
Twitter
LinkedIn





Lukasz Lysakowski
Design Director
Peek
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn

 
 



 

 
Hosted and Sponsored by Rodan + Fields 

 
Rodan + Fields® is redefining the future of anti-aging skincare. Founded by Dr. Katie Rodan and Dr. Kathy Fields, world-renowned dermatologists, we are a premium skincare brand built on a legacy of innovative dermatology-inspired skincare products backed by clinical results. Our company was established on the principle that living better in your skin means living better in your life. We believe everyone has the opportunity to make a difference in their own lives—and in the lives of others. Accordingly, our unique business model offers an unparalleled personal enterprise opportunity for individuals to join a community of like-minded entrepreneurs connected via social networks. At the core of everything we do is a commitment to create positive change in people’s skin, in their lives and, ultimately, in the lives of others.
Check out available job opportunities here  

 
Featured Partners 

Designers use CloudApp to save time 

Record your screen with or without audio and share a quick link 
Create quick GIFs or video tutorials
Explain your prototypes with video and audio walkthroughs
Annotate feedback

Learn about CloudApp for designers


Want to easily setup and grow your own business?  Checkout hyke!  Hyke is an all-in-one platform for freelancers that makes running a business simple, help you save 25% or more in taxes and focus on growing your business.  For more information, visit hyke.me.
 

 
Frequently Asked Questions
Where can I contact the organizer with any questions?
E-mail Andi Galpern at andi@cascadesf.com or Lukasz Lysakowski at lukasz@cascadesf.com with any questions you might have.
What is the refund policy?
All tickets are non-refundable and available on a first-come-first-serve basis. 

The Holidays are here, and we want to celebrate with you! Join us for a festive Mentor Night.  Let's eat, drink, be merry, and talk about de



Join us for an evening to learn how to design conversational interfaces. 
As machines grow smarter, we strive to make interactions more human-like and easier to use.  Conversational design is more than writing a script.  It involves critical thinking and combines various fields of UX including interaction design, voice UX, copywriting, user interface design, visual design, and system architecture.  Learn from experts on how to streamline search and make it easy for the user to accomplish tasks with conversation design.

Schedule: 
5:45 PM   Doors Open
6:30 PM    "Designing Voice UX for Car Interfaces" with Chris Liu
7:00 PM    "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Conversation Design..." with Cathy Pearl
7:40 PM     Contest by CloudApp.  Bring your laptop, install CloudApp and play a game with us!  Win an Oculus Go or a Kindle Paperwhite!
8:00 PM   "The State of Conversational AI" with Mariya Yao

Presentations:

"Designing Voice UX for Car Interfaces"
Chris Liu, Product Designer and R&D at Mercedes Benz North America& Cohost of Design Review Podcast
Conversation design is powerful because it gives the user a direct path to find what they are looking for.  In this presentation, Chris will teach you key design principles to consider when designing a conversational interface for a car.  He'll show you how to navigate the user, keep their attention, and repurpose design patterns for consistency and clarity.   

"Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Conversation Design but Were Afraid to Ask"
Cathy Pearl, Head of Conversational Design Outreach at GoogleAuthor of Designing Voice User Interfaces (O'Reilly Media)
The term "conversational interfaces" is thrown around a lot these days, but what does it actually mean?  Will we soon be having conversations with everything around us, like our toothbrushes and trash cans? What's the difference between a chatbot and a VUI?  How do we build these highly interactive systems in the right way?
This talk will tell you what Conversation Design is and some of the best practices to make sure we get it right.

"The State of Conversational AI"
Mariya YaoCTO and Product Officer at Metamaven AI


Mariya Yao will give you a technical overview & review of current state-of-the-art deep learning & NLP tactics for chatbots and conversational interfaces.  You'll aso learn about product UX / design tips for crafting customer experiences around current limitations in conversational AI.
Mariya will cover recent research papers, metrics and lessons from live products, and also a review of conversational AI platforms available for enterprise usage. The target audience is product leaders, technical executives, and designers and developers involved in the crafting of customer-facing conversational experiences.






Meet our Speakers

Cathy PearlHead of Conversation Design Outreach at Google
Cathy Pearl is Head of Conversation Design Outreach at Google, and the author of the O'Reilly book, "Designing Voice User Interfaces".  She's been designing and creating Voice User Interfaces (VUIs) for nearly 20 years and is passionate about helping everyone make the best conversational experiences possible. 
Past speaking engagements include Cannes Lion International Festival of Creativity, O’Reilly Bot Day, and Voice Summit. Previously, Cathy was VP of User Experience at Sensely, whose virtual nurse avatar helps people stay healthy.  She has worked on everything from programming NASA helicopter pilot simulators to designing a conversational iPad app in which Esquire magazine's style columnist tells users what they should wear on a first date.  She has an MS in Computer Science from Indiana University and and BS in Cognitive Science from UC San Diego.


Chris LiuProduct Designer and R&D at Mercedes Benz North America
Chris has many years under his belt working as a designer in various capacities in a wide array of industries, from enterprise software to consumer products. Chris currently works at Mercedes-Benz R&D North America working on car UX and advanced concepts. You can find him on Twitter at @machinehuman.


Mariya YaoCTO and Product Officer at Metamaven, AI & Author of Applied Artificial Intelligence
Mariya Yao is chief technology and product officer at Metamaven, a company that intelligently automates revenue growth for global companies like Paypal, LinkedIn, L’Oréal, LVMH, and WPP. She’s also editor-in-chief of TOPBOTS, the largest publication and community for business leaders applying AI to their enterprises, a Forbes writer covering the interplay of human and machine intelligence, and coauthor of Applied AI: A Handbook for Business Leaders, which she launched onstage at CES 2018.



Sponsored By:

Designers use CloudApp to save time and communicate smarter and faster with coworkers.  
Record your screen and turn it into a gif or a video, capture and annotate, share files faster, and so much more.  Learn about CloudApp.





FAQs
What are my transportation/parking options for getting to and from the event?
There is street parking and nearby garages available in Downtown San Francisco.

How can I contact the organizer with any questions?
Email Andi Galpern at andi@cascadesf.com

Can I request a refund?
All tickets are non-refundable and available on a first-come-first-serve basis. 



Join us for an evening to learn how to design conversational interfaces. 
As machines grow smarter, we strive to make interactions more hu

Join us for an evening to examine the art of storytelling.  
Schedule
5:45 PM:  Doors open, networking hour, food + drinks sponsored by Zendesk
6:45 PM:  “Brand Storytelling for XR” with Natalie Grant from Unity
7:20 PM:  “The Art of Storytelling” with Alonso Martinez from Pixar
8:05 PM:  Fireside chat with Alonso and his robots 
8:30 PM:  Wrap up

"Brand Storytelling with XR"
Natalie GrantSenior Product Marketing Manager for Film + XRUnity 3D
PRESENTATION WITH Q&A (30 min)
When you have a full 360 degrees to tell a truly immersive story, what new mechanics, tools, and narrative possibilities can be utilized to amplify emotional investment? From extending a brand or IP with companion experiences to innovating around environment and artistic style, the past year has brought wildly creative content from a community of pioneering creators.
In this talk you’ll learn:


The basics of narratology


How narratology influences XR


How design decisions have carved out new genres of content


Recent breakthrough case studies from Sundance, Tribeca, and more 


About Natalie
Natalie began her storytelling career as a travel writer and journalist, with work published in print as well as dozens of pieces online, including McSweeney's. She also worked at a literary agency in New York and a film festival in Scotland before her career in gaming, which began with four years at EA (Electronic Arts) driving innovative new product betas such as a streaming, dual-screen, local-multiplayer games service. She joined Unity in 2016 as lead product marketer for virtual and augmented reality before her current role as Sr. Product Marketing Manager for Film.

"The Art of Storytelling"
Alonso MartinezTechnical DirectorPixar Animation Studios
PRESENTATION (40 min)
Alonso will teach us storytelling techniques to capture our audiences' attention, engage them, delight them, and guide them through a journey.  He'll also explain how different departments work together to amplify a message and enhance the story.   
FIRESIDE CHAT (30 min)
Alonso is an inventor.  In his spare time, he designs and engineers robots.  After his keynote, we'll sit with Alonso to learn about his background, his career path, his journey into robotics, and whatever you'd like to learn.  We'll collect questions before and during the event through slido.  

Above:  Watch a YouTube  interview to learn how Alonso designed and engineered a family of robots. 
  
About Alonso
Alonso Martinez works at Pixar Animation Studios and has created digital characters for Academy Award winning movies such as "Up","Inside Out" and "Coco". He has also worked on movies like "Cars2", "The Good Dinosaur", and worked on the newly released "Incredibles 2". 
Outside of Pixar, Alonso continues his passion to create lovable characters through robotics.  He is working on developing the building blocks by which robots could feel emotions and empathy. As a robot's understanding of the world and people's emotions get richer, so will their ability to interact with people in a more meaningful way.
 Thank you Zendesk for hosting us!

Zendesk is hiring designers, product managers, and marketers.  Apply at https://www.zendesk.com/jobs/san-francisco/

Sponsored By:

CloudApp let's you record your screen and turn it into a gif or an mp4, annotate, take screen captures, share files faster, and so much more.  Try CloudApp.  

FAQs
What are my transportation/parking options for getting to and from the event?
There is street parking and nearby garages available in Downtown San Francisco.

How can I contact the organizer with any questions?
Email Andi Galpern at andi@cascadesf.com

Can I request a refund?
All tickets are non-refundable and available on a first-come-first-serve basis. 

Join us for an evening to examine the art of storytelling.  
Schedule
5:45 PM:  Doors open, networking hour, food + drinks sponsored by Zend

Join us for an evening of UX design mentoring and networking!
Mentor night is all about dissolving the competition and coming together to learn and grow as individuals.  Connect with designers in the community, get product design feedback, share ideas, and collaborate.

Get 1-1 feedback from design experts in 20-minute sessions 
This event is anyone who works at the intersection of design and technology.  
Sign up to get design advice, portfolio feedback, and strategic career advice
Food and drinks served and sponsored by Rodan + Fields 

Schedule: 
5:45 pm             Registration opens.  Sign up on site to meet with a designer mentor for 20 minutes.  
6:30 - 8:30 pm Speed Mentoring
8:45 pm             Doors close
Current Mentor Lineup:This is our current lineup but we are updating the lineup as we confirm more mentors and move closer to the event. 






Asher Blumberg
Product Designer
TaskRabbit
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn




Elina Lin
Senior UX Designer
Amplitude Analytics
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn



Beto Espitia
Principal Brand & Digital Experience Designer
Nuance Communications
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn






Kevin Hawkins
Designer
Twitch
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn




Chris Gallello
Founder
Purple App
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn




Alexa Herasimchuk
Product Designer
Zendesk
Portfolio
Instagram
Twitter






Tyler Wilson
User Experience Designer
Helios Interactive
Portfolio
Twitter




Sunny Patel
User Experience Researcher
LinkedIn
LinkedIn




Danilo Quilaton
Designer
Twitch
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn





Deanna Alcorn
Lead UX Designer
Stitch Fix
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn



Brian Zaik
Director, Design Technology
AppDynamics
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn



Marc Greenberg
Product & UX Lead
Postmates
Portfolio
Dribbble
LinkedIn





Derek Hart
Senior Product Designer
FANDOM
Twitter
LinkedIn
 
 



Kristin Zibell
Director of Product Management and UX Instructor
Akili Interactive and UC Berkeley Extension
Twitter
LinkedIn



Christine Yeh
Senior Product Designer
Pivotal, Inc.
Portfolio
LinkedIn
 
 





Maura Hoven
Senior Product Designer
Zoosk
Behance
LinkedIn



Christine Young
UX Researcher 
Rodan + Fields
LinkedIn
 



Cameron Turner
Chief Experience Officer
Conectric Networks
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn





Kate Roberts
User Experience Consultant
We Are MC2
LinkedIn



Marek Szeszycki-Truesdell
UX Design Lead
Gap Inc.
Portfolio
LinkedIn



Renee Reid
Senior UX Design Researcher
LinkedIn
Portfolio
LinkedIn
Twitter





Adam Ruf
UX Designer & Mentor
Twitch
Portfolio
Twitch
LinkedIn



Laura Mattis
Design Manager
EchoUser
Portfolio
LinkedIn



Adam Nedelman
UX Web Designer
Mulesoft
Portfolio
General Assembly





Daniel Schwartz
Head of Product & UX 
Dor Technologies
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn






Missy Titus
Product Design Consultant
Formerly Bindle, PayPal, MTV Networks
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn





Vlad Georgescu
Director of Design
Directly
LinkedIn
 
 






Devin Fountain
Product Designer
Zoosk
Dribbble
Twitter 





Ran Liu
Senior UX Designer
Amplitude Analytics
Portfolio
Dribbble
LinkedIn





Angela Wong
Instructional Designer
LinkedIn
LinkedIn
 





Lukasz Lysakowski
Design Director
Peek
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn


 


 




 
Attention Senior Designers:  Be a Mentor.  Share Your knowledge. 
Want to mentor?  Our mentors have 5+ years of experience working as a product designer, content strategist and user researcher for technology.  Interested?  Email Lukasz at lukasz@cascadesf.com.

Sponsored by 
 
Rodan + Fields is redefining skincare products in the digital age.  The founders created ProActive, an anti-acne solution that has improved the skin of millions of people throughout the world.  Now they sell online skincare products for anti-aging.  Rodan + Fields is hiring UX Designers and Marketers.  Check out available job opportunities here.  
  
Frequently Asked Questions

Where can I contact the organizer with any questions?
E-mail Andi Galpern at andi@cascadesf.com or Lukasz Lysakowski at lukasz@cascadesf.com with any questions you might have.

What is the refund policy?
All tickets are non-refundable and available on a first-come-first-serve basis. 
Am I guaranteed a mentor spot?  
By signing up for a ticket you are guaranteed at least 1 (one) 20-minute session with a mentor.  
 
 

Join us for a 90-minute Sketch workshop with Pablo Stanley!
Mr. Stanley is back and ready to share his knowledge on how he achieves beautiful designs in Sketch in half the time.  Pablo Stanley will cover: 


nested symbols


his favorite plugins


symbol library hygiene


audience Q&A


Pablo has a wealth of knowledge on his YouTube channel "Sketch Together," with almost 50,000 subscribers and growing!  

About Pablo
Pablo Stanley is the lead designer and co-founder of Carbon Health.  Pablo gives design workshops and shares design tutorials on YouTube. He has a design podcast in Spanish and writes silly comics.

Schedule
6:00 PM    Doors open6:30 PM    Presentation starts8:00 PM    Networking8:30 PM    Doors close
Food & Drinks
We will be serving light snacks and refreshments.  


THANK YOU FOR HOSTING US!

Eventbrite is hiring designers, marketers, and copywriters.  Check out available opportunities at eventbrite.com/careers.


VIDEO PRODUCTION

Whether you need live video coverage, cinematography or playback of a PowerPoint – Diamond Sonic is ready to help! Rest easy knowing you have a professional and courteous crew of video pros prepared to take care of your most demanding video needs. Visit diamondsonic.com to check out all services including live audio, DJs and music, photography, lighting, and anything to bring your party to life!

FAQs
What are my transportation/parking options for getting to and from the event?
There is street parking and nearby garages available in Downtown San Francisco.

How can I contact the organizer with any questions?
Email Andi Galpern at andi@cascadesf.com

Can I request a refund?
All tickets are non-refundable and available on a first-come-first-serve basis.  



Join us for a 90-minute Sketch workshop with Pablo Stanley!
Mr. Stanley is back and ready to share his knowledge on how he achieves beautifu

"Design Hacks" is an after-work mini-conference about tools and tips to help you work faster and smarter as a Product Designer.  
We constructed a series of lightning talks to help you improve your product design game. Each talk will range from 10-20 minutes.  
Schedule: 
5:45 PM  Doors open

6:30 PM "Set up a Design System for Your Startup" Tricia Spoonts, Lead Designer at Rimeto Rob Levin, UI Engineer at Mavenlink
6:55 PM"How to Write Effective Microcopy"Nathan Diesel, Mobile UX Designer at AnovaCulinary
7:10 PM"How to Write Surveys with Impact"Nick Inchausti, a Senior UX Researcher at SurveyMonkey
7:40 PM "Ask Me Anything About Product Design"Joshua Sortino, Design Director at Square
8:00 PM "Optimize Your User Research Process"Carola Pescio Canale, a Product Designer at TaskRabbit
8:10 PM"A Design Process for Your Team"Chris Gallello, Founder of Purple.pm





"Setup a Design System for Your Startup"with Tricia Spoonts, Lead Designer at Rimeto and Rob Levin, UI Engineer at Mavenlink
Tricia and Rob worked together on a design system for Mavenlink, which expanded and scaled across a whole team.  In this talk, they will teach you how a designer and a developer collaborate on design system and pattern library.  This is from the perspective that you already have some of your brand designed, you hired another designer and want to put together a guide to make it easy to adapt your style guide.  Tricia and Rob will show you the tools they use, how they archive and track components, and how Rob implements and stores them.  


About Tricia
Tricia is the lead designer for Rimeto and co-founder of Listician. She was raised by two accountants who instilled in her a great love of patterns and systems. On weekends you can find her designing clothing or crocheting giant animals.

About Rob
Rob Levin is a Senior UI/UX Developer at Mavenlink where he bridges the worlds of UX, Illustration, and Development for the company's flagship Project Management application.

"How to Write Effective Microcopy"Nathan Diesel, Product Designer at AnovaCulinary
Nathan Diesel is back and here to share some powerful tips to help you write clear and concise, and fun microcopy! He'll guide you on how to speak to your audience so they understand and they are on the same page. 
About Nathan
Nathan is a Product Designer at AnovaCulninary and has a passion for user-centered design. He's been a full-time and freelance designer in multiple industries including fintech, entertainment, healthcare, advertising, and education research. He also taught design at the San Francisco City College and has been a regular mentor for Cascade SF for the past 3 years. Nathan believes information wants to be free but a great user experience makes it more valuable. He advocates for consumer access to data and tools for people to understand it.

"How to Write Surveys with Impact"with Nick Inchausti, a Senior UX Researcher at SurveyMonkey
In this talk, you'll learn tips on how to ask more engaging questions when constructing a qualitative survey, and who better to give this talk than a Senior Researcher from SurveyMonkey?  
About Nick
Nick is a senior UX researcher with a background in psychology. Formerly a senior research manager at UserTesting, he now leads user research at SurveyMonkey. When he's not up to his elbows in diary studies, he can be found entertaining his coworkers with the original songs he writes and performs for them.


"Ask Me Anything About Product Design"with Joshua Sortino, Design Director at Square
Ask Josh anything about designing digital products.  He has over 15 years of experience building web and app interfaces, digital products, design teams, and businesses.  

About Joshua Sortino
Joshua Sortino is a Design Director at Square, a company that makes it easy for businesses to accept credit card payments from anywhere.
Prior to joining Square, Joshua was the VP of Design at Pivotus Ventures where he oversaw user experience, user interfaces, marketing and communication design for financial companies.  He worked as a Design Manager at Teespring, where he managed a team of 15 designers and as a Product Designer at Disqus. Joshua is an Advisor for startups in the Bay Area and a Design Mentor at Andreeson Horowitz.  


"Optimize Your User Research Process"with Carola Pescio Canale, a Product Designer at TaskRabbit
Carola will walk us through a time-saving method she and her team use to gather, organize and synthesize research.  Since meeting with Carola, we at Cascade use this method regularly and find it incredibly useful.  


About Carola
Born and raised near Genoa (Italy), Carola is a self-taught designer with a background in economics and business that allows her to see Design not only as a job but as a filter to the world. Carola has been in the industry for roughly 4 years and now works as a full-stack Product Designer at TaskRabbit, where she touches on both ends of the marketplace (Client and Tasker). She has a special place in her heart for digital accessibility and is a true smartphone geek.



"A Design Process for Your Team"with Chris Gallello, Founder of Purple.pm & Product Designer
The industry is oversaturated with a lot of new UX designers, but what will you make you stand out? Your ability to follow a process, understand different scenarios and uncover solutions quickly and methodically. Streamlining your design process will guide you to the best solutions and have clarity on the project landscape.
In this presentation, Chris Gallello will teach us about Purple, a design tool to help you map out the entire design process in an intuitive and easy to use app. Purple connects with your favorite design software including InVision, Sketch, and Google Docs, and makes it easy to keep your teammates and stakeholders on the same page. You can also create lists and assign tasks.

About Chris
Chris Gallello is the founder of Purple.pm, a project planning tool for design teams. Prior to working on Purple, he was a Product Manager at Microsoft, where he helped people be more productive, and Imgur, where he helped people be less productive. On the side, he also runs a VR design meetup (roomscale.design) and has built several silly VR experiences.





Hosted by: 

Video Production:  

Whether you need live video coverage, cinematography or playback of a PowerPoint – Diamond Sonic is ready to help! Rest easy knowing you have a professional and courteous crew of video pros ready to take care of your most demanding video needs.  Visit diamondsonic.com  to check out all services including live audio, djs and music, photography, lighting, and anything to bring your party to life! 



FAQs
What are my transportation/parking options for getting to and from the event?
There is street parking and nearby garages available in Downtown San Francisco.
 
How can I contact the organizer with any questions?
Email Andi Galpern at andi@cascadesf.com
 
Can I request a refund?  
All tickets after April 14, 2018 are final sale, non-refundable and available on a first-come-first-serve basis.  
If you purchased your ticket on or before April 14, 2018, we will issue you a refund until Tuesday, April 17, 2018 at 11:59pm.  Refund requests after Tuesday, April 17, 2018 will NOT be granted.   To request a refund, email Andi at andi@cascadesf.com.

Bring your ID
*Prices for tickets are subject to change based on content value and availability.  



"Design Hacks" is an after-work mini-conference about tools and tips to help you work faster and smarter as a Product Designer.  
We constru


This is an after-work mini conference about the intersection of UX + Data Visualization + Blockchain. 
This event is about making a lot of information easier to digest in the context of data visualization. It's motivated by Andi's exploration into cryptocurrency exchanges, and her goal to inspire designers to improve the usability of more advanced exchanges beyond Coinbase. 
The information you will learn at this event goes beyond exchanges. It will help you learn how to choose the right graphic, design graphs and charts for your audience, and accurately represent what you are communicating. 


Schedule
5:30pm:  Doors open, network, meet with Salesforce UX team for recruiting opportunitiesPart 1:    Understanding Exchanges6:20pm:  "Understanding Cryptocurrency Exchanges"  with Star Wang, AirBnB and Luka Ning, LinkedInPart 2:  Designing with Data  7:00pm:  "Designing Information" with JD Vogt and Raymon Sutedjo-The, Salesforce7:30pm:  "Creating Beautiful and Meaningful Visualizations with Big Data" with Shan He, Uber
Part 3:  Blockchain8:10pm:  BONUS!  "Beyond Cryptocurrency:  Blockchain + Business" with Brian Behlendorf, Hyperledger

"Understanding Cryptocurrency Exchanges" with Star Wang, Software Engineer at Airbnband Luka Ning, Product Designer at LinkedIn
PRESENTATION WITH SLIDES
Crypto exchanges like Binance and Poloniex can be confusing to new traders.  There's a lot of noise with no clear call-to-action making it not so beginner friendly.   
We’ll kick off the event with Star Wang, a crypto trader, investor, and software engineer at AirBnB.  For this talk we'll analyze the components of current popular exchanges, understand how this information is valuable, what it means, and look at different types of data visualizations used on trading platforms.Then Luka Ning, a Product Designer and crypto enthusiast will guide us through her research study on crypto exchanges.  Luka is curious to see if there are solutions to the current user journey of exchanges, so she has been interviewing investors and traders of all levels and studying the behavior of people who are utilizing different platforms.  She wants to see if there are ways to make the information clearer, more accessible and easier to understand. The new opportunity could be, but is not limited to a new data visualization or new tools built on top of the exchanges.


Star WangSoftware Engineer at Airbnb, Cryptocurrency Enthusiast & Community Organizer 
Star Wang is a software engineer at Airbnb who's very passionate about blockchain and crypto technology. He organizes the blockchain interest group at Airbnb and has held series of guest speaker sessions and tech talks to educate people about the technology.


Luka NingProduct Designer at LinkedIn & Cryptocurrency Enthusiast
Luka is a Product Designer at LinkedIn, an enthusiast about blockchain technology and a passive investor in crypto assets. Prior to LinkedIn, Luka was a Product Designer at SAP Labs, and worked on different types of enterprise software from CRM, ERP, Finance, BI, to design systems across various platforms and touch points. 





"Designing Information"with JD Vogt and Raymon Sutedjo-The, Einstein Analytics Team at Salesforce
PRESENTATION WITH SLIDES
Whether you're designing for an exchange or compiling a bunch of information into a graph, you'll need to learn about the process.  Learn how to apply Design Thinking to your Analytics projects by following the best practices of the Salesforce Analytics User Experience team.  JD will teach you how to create charts and graphs that effectively communicate to your customer, turn numbers into visual and digestible information, and find the best representation for what you are explaining. 


JD VogtSenior Director of UX at Salesforce
JD Vogt is a Sr. Director of User Experience at Salesforce where he works on analytics, company-wide UX design patterns, ecosystem design, and information retrieval patterns. He has lead the UX design for Salesforce Lightning (the new interface for Salesforce) co-authored the Salesforce design principles, and was  a principle designer for Salesforce's flagship mobile product. He is now working on Salesforce's Einstein  Analytics and AI/intelligence patterns. Prior to Salesforce JD worked with clients such as NASA, National Geographic and Jet Blue. JD has a MS in HCI from Carnegie Mellon and a BA in Music Theory/Composition from the University of Wisconsin ~ Eau Claire.

Raymon Sutedjo-TheLead Product Designer at Salesforce
Raymon is a product designer for for Einstein Analytics at Salesforce.  He designs key features which include natural language patterns and product education. In addition to designing for analytics, Raymon crafted experiences for the core Salesforce platform and was one of the main contributors to Salesforce’s Lightning Design System.
Prior to Salesforce, Raymon worked with clients such as L’Oreal, Discover Financial Services, and Levi’s. He holds a Master’s degree in Information Management & Systems from the University of California, Berkeley and a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.


"Creating Beautiful and Meaningful Visualizations with Big Data" with Shan He, Senior Data Visualization Engineer at Uber
PRESENTATION WITH SLIDES
In this presentation, we’ll get a behind the scenes look at the tools and data visualizations they use at Uber to inform business decisions. Shan will walk us through an overview of the data visualization process with a case study. She’ll also show us that you can create beautiful visualizations, but in order for them to be useful, you have to understand the information you are designing. 

Shan HeSenior Data Visualization Engineer at Uber
Shan is software engineer and data artist at the data visualization team at Uber. She is a designer and coder and the earliest member of the team. At Uber, Shan builds data tools and platforms to make business intelligence easy to access, creates exploratory data visualizations to facilitate data analysis and modeling, and publishes public facing graphics and animations to tell data stories about Uber. Prior to joining Uber, Shan studied at MIT and received a master in design computation while conducting research at the MIT Senseable City Lab as data visualization specialist. Her work was exhibited at Milan Design Week 2013, GoogleIO 2013 and venice biennale 2014.




BONUS!  "Beyond Cryptocurrency:  Blockchain & Business" with Brian Behledorf, Executive Director of Hyperledger
PRESENTATION WITH SLIDES 
Blockchain is more than just cryptocurrency. It's about the underlying technology that creates trust and adds a layer of credibility and accountability to businesses.
In this presentation, Brian Behlendorf, Executive Director of Hyperledger, will teach us about blockchain technologies for businesses, market opportunities, and we'll examine how designers can play a big part in improving the accessibility and usability of the blockchain. 


Brian BehelendorfExecutive Director of Hyperledger (Linux Foundation)
Brian Behlendorf is the Executive Director of Hyperledger. Behlendorf was a primary developer of the Apache Web server, the most popular web server software on the Internet, and a founding member of the Apache Software Foundation. He has also served on the board of the Mozilla Foundation since 2003 and the Electronic Frontier Foundation since 2013. He was the founding CTO of CollabNet and CTO of the World Economic Forum. Most recently, Behlendorf was a managing director at Mithril Capital Management LLC, a global technology investment firm.


Hosted by: 
Salesforce is the world’s #1 Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform. Our cloud-based applications for sales, service, marketing, and more don’t require IT experts to set up or manage — simply log in and start connecting to customers in a whole new way.  They are currently hiring tons of designers!  Apply at https://www.salesforce.com/company/careers/.

Video Production: 


Whether you need live video coverage, cinematography or playback of a PowerPoint – Diamond Sonic is ready to help! Visit diamondsonic.com  to check out all services.


FAQs
What are my transportation/parking options for getting to and from the event?
There is street parking and nearby garages available in Downtown San Francisco.
 
How can I contact the organizer with any questions?
Email Andi Galpern at andi@cascadesf.com
 
What's the refund policy?
All tickets are final sale, non-refundable and available on a first-come-first-serve basis.  
*Prices for tickets are subject to change based on content value and availability.  

Disclaimer:  The information at this event is not intended as financial advice, and is for informational purposes only.  Andi Galpern (The Producer) + Cascade SF (The Production Company) is an investor in cryptocurrency and does not provide provide legal, investment, tax, etc advice.  




UXNight: Data Visualizations, Exchanges + Blockchain


This is an after-work mini conference about the intersection of UX + Data Visualization + Blockchain. 
This event is about making a lot of 

Join us for an evening of UX design mentoring and networking!
Mentor night is all about dissolving the competition and coming together to learn and grow as individuals.  Connect with designers in the community, get product design feedback, share ideas, and collaborate.

Get 1-1 feedback from design experts in 20 minute sessions 
This event is anyone who works in the intersection of design and technology.  
Sign up to get design advice, portfolio feedback, and strategic career advice
Food and drinks served and sponsored by Rodan + Fields 

Schedule: 
6:00pm             Registration opens.  Sign up on site to meet with a designer mentor for 20 minutes.  
6:30 - 8:30pm   Speed Mentoring
8:45pm             Doors close
Mentor Lineup:





Courtney Escanio
Product Designer & Art Director
Rodan + Fields
Portfolio
LinkedIn



Asher Blumberg
Senior Product Designer
Jott Messenger (justa labs)
Instagram
Twitter
LinkedIn



Nathan Diesel 
Mobile Product Designer
Anova Culinary
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn





Christine Bower
Instructional Designer
LinkedIn
Portfolio
Twitter



Angela Don
Founder + Designer
UniGlitter
(previously at Facebook)
Portfolio
LinkedIn
Dribbble



Pablo Stanley
Designer/Co-founder
Carbon Health
Portfolio
Twitter





Charmagne Kringstein
Senior Manager of UX
Zoosk
Portfolio
LinkedIn



Angela Wong
Instructional Designer
LinkedIn
LinkedIn



Elina Lin
Senior UX Designer
Amplitude
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn





David Moore
Sr. Brand X Designer
Zoosk
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn



Colin Toomey
Senior Product Designer
ProUnlimited
Portfolio
LinkedIn



Adam Nedelman
UX Web Designer
Mulesoft
Portfolio
General Assembly





Olga Ivanova
VR Product Designer
VR Oxygen
Portfolio
LinkedIn
VR Oxygen



Johnatan Uribe
Designer
LinkedIn
Portfolio
LinkedIn



Tyler Wilson
User Experience Designer
Helios Interactive
Portfolio
Twitter





Adam Ruf
UX Designer & Mentor
Twitch
Portfolio
Twitch
LinkedIn



Deanna Alcorn
Lead UX Designer
Stitch Fix
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn



Kevin Hawkins
Senior UX Designer
Gap Inc.
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn





Chris Liu
Senior UX Director
Mercedes-Benz Research
Twitter
LinkedIn



Brendan McWeeny
UX Design Manager
Rodan + Fields
Portfolio
Medium
LinkedIn



Marek Szeszycki-Truesdell
UX Design Lead
Gap Inc.
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn




 
Nicole Wang
Art Director and Lecturer
Firewood Marketing
Portfolio
Angel.co
LinkedIn



Marc Greenberg
Product & UX Lead
Postmates
Portfolio
Dribbble
LinkedIn




Devin Fountain
Product Designer
Zoosk
Portfolio




 
 
Meritt Thomas
Product Designer at MasterClass
Co-founder at RocketDept
Dribbble
Twitter
Instagram
 



Lukasz Lysakowski
Design Director
Peek
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn



Greg Cutler
Head of Design at Arceo Analytics
COO at ArtsEarth
Portfolio
LinkedIn
ArtsEarth




 
 

Bryan Medway
Experience Design Manager
Adobe
Portfolio
LinkedIn
Twitter
 




Chris Gallello
Founder
Purple App
Portfolio
Twitter
Purple




Alexa Herasimchuk
Product Designer
Zendesk
Portfolio
Instagram
Twitter





 
 


Ugur Kaner
VP, Product Design
Memebox
Portfolio
LinkedIn
Twitter

 




Chad Whitaker
Product Designer
Product Hunt
Portfolio
Dribbble
Twitter







  

Sponsored by: 
 
Rodan + Fields is redefining skincare products in the digital age.  The founders created ProActive, an anti-acne solution that has improved the skin of millions of people throughout the world.  Now they sell online skincare products for anti-aging.  Rodan + Fields is hiring UX Designers and Marketers.  Checkout available job opportunities here.  
 
 
Frequently Asked Questions

Where can I contact the organizer with any questions?
E-mail Andi Galpern at andi@cascadesf.com with any questions you might have.

What is the refund policy?
All tickets are non-refundable and available on a first-come-first-serve basis. 
Am I guaranteed a mentor spot?  
By signing up for a ticket you are guaranteed at least 1 (one) 20-minute session with a mentor.  
 
 


This is an after-work mini conference about the intersection of UX + Blockchain. 
Cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies are drastically transforming our economy and making it easier to anonymize purchases and improve the security of technology.
For this UXNight, we'll teach you all about the different types of Blockchain technologies, cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum, ICOs, and more. We'll also talk about tokens, security laws, utility vs. security, raising money, and examine the value of data.   
Disclaimer:  The information at this event is not intended as financial advice, and is for informational purposes only.  Andi Galpern (The Producer) + Cascade SF (The Production Company) is an investor in cryptocurrency and does not provide provide legal, investment, tax, etc advice.  


Schedule:
6:00PMDoors openWe'll be serving appetizers and light refreshments6:30PMIntro & AnnouncementsAndi Galpern, Founder & Producer at Cascade SF
6:40PM“The History of the Blockchain” with Sloane Brakeville, Founder of FR8 and Former IBM Blockchain Specialist7:05PM“Designing Decentralized Applications”with Nisa Andrews, Product Designer at Uber, and Decentralized Applications Designer7:45PM“Meet Connie Yang:  Design Director at Coinbase”A fireside chat and open Q&A with Connie Yang, Design Director at Coinbase
8:05PM“Blockchain, ICOs, Tokens, and the Decentralized World”with Michael Zargham, PhD and Founder of Blockscience



"The History of the Blockchain"with Sloane Brakeville, Founder of FR8 and Formerly Blockchain Specialist at IBM
PRESENTATION WITH SLIDES
Before diving into blockchain systems design, it's important to have a grasp of how money and contracts work, historically speaking.  In this presentation, Sloane Brakeville will teach you how currency is established, how money works, basic terminology relating to the blockchain, about contracts, securities, and then we'll hand the mic over to Nisa to teach everyone about Ethereum.  
"Designing Decentralized Applications" with Nisa Andrews, Product Designer at Uber& Independent Decentralized Apps Designer 
PRESENTATION WITH SLIDES + CASE STUDIES
For this UXNight, designer Nisa Andrews will teach us about Ethereum, how blockchain works, and she'll show us the difference in systems architecture when designing for a blockchain app.  Nisa will also showcase case studies of Decentralized Apps she's worked on including WeTrust.

You'll learn about terms like distributed ledgers, how the design process is similar a different when designing for dApps, the types of apps built on Ethereum, how Ethereum works, and what a smart contract is.  You'll also learn how this new system design works in the favor of individuals instead of corporations. 
"Meet Connie Yang, Design Director at Coinbase"
FIRESIDE CHAT
In April 2017, Connie joined Coinbase as Design Director with very little cryptocurrency experience - but she learned a lot and she caught on fast. Her experience designing for games and for Facebook for 4.5 years translated well.  
In this fireside chat, we’ll talk with Connie about:


Her role as a Design Director at Coinbase and what types of projects she works on


Her design team and their responsibilities


Their design process and the skills you need to work in FinTech


How UX skills translate to various markets and that you don’t have to be an expert – you just need to be open to learning.  


Open Q&A


"An Overview of Regulations, ICOs, Tokens, and the Decentralized World"with Michael Zargham, PhD and Founder of Blockscience
PRESENTATION WITH SLIDES
Michael Zargham, PhD & Founder of BlockScience, specializes in writing and reviewing technical white papers for blockchain startups.  He'll teach us basic terminology and what goes into writing a whitepaper, the difference between securities and utilities, and also basic blockchain terminology so that everyone speaks the same language.  You'll also learn about: 


Blockchain as a technology


ICOs and Tokenization


Decentralized software vs. decentralized business models


White paper vs. technical white papers


Regulatory considerations



Utility tokens ‘


Security tokens



The anatomy of a blockchain-enabled application, which includes smart contracts, trust, data collection, and usability.  


Open Q&A





Speaker Bios (In Order of Appearance)

Sloane Brakeville, Founder of FR8Former Blockchain Specialist at IBM
Sloane Brakeville is currently at Fr8, a company building solutions for the freight industry on the blockchain. Previously he was a blockchain specialist at IBM, working with Fortune 500 companies to educate and build on blockchain opportunities in their industries. 

Nisa Andrews, Product Designer at Uber and DApps Designer 
Nisa Andrews is a Product Designer at Uber and an Independent dApp Designer. She has worked on a few projects in the blockchain space: redesigned WeTrust’s Trusted Lending Circles beta dApp, a tool that helps people build and access credit within a trusted group; designed ICOStat’s logo and Comparison tool, a site where you can track the ROI of ICOs which was recently acquired by CoinCircle; designed payETHforward, a non-profit DAO. She is passionate about making blockchain technology accessible and usable for all people.


Connie Yang, Design Director at Coinbase
Connie Yang is the Design Director at Coinbase, a secure platform for buying, selling, trading and securing cryptocurrencies.  Prior to Coinbase, she worked at Facebook as a Product Designer  for Growth & Emerging Markets.    
Before Facebook, Connie was the UI Director at a startup in San Francisco, focusing on mobile application UI. She specialized in the game industry,  and focused on social and mobile games. She has hired, directed, and built 3 design teams from scratch at different companies.




Michael Zargham, PhD, Founder and CEO of BlockScience
Michael Zargham, aka "Zargham", is the Founder and CEO of BlockScience, a research and analytics firm focused on socio-technical networks and economic systems engineering. BlockScience supports projects in domains from Advertising to Education to Supply Chains. His professional experience includes architecting data and decision systems, and data science team building for Cross Media Works; he holds a PhD in systems engineering from the University of Pennsylvania with a focus on decentralized algorithms, coordinated decision making and emergent properties in networks.

Hosted by: 
Located in SoMa, Galvanize San Francisco takes collaboration to a whole new level, with five floors of creators, innovators, and passionate learners. And don’t forget the rooftop, with gorgeous views of downtown and the San Francisco Bay. From events to workshops to the thriving startup ecosystem, our SoMa campus provides the opportunity to learn, connect and build your startup. This campus is full of energy, intelligence, and motivation – we welcome you to walk through these doors, join our community and be inspired to level up.Interested in a shared workspace in San Francisco? Visit galvanize.com.


Sponsored By:
Cloudflare uses CDN technology to speed up and secure any web site.  They are hiring for multiple positions including Product Designers, UX Researchers, Data Scientists and more.  Visit cloudflare.com/careers to view and apply for open positions. 

Video Production Team:
Whether you need live video coverage, cinematography or playback of a PowerPoint – Diamond Sonic is ready to help! Rest easy knowing you have a professional and courteous crew of video pros ready to take care of your most demanding video needs.  Visit diamondsonic.com  to check out all services including live audio, djs and music, photography, lighting, and anything to bring your party to life! 



FAQs
What are my transportation/parking options for getting to and from the event?
There is street parking and nearby garages available in Downtown San Francisco
 
How can I contact the organizer with any questions?
Email Andi Galpern at andi@cascadesf.com
 
What's the refund policy?
All tickets are final sale, non-refundable and available on a first-come-first-serve basis.  If you purchased a ticket before January 3, 2018 you can request a refund by Monday, January 15, 2018 at midnight.  Any requests after that date will not be refunded.  


*Prices for tickets are subject to change based on content value and availability.  






This is an after-work mini conference about the intersection of UX + Blockchain. 
Cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies are drasticall

Welcome to augmented reality, where we add layers to the existing world to improve comprehension, play around with fun effects, create planning tools for interior design and it doesn't stop there!
Augmented reality is growing rapidly as an everyday technology, and valued at over $150 billion dollars, according to Forbes. That said, there is endless opportunity for designers to create for this space.
We'll have HoloLens demos, AR app demos and presentations on how to build and design for Augmented Reality.

Schedule: This will be a fun and packed night. 5:30pm: Doors, AR and MR Demos on HoloLens + mobile devices. Food & Beverages served and sponsored by our friends at AppDynamics.6:00pm: Welcome and Announcements6:15pm: The Intersection of Branding & XR6:30pm: Designing Good UX for Augmented Reality7:05pm: How Augmented Reality Works7:30pm: Magic Show! Featuring Paul Nathan from the Great Star Theatre!7:55pm: How to Build and Create an AR App:  Q&A Panel from our Demoers9:00pm:  Wrap up



"The Intersection of Branding & XR"
Mike Schaiman, Managing Director at Helios Interactive
Helios Interactive is an experience design studio that explores the intersection of advertising, branding, and XR.* They'll showcase their mixed reality collaborations with Sprint, NFL, and various other companies and walk us through a video demo reel talking about their projects and how they created them.
ABOUT MIKE SCHAIMAN
Mike is a passionate proponent of new technology in the digital space. When he’s not running around the country evangelizing the adoption of new experiential displays, he can probably be found chasing his kids around the house.
"Good UX Design for Augmented Reality"
Tyler Wilson, XR Product Designer at Helios Interactive
Tyler will give you a suite of tips and considerations of how to design an app with augmented reality features . You'll learn about:


How augmented reality works


Interactions such as touch, tap, swipe, rotate, etc.


Visual cues


Physics and how they play into effect


What he's learned from experimenting in this space.


ABOUT TYLER WILSON
Tyler Wilson is an interaction designer for XR, based out of San Francisco, CA. He has a passion for teaching and entertaining people. Tyler loves his job at Helios Interactive, where he works on XR applications to advertise brands in new interactive ways. He’s passionate about adopting empathy through virtual experiences and giving people the ability to explore new worlds.
Tyler knows humans inside and out-whether it’s reconstructing skeletons as a bioarchaeologist, or creating detailed user experience designs for XR experiences. He is also a classically trained artist and actor who really wants a pet squid.
"Getting Technical: How AR Works"
A Fireside Chat with Adam Croston, Technical Director at ReScan360
Learn about optics, how lenses work, camera, sensors, the history of the technology, how it ties into gaming, and the technical details of how to create for augmented reality. We'll also discuss tracking and how to get it right. 

ABOUT ADAM CROSTON





Adam has 20 years experience creating games and 3D applications. Previous projects include tech for Magic Leap, Microsoft's Project Spark, GTA IV, half a dozen console games, several 3D and 2D art packages, and even government classified projects involving robotics and sensing systems. He has lived and worked around the world (Los Angeles, Seattle, Tokyo, London and Edinburgh) and in his spare time rides motorbikes, makes mechanical art, and codes just for fun.







"How to Build & Design for AR:  A Showcase of Apps & and Panel Discussion"
Panel discussion featuring demoers who built and designed their apps.
In this panel, we'll talk about the tools, tips, and techniques for building and designing for augmented reality.  

AR App Demoers / AR Product Designers
Neilda Pacquing, XR Product Designer
Neilda Pacquing explores the ways VR/AR/MR (XR) has the power to teach empathy and share experiences to others in new ways. She is a UX Designer and XR evangelist and worked for companies such as Sephora and Bank of America designing for a variety of digital platforms. Neilda is currently studying VR development and is working on making apps of her own.


Jonathan Tzou, VP of Product at iStaging & AR Designer & Developer


Duygu Daniels, AR/VR Designer & Developer
Duygu Daniels is an interaction designer who makes technology more approachable and less intimidating. Her recent projects include designing the first AR exhibition for Stanford's Cantor Arts Center and the first user-generated AR network for Betaworks Studios in NYC. Duygu has also been an Oculus Launch Pad Member and is currently designing the user onboarding experience for Osmo, an Ai & computer vision company building tangible play experiences for kids.



Jon Fox, CCO/ Managing Director at Helios Interactive
One of his mottos is “sleep when you’re dead,” which is apt for a lifestyle that’s included 8 start-ups and 2 kids… Jon wants to be a farmer when he grows up.


Chris Nunes, Managing Partner and Product Lead at Heavy Projects.
Chris Nunes is the managing partner & product lead at Heavy Projects (www.heavy.io), an award-winning AR studio.  At Heavy Projects, I run all product decisions, manage our development team and delivery schedules, and consult with client companies on the UX of augmented reality, audience engagement, and interactive installations.  Our clients include Google, Qualcomm, Toshiba, Samsung, Ryot Films, European Union Commission, HG TV, & Miami-Dade County's Art in Public Places, among others.

Damon Grow, CoFounder of Superstar Games (AR + VR)
Damon’s games have a combined 55M MAU on Facebook. He previously founded Rocket Ninja, a venture backed social gaming company. Damon also served as Head of Games at ROFLplay which was acquired by Lolapps, where he oversaw development of their flagship games: Yakuza Lords, Diva Life and Band of Heroes. Previously CEO of CrowdMob, a mobile game advertising company, backed by A16Z & Eduardo Saverin. Currently Damon is Co-founder with Joe Montana at Superstar Games making VR and AR content for the masses. 
HOSTED AND SPONSORED BY:
Recently acquired by Cisco, AppDynamics helps corporations visualize large amounts of data to understand and improve the performance of their products. This is a great company and there's a lot of opportunity to invent new data visualizations at AppDynamics (aka AppD). AppD is hiring for a variety of designer + developer roles. Checkout their jobs here.


FAQs
What are my transportation/parking options for getting to and from the event?
There is street parking and nearby garages available in Downtown San Francisco

How can I contact the organizer with any questions?
Email Andi Galpern at andi@cascadesf.com

What's the refund policy?
All tickets are final sale, non-refundable and available on a first-come-first-serve basis. 

*Prices for tickets are subject to change based on content value and availability.  **Agenda and speakers are set, but subject to change.  We constantly tweak the schedule, optimize it, and make sure to deliver the best content to you possible.  


Welcome to augmented reality, where we add layers to the existing world to improve comprehension, play around with fun effects, create plann


 
Join us for an evening of spooky design mentoring and networking!
Mentor night is all about dissolving the competition and coming together to learn and grow as individuals.  Connect with designers in the community, get product design feedback, share ideas, and collaborate.

Get 1-1 feedback from design experts in 20 minute sessions 
This event is anyone who works in the intersection of design and technology.  
Sign up to get design advice, portfolio feedback, and strategic career advice
Food and drinks served and sponsored by Rodan + Fields

We'll be in costume and so should you!
 
Schedule: 
6:00pm             Registration opens.  Sign up on site to meet with a designer mentor for 20 minutes.  
6:30 - 8:30pm   Speed Mentoring
8:45pm             Doors close
Mentor Lineup





Bryan Medway
Experience Design Manager
Adobe
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn



Allison Shaw
Senior Product Designer
Zendesk
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn



David Moore
Sr. Brand X Designer
Zoosk
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn






Phil Greenspan
VR Strategy & Program Manager
Oculus
Twitter
LinkedIn





Marissa Louie
CEO & Chief DesignerPortola Plush Company
Angel.co
Twitter
LinkedIn




Ugur Kaner
VP of Product Design
Memebox
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn




Adam Nedelman
UX Web Designer
Mulesoft
Portfolio
General Assembly


Chris GallelloFounder + XR Product DesignerPurple.pmPortfolioTwitter




Christine Bower
Educator and Designer
Facebook
Portfolio
Twitter






Beto Espitia
Principal Designer
Nuance Communications
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn


Angela DonFounder + DesignerUniGlitter (previously at Facebook) PortfolioTwitterDribbble


Pablo StanleyDesigner/Co-founderCarbon HealthPortfolioTwitter 




Courtney EscanioProduct Designer & Art DirectorRodan + FieldsPortfolioLinkedIn



Asher BlumbergSenior Product DesignerJott Messenger (justa labs)InstagramTwitterLinkedIn



Nathan Diesel 
Mobile Product Designer
Anova Culinary
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn



 

Colin Toomey
Senior Product Designer
ProUnlimited
Portfolio
LinkedIn





 Deena AlcornLead UX DesignerStitch FixPortfolioTwitter  LinkedIn



Nor Sanavongsay
Product Designer
Workday
Portfolio
Twitter






 
Adithya Ramakumar
Product Designer
Open DNS (Cisco)
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn


Kevin GatesSenior Product DesignerPivotalLinkedIn




Marek Szeszycki-Truesdell
Product Designer
Gap Inc.
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn




Lisa AufoxSr. User Experience DesignerAutodeskPortfolioResume


Brandon ArnovikProduct DesignerRodan + FieldsLinkedIn



Chris Liu
Senior UX Director
Mercedes-Benz Research
Twitter
LinkedIn





 Marc GreenbergProduct & UX LeadPostmatesPortfolioTwitter  LinkedIn


Katie Hughes
Virtual Reality Product Designer 
Beast Inc.
Twitter
LinkedIn



Brendan McWeeny
UX Design Manager
Rodan + Fields
Portfolio
Medium
LinkedIn





 Adam RufUX Designer & MentorTwitchPortfolioTwitch LinkedIn


Lukasz Lysakowski
Design Director
Peek
Portfolio
Twitter
LinkedIn







  
Want to Mentor? 
Our mentors are industry leaders and have 5+ years of experience working as a designer in technology. They have experience in UX, product design, branding, content strategy, user research, data visualizations, and more.  Be a leader. Share your knowledge.  Apply to be a Cascade SF Mentor here. 

Sponsored by: 
 
Rodan + Fields is redefining skincare products in the digital age.  The founders created ProActive, an anti-acne solution that has improved the skin of millions of people throughout the world.  Now they sell online skincare products for anti-aging.  Rodan + Fields is hiring UX Designers and Marketers.  Checkout available job opportunities here.  
 
 CloudApp makes it easy to capture and annotate GIFS, animated interactions, and screenshots.  Checkout their product at getcloudapp.com.
 
Frequently Asked Questions

Where can I contact the organizer with any questions?
E-mail Andi Galpern at andi@cascadesf.com with any questions you might have.
 
What is the refund policy?
All tickets are non-refundable and available on a first-come-first-serve basis. 
Am I guaranteed a mentor spot?  
By signing up for a ticket you are guaranteed at least 1 (one) 20-minute session with a mentor.  
Partners: 

A Drone Film Festival?  Why Yes, Please.  

Our friends at The Flying Robot International Film Festival (FRIFF) are at it again! FRIFF is a film festival celebrating the art of 360 cinematography from a drones perspective. Led by Eddie Codel from eddie.com, the FRIFF 2017 Premiere Screening will be at Roxie Theatre in San Francisco on November 16, 2017. 





The deadline for submitting drone footage is on September 18th, 2017!


Submit your favorite aerial cinematography in the following categories: Cinematic Narrative, Epic Landscape, Drones for Good, FPV Racing & Freestyle, WTF LOL, Promotional, and Student Films. Visit https://friff.co for details. 


 


 
Join us for an evening of spooky design mentoring and networking!
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