I speak on Product Management, Product Design, and Career. You can reach me at emtownle@gmail.com if I might be a good fit for your event.
Past Talks
Process and Prejudice: Toward Better Product-Design Collaboration
It's easy for product and design to disagree. Sometimes we have different priorities (the business or the user experience?). Sometimes we have different processes for getting to the answer (analysis or synthesis?). But the magic we want only happens when Product Managers and Designers can overcome their prejudices and collaborate. We'll talk through how your team can build trust across disciplines, navigate whitespace projects together, and collaborate on the design process itself.
We're Not in IKEA Anymore: Instructions for Building Your PM Career
Everyone comes to product management from a different place. Whether you were originally an engineer, a designer, a marketer, or something else, you didn't go to product school (because it doesn't really exist). Becoming a Product Manager is about flexing your strengths, but learning to keep your background in the background. We'll talk about navigating the identity shift from your current role to PM, and how to define what unique flavor of product management you can bring to the table.
How Do I Get There from Here? Design Researching Your Way to Your Next Big Product
Few teams have the luxury of time and resources dedicated to new product definition. We'll talk through a process that any interdisciplinary product team can use -- and adapt -- to conduct lightweight research, define user needs, and identify opportunity areas worth pursuing.