Speaking
I am a firm believer in the value of good content design, in design thinking, and in rapid prototyping, which allows you to quickly try things, get feedback, fail fast, learn, and improve.
I've had the privilege of speaking on these topics at a few conferences and events over the last few years.
If you think I might be able to bring something to an event you are planning, do get in touch.
Building a community of practice
IBM Spark Design Festival
Online, May 2021
I co-presented with my awesome colleague Maranda Bodas on the ongoing content design transformation within IBM, and in particular how we've grown a grass-roots content design community of practice that has helped bring together content practitioners and advocates from across the company.
You can read more about this topic in this article I wrote.
The impact of product voice and tone
Product content strategy event organised by 383 Project
Online, Dec 2020
At this online event for product designers, strategists, owners, and managers I presented on the importance of having a suitable, engaging, and consistent voice and tone. I also shared a fun exercise that I've used in the past to help product teams see for themselves just what a huge impact the voice and tone of a product has on the overall user experience.
Breaking down content silos
Button content conference
Online, Oct 2020
We all want to deliver delightful content experiences, but how can you ensure quality and consistency across a customer’s end-to-end content journey when that content is created by thousands of people, across hundreds of teams, based all over the world? In this talk I shared some useful tips and practices to help break down content silos.
Building a content design practice in the enterprise
Utterly content conference
Online, Oct 2020
A few years ago I started a cross-company Content Design Guild at IBM, which is still going strong and in this talk I shared some practical tips on how to develop and scale a cross-functional content practice.
Establishing end-to-end content collaboration squads
IBM ContentCon conference
Hursley, UK, Oct 2019
This talk was focused on the need to think about a product user's end-to-end content experience, from marketing materials through to in-product copy, to support materials, etc. and how to best collaborate across functional divides within an organization.
Failing fast, using feedback loops, and the benefits of iterative design
IBM Think conference
Las Vegas, USA, Mar 2018
This session introduced the audience to some of the key concepts behind the Lean Startup and design thinking approaches. I helped explain the value of treating decisions like hypotheses to be tested, and how establishing feedback loops helps us to learn, refine or pivot, and ultimately increases our chances of success.
You can read more about this topic in this article I wrote.
Achieving a consistent design language across your portfolio
IBM InterConnect conference
Las Vegas, USA, Mar 2017
In this talk I demonstrated the benefits of having a consistent design language across your portfolio of offerings and I shared some hints and tips about how to approach developing such a design language yourself.