Many UX professionals spend years mastering research, strategy and design, yet still struggle to create impact. This talk explores the difference between UX competence and organisational competence, and why understanding people, trust, influence and alignment is often what determines whether great UX work creates real change. Drawing on lessons from consulting and enterprise environments, it challenges the idea that identifying problems is enough and argues that understanding how organisations work is just as important as understanding users.

We spend years learning how to make products usable. But what makes them feel effortless, trustworthy or even joyful? This talk explores the often overlooked qualities that give software personality, and why those qualities are becoming even more valuable in the age of AI.

AI isn't coming to design, it's already here. But between the hype cycle and the panic, there's a gap: the real work of building with AI when you're shipping products, managing teams, and working with real constraints. This talk cuts through the noise. We'll explore what it actually means to integrate AI into your design practice and product workflow; not as a feature checkbox, but as infrastructure that changes how teams work. We’ll explore the practical realities of how AI is changing the shape of design work, where it genuinely speeds you up (and where it doesn't), and what it takes to lead a team through this shift without losing what makes design matter.