53
Time
Room Name: 20/20 Vision
Tuesday, July 21
When Venture Funding
Goes Wrong
Leading the Startup UX
from 0 to 100 Days
The citizens of Silicon Valley pride themselves on their willingness
to fail: loudly, publicly, and repeatedly. This acceptance of failure is
one of the things that makes the entrepreneurial lifestyle so ap-
pealing. Problem is, it's not always the case. For every huge suc-
cess you hear about in Silicon Valley, the landscape is littered with
companies that didn't quite make it—and often, quite well-fund-
ed, seemingly successful ones. We rarely hear the true stories
about the companies that started strong but fizzled out. Until
now! Join Lane Becker for his down-and-dirty story of founding,
funding, growing, losing control of, selling, and making nothing
off of Get Satisfaction, a high-flying startup from the early days
of Web 2.0. He will discuss the highs and the lows, the secret
backdoor machinations, the good and the bad behavior (from
VCs and entrepreneurs alike), all leading up to the company's
final, wildly unsatisfying conclusion. Learn from his experience!
You have left the safety of a corporate UX team to drive UX for
a startup. Congrats! You know you need to make quick impact
for credibility and value to the product—and the company!
But you've inherited a product lacking visual consistency or
user-centered workflows…with new features thrown in hastily.
Whew! What can be done in 100 days…and beyond for a long-
term company UX strategy? Gajendar will share insights and les-
sons around the following points: How do we exert design-driv-
en influence? How do we cultivate good habits around design
process? How do we deliver a product users will LOVE?
In this session we will look at a variety of useful steps taken
from Day One, such as conducting a UX Audit, tracking UX Debt,
building rapport with Sales and Marketing VPs, and advocating
user research with design principles.
Lane
Becker
Code for America,
Dir-Talent Initiative
Uday
Gajendar
Peel,
Principal Designer
3:15pm
Tower Ballroom 4: 20/20 Vision
TUESDAY
