11:35am - 12:15am

Mark Ferencik

Optum Technology

At a time when the US auto industry was resting on past successes, the new chief engineer for the Toyota Sienna drove 53,000 miles across North America across all sorts of roads and situations with all sorts of people in the car. One of the key insights: Great minivan success is more about the kids in the back than the people in the front.  Sienna minivan sales jumped a whopping 50% in just one year based on his team’s insights!

Are you frustrated when your great user research insights and designs get dismissed by your business customers? The issues are deeply rooted in the origins of the auto industry and the way Alfred Sloan managed General Motors. His ideas spread through major business programs and explains a tremendous amount of why so many leaders often ignore the insights UX researchers are telling them. This interactive session will take a quick stroll through history of how these business practices came to be. Then we’ll explore some effective ways to get our leaders to sink old stinkin’ thinkin' and pony up the support needed for awesome UX and even better products.