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Cindy Au

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As the former VP Community at Kickstarter, Cindy Au managed the fast-growing crowdfunding community through a major growth phase, and balanced the competing needs of campaigners and funders. Cindy cut her teeth in New York’s tech scene – and she’s got great insights about what it takes to say NO to short-term gains in order to fulfill a long-term vision. If you’re interested in community dynamics, cooperative design or tech entrepreneurship, you’re gonna love Cindy’s stories about how Kickstarter transformed from a promising idea into a wildly successful fundraising powerhouse.

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Jared Spool

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Jared Spool is a legend in user interface design. Through his pioneering consultancy, User Interface Engineering, he’s helped hundreds of teams create more usable and delightful software. Jared’s latest project is Center Centre — a 2-year college for UX professionals that’s setup to train the next generation of user interface professionals. His approach to product design is informed by decades of experience and pattern-matching – I love hearing his stories and actionable chunks of UX wisdom: Join us for a far-reaching and high-impact conversation about user experience design.

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Jeff Atwood

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Jeff Atwood is the co-founder of Stack Overflow – he played a major role in bringing that influential Q&A network to life. Jeff now brings his community-building prowess to Discourse, a fast-growing community SAAS company. Jeff knows all about the fear, discomfort and iterative experiments that pave the way to success in the digital world. He’s one of my favorite people to talk with – listen in and enjoy his stories and insights.

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Jim Scheinman

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Jim Scheinman is a lifelong entrepreneur who’s spent the last two decades working at the forefront of social software. As an early employee of Friendster and Bebo, Jim rode out the first big social media wave. Now he’s helping the next generation of founders invent the future through his work at Maven Ventures. Jim’s approach is grounded in operational reality – and infused with a passion for working on a ‘vision worth fighting for.’ He appreciates the power of a truly compelling experience to draw people in and keep them engaged. Learn how an early-stage investor decides who to work with – and how to help his companies succeed.

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Jeff Veen

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In the short history of web design, Jeff Veen is a true pioneer. In his work for Wired, Adaptive Path, Google, Adobe, and now True Ventures, Jeff has been pushing the boundaries of online publishing and Web interactivity for decades. He’s worked with some of the best and brightest teams in tech – and has a deep and abiding passion for group collaboration Find our what’s on Jeff’s mind and capturing his his attention these days. I got a lot our of this conversation – and I know you’ll enjoy it too.

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Richard Garriott

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Richard Garriott is a pioneering game designer, gifted world-builder, second-generation astronaut, arctic explorer – and ever-inspiring creative force. I first met Richard when I was teaching online community design at Stanford; half my class was in the Beta for Ultima Online, and I jumped in enthusiastically to learn the ropes. I ended up working with Richard, Raph Koster and their amazing crew of developers through the launch & growth of that early graphic MMO. Like many great game designers, Richard is a sophisticated systems thinker who sees the world through a unique lens that’s on full display in this far-ranging & fascinating conversation.

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Cindy Alvarez

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Cindy Alvarez is an expert in customer research and iterative development. She’s the author of Lean Customer Development, a hands-on guide for validating product and feature ideas. She’s worked for small and medium-sized startups – and now runs user experience for Yammer (a Microsoft company). Cindy’s got a flair for explaining user-centered design in a compelling and understandable way. From her early days doing tech support for her professors at Harvard—to her current leadership role evangelizing lean tactics at Microsoft—Cindy thrives on new challenges. Listen in and learn how a seasoned UX expert blends customer development with product leadership.

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Matt Leacock

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Matt Leacock is a board game designer and UX expert. His first big hit, Pandemic, is a cooperative board game where you team up with others to save the world from virulent diseases. In his latest game, Pandemic Legacy, Matt extends the core Pandemic gameplay with an overarching narrative structure that delivers an episodic experience where every choice you can has irrevocable impact. Matt’s background as a UX designer shines through in his approach to iterative prototyping and “finding the fun” in his games. Matt Leacock is one of my game design heroes, and I’m thrilled to get to talk with him about his creative process. Listen in and learn how a world-class board game designer brings new ideas to life.

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Irene Au

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Irene Au is a design leader and UX expert with deep experience in team-building. She’s currently an operating partner at Khosla Ventures, where she works with startup CEOs to make their designs great. Irene started her career at Netscape – then moved on to lead design efforts at Yahoo, Google and Udacity. This progression gives her a unique perspective on growing UX teams – and smart strategies for enhancing design in different situations. Irene brings a deeply humanistic approach to everything she does, and integrates her passion for Yoga and mindfulness into everything she does. Listen in and discover how a Silicon Valley legend gets startup CEOs to embrace iterative, user-centered design practices.

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Dan Olsen

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Dan Olsen is a seasoned product manager – and the author of the Lean Product Playbook, a soup-to-nuts handbook for doing smart product management with Lean principles. Dan runs the Lean Product & Lean UX Meetup in Silicon Valley, where he brings cross-functional teams together to lean how to create great products. Dan is an articulate proponent of a lean & disciplined approach to product development – and he knows the power of choosing the right mental model to organize your thinking. In this interview, you’ll learn how an experienced product manager approaches customer discovery, rapid prototyping and smart MVP development.

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