Des Traynor

Des Traynor is a co-founder of Intercom where he is now Chief Strategy Officer.

Des uses the insights gained through interactions with customers to influence Intercom’s product roadmap. Prior to Intercom, Des was a co-founder of developer tool Exceptional, which was acquired and is now part of Rackspace. Previously he was a UX designer and co-founder of product design consultancy Contrast. Des writes for the Inside Intercom blog, and is a regular conference speaker on topics such as product strategy, UX design, customer experience, and the business of start-ups.

Clearleft says

We’re long time fans of Des, having watched his transition from UX designer to product manager and start-up founder with much interest. He gave a sterling talk on the importance of design to a room full of product managers at the recent Product Tank conference. So we asked him to flip the script and talk product to a room full of designers — can’t wait to see what he’s come up with!

Talk: Product strategy, management, and design - experience from the trenches

UX Designers are right about everything. Of course they are. But a successful product launch involves much more than a great user experience, and maintaining traction and product market fit involves dealing with more opinions, data sources & constraints than before. Before you launch a product or feature you design for what you expect; post launch, instead you focus on what you got.

This talk covers theory, techniques, and tactics for designing and launching new features and products, drawing on the experiences of working on hundreds of products. It also includes guidelines for UX designers whose role is edging towards managing a product, and the necessary steps to take for a successful transition.