Catherine Courage
SVP of Customer Experience, Citrix
Catherine’s passion is transforming corporate culture by making great design a driver of innovation and change. As SVP of Customer Experience at Citrix, her team’s mission is to create world-class products and services that drive an exceptional total customer experience.
Catherine co-authored the book Understanding Your Users and is an active writer and speaker on design. Her work has been featured by TEDxKyoto, Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, and Fast Company. She holds a Masters of Applied Sciences specializing in Human Factors from the University of Toronto.
Inspiring Design Thinking In A Predictable Corporate Culture
Has understanding the importance of a design within product companies advanced over the last decade? We have to ask ourselves why we see so many corporations with dedicated user experience teams, yet their products do not reflect this investment. The reality is that it takes more than a team of A + user experience designers and researchers to achieve outstanding design. An exceptional team surrounded by broken process or a lack of understanding of design is doomed to fail. For years we have focused on educating individuals on the user-centered design process. This is one piece of the puzzle; however, the company as a whole must embrace and understand design with a response that entails more than just headcount. Exceptional design cannot be achieved in a vacuum. Design is everyone’s responsibility and its success is dependent upon a company that fosters this culture. Design needs to be part of the company DNA.
The talk is targeted for anyone interested in design culture and is intended to inspire and ignite a new way of thinking about factors that contribute to exceptional design. It will also address real-world strategies for achieving this great endeavor.