Make the Leap from IC to Manager & Leader for PMs and UXers

Hosted by Christine Perfetti, Melissa Appel, Diana DeMarco Brown, and Jen McGinn

73 students

What you'll learn

How to navigate the transition from IC to leader

Grow the skills and mindset shifts to successfully move into an influential role in your organization.

Why relationship building is essential to success

Identify key stakeholders, build meaningful relationships, and understand organizational dynamics to help teams succeed.

Grow leadership capabilities beyond your product expertise

See what communication strategies, soft skills and leadership best practices can help you succeed in a leadership role.

Why this topic matters

In this interactive 60-minute panel conversation, learn how several UX and Product leaders successfully made the transition from individual contributors to influential leaders. You'll gain insight into how to successfully navigate organizational structures, build connections, and develop the leadership mindset necessary to inspire teams and advance your career.

You'll learn from

Christine Perfetti

Product and UX Advisor [Ex-GoFundMe, Carbonite, Acquia]

Christine Perfetti is Founding Principal of Perfetti Media, a product strategy and research consulting firm. Christine built the research programs at GoFundMe, Carbonite, Acquia, and TuneIn, and has led product visioning workshops for Harvard Business School, WeSpire, HubSpot, Curriculum Associates, and Penn Medicine, among others. Before becoming a 2x founder, Christine Perfetti was the Head of User Experience at Carbonite and Acquia, two highly successful Scaleups in Boston, Massachusetts.

Melissa Appel

Product Management Coach, Author [Ex-Wayfair]

Melissa Appel is co-author of the newly released book, "Aligned: Stakeholder Management for Product Leaders." Melissa has 20 years of Product Management experience at companies in various industries, stages, and sizes. She helps product leaders create aligned strategies by getting the right people in the room and asking the right questions. Melissa's executive coaching focuses on process improvement, team development, and stakeholder management.

Diana DeMarco Brown

Design Leader [Ex-New Relic, Oracle, Author of Agile User Experience Design]

Diana DeMarco Brown is an experienced designer and leader with experience in both building out teams at startups and guiding teams to deliver exceptional experiences at an enterprise scale. Her management strategy has a heavy focus on leveraging process and design principles to support product designers in producing their best work in service of the business and the customer experience.

Jen McGinn

Experience Design (XD) Executive, [VP of UX, Flexera]

Jen McGinn is an Experience Design (XD) leader in the areas of cloud services, enterprise applications, security, and developer tools. She has a proven track record of creating highly-functional teams that have the room to innovate while consistently delivering in a fast-paced development environment. Jen routinely presents at local, regional, and international UX conferences on topics such as UX strategy, journey mapping, Agile user research, and ethics in user research and design.

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