Conference Agenda

• Expanding UX research frontiers beyond screen-based interfaces to measure spatial computing, ambient intelligence, and physical-digital hybrid experiences
• Understanding UX's critical responsibility in shaping ethical and meaningful human-machine relationships in the physical space
• Reimagining UX research methodologies—new approaches, tools, and frameworks needed to understand and validate invisible interactions

• Risk in Design: Using UX research as an early risk radar. Articulating target design objectives, differentiating risk types, and informing UX and non-UX actions across iterative validation
• Strategic Influence: Elevating qualitative insight into decision-grade evidence. Using standardised methods, cumulative studies, and benchmarking to guide leadership thought processes
• The Will To Change: Build confidence through clarity and candour. Translating insights simply, reinforcing them consistently, and influencing change through evidence, empathy, and long-term trust

• Positioning agents as operational partners that help teams find, reuse, and apply research insights faster
• Deploying a “librarian” agent (Khloe) to surface prior studies, evidence, and decisions, reducing duplicate work
• Using a question-reframing agent (Janneth) to translate ambiguous stakeholder requests into clear, researchable questions during intake, enabling citizen researchers to conduct high-quality research
• Tracking impact through operational outcomes, including shorter cycle times, stronger decision quality, and improved cross-functional alignment

• Evolving UXR from designing screens to designing systems of intent, evidence, and accountability
• Identifying the new UXR questions all researchers should be asking
• Building the skills and qualities UXRers need to succeed

• Defining qualitative research’s evolving strategic mandate as a company intelligence think tank in turbulent conditions
• Engaging stakeholders and connecting functions through a cross-functional insight supply chain
• Turning weak signals into timely strategic bets and making insights auditable, traceable, and board-ready

• Ensuring that synthetic tools enhance—rather than undermine—the trustworthiness of qualitative insights
• Identifying high-value applications for synthetic users while establishing firm boundaries against their use for high-stakes decisions
• Validating synthetic outputs to ensure the final results meet a good standard of quality and accountability

• Moving beyond profit and efficiency, a closer look into the rise of inclusive design research in Asia
• Broadening the value lens of qualitative research to include "planet" and "prosperity" considerations
• Addressing the lack of regional representation in global data models and how to find more relevant insights for the Asia region

• Aligning stakeholders on decision questions, roles, and handoffs across functions
• Standardizing qual workflows from intake to action and defining service levels
• Embedding research into CI/OE routines to run a closed loop from fixing, preventing to training

• Revealing what truly drives decisions by observing real in-store behavior, not self-reported surveys
• Tracking end-to-end shopper journeys to pinpoint the earliest moments that steer choices
• Identifying “first conversation” discovery interactions as decisive influence points in multi-brand environments
• Linking early QUAL discovery to brand choice, customer experience, and conversion outcomes
• Exposing hidden in-store dynamics that traditional research methods often miss

• How are leaders redefining the mandate for qual when budgets shrink but demand for speed increases?
• What governance mechanisms actually help teams decide what to pause, protect, or accelerate?
• Where are the biggest trade-offs between speed and rigor, and what “minimum quality bars” are non-negotiable?
• How are teams proving impact and accountability?
• What change-management moves worked (or failed) in your company so far?

Go in-depth with your peers in our open roundtable sessions. Pick one of the below topics to openly discuss the topic of your choice in small, intimate groups.

Go in-depth with your peers in our open roundtable sessions. Pick one of the below topics to openly discuss the topic of your choice in small, intimate groups.

Go in-depth with your peers in our open roundtable sessions. Pick one of the below topics to openly discuss the topic of your choice in small, intimate groups.

Go in-depth with your peers in our open roundtable sessions. Pick one of the below topics to openly discuss the topic of your choice in small, intimate groups.

• Historical Constraint: Historically, a researcher's time has been heavily consumed by operational realities—pitching projects, client engagement, and administrative setup—leaving only a fraction of time for actual analysis and insight
• Inverting the Approach: New AI tools and solutions offer an opportunity to "invert" this ratio. By leveraging new tooling and workflows to speed up non-core elements like project management, researchers can reclaim their time for deeper synthesis and judgment
• Increased Velocity: These tools allow everyone to move faster. Ultimately, this ensures that as the pace of business continues to accelerate, the journey to insight does not get left behind

• Translate executive ambiguity into decision questions, evidence standards, and a rapid qual plan.
• Reducing bureaucracy and removing organizational barriers to accelerate innovation without sacrificing research rigor
• Fostering the behavior and mindset shifts needed to sustain progress and mature leadership skills at all levels of the research organisation

• Contextualizing research methodologies to authentically capture lived experiences of low-income communities in their natural environments
• Unlocking transformative potential through digital financial inclusion strategies tailored for underserved populations
• Building indigenous digital narratives that reflect billion-user realities rather than imposing external frameworks on Global South communities

• Understanding how communities and identity form inside private platforms (WeChat, Little RedBook, etc.) would affect how traditional global research tools often miss
• Observing real in-platform behaviors across Chinese consumers in different tier cities
• Translating cultural nuance into research design so insights reflect local routines and trade-offs

THE RESEARCH HOT SEAT: ASK ME ANYTHING

Industry leaders sit at themed tables where attendees can ask them the questions they're actually thinking within the theme —unfiltered, unscripted, and zero marketing fluff.

THE RESEARCH HOT SEAT: ASK ME ANYTHING

Industry leaders sit at themed tables where attendees can ask them the questions they're actually thinking within the theme —unfiltered, unscripted, and zero marketing fluff.

THE RESEARCH HOT SEAT: ASK ME ANYTHING

Industry leaders sit at themed tables where attendees can ask them the questions they're actually thinking within the theme —unfiltered, unscripted, and zero marketing fluff.

THE RESEARCH HOT SEAT: ASK ME ANYTHING

Industry leaders sit at themed tables where attendees can ask them the questions they're actually thinking within the theme —unfiltered, unscripted, and zero marketing fluff.

• Applying design thinking as a qual operating system to uncover needs, test direction, and drive decisions across discovery to launch.
• Translating emotion into decision-ready inputs by clarifying the decision, reframing feelings into opportunity areas, and sharpening research questions.
• Designing an end-to-end learning plan that selects the right methods by stage and carries evidence through to principles, requirements, and narratives.

• Detecting weak signals through qual sensing for continuous discovery, and rapid ethnographic observation to surface unmet needs early
• Synthesizing patterns into insights through affinity mapping and thematic analysis, separating noise from signal, and defining the shift
• Translating evidence into action to make CX bets defensible

• Building empathy as a system and creating repeatable practices that protect human nuance while teams move fast
• Adding guardrails for speed so agility does not dilute depth or rigor
• Making insights travel to equip cross-functional partners to apply qualitative learning, not just read it
• Evolving the researcher skill set for AI-enabled work, including sensemaking, decision facilitation, and model oversight.