Lots to Unpack on Day One of DigitalXChange

DigitalXChange had a little something for everyone. With four keynotes, ten breakout sessions, and a great cocktail reception to cap things off, day one was a huge success.

With all of the buzz leading up to DigitalXChange ’18, I could not have been more excited heading into day one this morning. Having just wrapped up a jam-packed opening day, I can say that it delivered in every way.

The speakers were dynamic, the content was engaging and insightful, and everyone truly seemed to enjoy themselves throughout the day. What more can you ask for? Now I know everyone was not able to attend today, but I wanted to give you a taste of what the day was all about.

Keynotes

We had a total of four keynotes today, all of whom brought their own flavor and unique expertise to the stage. These three set the tone for the conference with their morning sessions.

Doron Reuveni, CEO, Applause Doron led off the day by discussing some recent milestones achieved by Applause. These included the uTest community surpassing 400,000 members across the globe as well as insight into the success of women within the uTest community. The numbers are pretty incredible as 47% of silver-rated testers and 44% of gold-rated testers are women.

Tom Wujec, Founder, The Wujec Group Tom is no stranger to the big stage and he certainly delivered with a fantastic presentation on the role of technology and experience in connecting brands to their customers. Through this, he shared how these two roles combined are the catalyst for innovative design. In the end, design is driven by three key principles: trust, flow, and delight. In capturing all three, you create something forms a real connection with your customers.

Julie Ask, VP & Principal Analyst, Forrester It was great to have Julie back on stage again this year and she pulled double duty by delivering her own keynote, then moderating a panel on conquering digital. Julie’s message was simple: know your customer. By understanding which technologies your customers use and how they actually use them, you are able to reduce their cognitive load. In essence, the better you know your customer, the more immersive and personalized experience you can deliver to them.

Breakout Sessions

Following Julie’s panel, we gave everyone a chance to choose their own adventure. We split the afternoon into two tracks, giving attendees an opportunity to dive deeper into the practices of testing and learn more from the customer experience side of things. Through ten different sessions, I found some excellent takeaways that I would like to share with you. Here are my top three:

1. Creating a seamless integrated user experience is hard, but not impossible. Liza Landsman, former president of Jet.com, knows this well from past experience and shared her insight during her session. In evaluating brands’ apps, she always is sure to ask these critical questions of them – Do you know me? Do you get me? Do you value me? Do you make my life easier?
2. Going from a hardware company to a tech company is quite the transition, but one that Master Lock dealt with head-on. The mantra? Try, fail, learn, and optimize. In doing so, you learn from your mistakes and continually build on your successes.
3. Muriel Naim of HopSkipDrive had a very unique perspective on testing and what is needed to realize the best results. As a film director and writer, Muriel emphasized the need to understand emotions and why people feel about and react to something the way they do. Her message to us was that people’s voice, tone, and diverse opinions can lead us to far better insights than through filling out a form or writing an email. This rings true to her approach to testing.

Our Featured Keynote, Casey Neistat

Casey Neistat put a cherry on top of an unforgettable day one of DigitalXChange ‘18. A self-made entrepreneur, Casey shared his unique story from ambitious but broke teenage dad to self-made media superstar. Through samples of his short films and an engaging narrative of his winding career, he ultimately showed the importance of embracing change and bucking trends.

The evolution of technology has monumentally changed the media landscape from the time Casey began his career. The ways people view and consume content is on their terms now, not the content creators. So in order to truly connect with an audience, you need to cater to them and evolve as they do.

Day one had a little bit of something for everyone. I can’t wait to see what day two has in store!