Naomi Bower 🏳️‍🌈

Part of the team that created the Bridge for Product Design course, providing free education and skill development for designers who identify as women, agender, or non-binary.

Bridge for Product Design is part of the Bridge School program.

Speaker at Venture Out 2019 conference (Toronto)

Speaker at FITC Amsterdam 2019

Speaker at FITC Web Unleashed 2018 (Toronto)

Side by Side Collective is affecting change within the design industry by providing women-identifying designers with goal-oriented mentorship and support.

https://sidexside.co/

Speaker | FITC Toronto 2018

We might not think of facilitation, persuasion, and negotiation as essential design skills, but they’re an indispensable part of any designer’s toolkit. As a designer, you’re selling your ideas, work, approaches, and solutions all the time — whether you realize it or not.

In this talk, I explore how understanding the dynamics at play in these situations — and honing the skills to navigate them — helps you be more successful with the things you care… Show more

Speaker | FITC Toronto 2018

We might not think of facilitation, persuasion, and negotiation as essential design skills, but they’re an indispensable part of any designer’s toolkit. As a designer, you’re selling your ideas, work, approaches, and solutions all the time — whether you realize it or not.

In this talk, I explore how understanding the dynamics at play in these situations — and honing the skills to navigate them — helps you be more successful with the things you care about.

https://fitc.ca/presentation/but-i-thought-we-had-buy-in/ Show less

Speaker | Fluxible Meetups | September 2017 | Kitchener, ON

In this talk, I covered some fundamental principles behind facilitation, and what they add to UX designers’ toolkits.

I explored different techniques designers can use to plan, prep for, and facilitate sessions that help them get to the “why” — and achieve better outcomes for their team, stakeholders, and users.

https://www.meetup.com/Fluxible/events/242396437/

Judge | ProtoHack | June 2017 | Toronto

Together with my fellow judges, I evaluated team entries at ProtoHack Toronto 3.0, and helped select the winning teams.

https://protohack.com/event/protohack-toronto/

Speaker | FITC Spotlight UX | May 2017 | Toronto

In this talk, I explored a different kind of human factor that designers need to take into account, before the products they design ever end up in front of users. It’s an often-overlooked challenge that UX designers face: navigating the complex web of professional relationships within which their work happens.

Designers need to successfully identify, address, and leverage the needs, goals, and concerns of all the humans they work… Show more

Speaker | FITC Spotlight UX | May 2017 | Toronto

In this talk, I explored a different kind of human factor that designers need to take into account, before the products they design ever end up in front of users. It’s an often-overlooked challenge that UX designers face: navigating the complex web of professional relationships within which their work happens.

Designers need to successfully identify, address, and leverage the needs, goals, and concerns of all the humans they work with and work for — people who can be their biggest allies and advocates, or stop good UX design work in its tracks.

https://fitc.ca/presentation/designing-with-humans/ Show less