The Design Sprint is a technique that is very popular when solving problem in companies that have a design driven culture . Even with a design driven culture its still not easy to get the adoption in this companies. Emerging Markets such as Sub Saharan Africa have a lot of problem that really need the adoption of design driven problem solving especially when time and resources are scarce. The Design Sprint can help companies be able to solve problems and optimize for their solutions. In my experience as a Design Sprint Master and after running a campaign dubbed #DesignSprintNearYou I noticed that there was a lack of knowledge and misconception on this practice. A lot have heard of the process but have never been in one. Running Design Sprint has also proved a challenge even when referring to case studies from other regions . I found out that it was indeed a problem about how we sold this craft . Instead , I some decided to run some experiments to understand more . This talk proves to tell more stories about the impact of design sprints and some of the stories within Sub Saharan Africa using it , a brief about what it is and how to succeed at making it work in Africa.

Kenneth is a Software Engineer, Mentor and Entrepreneur. He is the Chief of Product and Co-founder of Infinity Space SAS , an African Technology Company based in Kenya, France and Cameroon. He has also been a resident consultant for iHub Consulting in Nairobi. Previously a GDG country mentor, Kenneth has been helping build the Kenyan GDG Community across the country. For his work in the tech ecosystem, Kenneth was honored in The iHub 100 individuals who have contributed to the growth of the Kenyan Tech Eco-System. To Continue Supporting the Sub Saharan Eco System , Kenneth is part of the 12 Google Developer Experts in SSA and in Kenya. As a Google Developer Expert and Google Launchpad Accelerator Mentor you will find Kenneth , contributing to open source projects, facilitating technical workshops, offering office hours on both technology and product strategy to early stage startups and those at the Growth Stage.

Accessibility can be hard. It can be hard to know what we need to do to make a site accessible. It can be hard to know if we meeting the requirements in the first place. But it doesn’t have to be. There are lots of tools we can use to assess and improve the accessibility of our websites, and this talk we will explore them.

Ire Aderinokun is a self-taught UI/UX Designer and Front-End Developer working in Lagos, Nigeria. She currently works as a Software Developer at eyeo focusing on Frontend Development. She is also a Google Developer Expert in Web Technologies. With degrees in Experimental Psychology and Law, Ire is adept at technical writing and breaking down complex concepts to be easily understood at all levels. Since starting her blog, bitsofcode, in 2015, she has written weekly articles on HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. She has now contributed over 100 articles and video tutorials to the development community. Ire is a huge advocate for open source and sharing within the development community. Wherever possible she contributes to open source projects and speaks at events to share her knowledge.

This interactive session will review the basics of user experience (UX) before focusing on one of the most important UX research techniques: user interviews. Participants will learn about interviewing for design inspiration, including (1) what makes a good question, (2) how to probe effectively, (3) collecting and organizing notes, and (4) quickly converting interview insights into personas.

Elizabeth Baylor is an applied anthropologist and the Research Lead for Tez, Google's new digital payment app for India. She received her PhD from the University of South Florida and has previous experience at Microsoft, the University of Alabama, and Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Before UX, Elizabeth was a nutritional anthropologist studying foodways in Southeast Asia. She specializes in adapting and applying classic social science methods to product design and development

In the age of digital, low/limited bandwidth can be considered a disability. The talk will focus on accessibility on the web, why it’s important and how to design for everyone.

Kene is a UX designer with special interest in using empathy as a tool for creating functional and beautiful products. He works as a UX Designer at Booking.com and prior to that led design at Co-Creation Hub (CcHUB). In 2013 he started Usable; A community of designers, developers and enthusiasts committed to designing beautiful and functional products. Kene is a pretend chef, closet adventurer and a wanderer. 

Too many companies still create products or services in what is basically a silo. The process often looks like this: something is designed, then shipped, and then sold. This worked well for the industrial era, but doesn't hold up so well now. This session will touch on why usability is so important - and how to use the triple threat to improve it.

​I am passionate about helping businesses achieve their full potential. I use key principles of design thinking to improve the way businesses work. These principles include putting the users or customers first, helping teams work collaboratively instead of in organizational silos, and running design sprints. On any given day, you’ll find me checking in with my clients and figuring out what next to experiment with - probably with a cup of coffee. No two days are the same for me.​

This talk is aimed at educating designers about the key principles of design thinking and case studies of their applications.

I'm a UX Designer at Flutterwave. I love mixing pixels to create amazing digital products.

The human-centered design (HCD) approach is used to create products and services that enhance and the user experience while meeting their needs.

Kenneth is a Software Engineer, Mentor and Entrepreneur. He is the Chief of Product and Co-founder of Infinity Space SAS , an African Technology Company based in Kenya, France and Cameroon. He has also been a resident consultant for iHub Consulting in Nairobi. Previously a GDG country mentor, Kenneth has been helping build the Kenyan GDG Community across the country. For his work in the tech ecosystem, Kenneth was honored in The iHub 100 individuals who have contributed to the growth of the Kenyan Tech Eco-System. To Continue Supporting the Sub Saharan Eco System , Kenneth is part of the 12 Google Developer Experts in SSA and in Kenya. As a Google Developer Expert and Google Launchpad Accelerator Mentor you will find Kenneth , contributing to open source projects, facilitating technical workshops, offering office hours on both technology and product strategy to early stage startups and those at the Growth Stage. Kenneth is based in Marseille , France and Nairobi, Kenya

What building a savings platform taught us about building for the Nigerian pocket.

JR’s career as a design coach began at Stanford where he led organisations to implement design thinking methodology in their product creation and problem solving strategies. He has worked with Victoria’s Secret, Ireland Davenport, African Leadership Network Ventures as well as the Stanford Africa Business Forum. Prior to Stanford, JR worked with the United Nations across Nigeria, Senegal, Mali and Haiti. He was also a writer at Black Enterprise and Esquire magazines. JR holds a BSc in Mechanical Engineering from Calvin College; a Master of Arts in Journalism from New York University; and an MBA from Stanford University. Before co-founding TDI Lagos, he managed payment innovation at Konga, where he used design thinking to create KongaPay.

Products are always designed and built to get users hooked. But how do you design products for a market with completely new users? Where these users that have not been catered to or designed and created for. How do you design a product that solves the user's itch from the first time they use it? So they can become returning users and not infuriated users. And how do you do all this while aiming to scale and address a new and large market? I plan to use this talk to help us explore possible solutions.

Osioke is a self-taught experience designer. His love for experience design started as a desire to learn what people find attractive. He currently works as a Community Manager for Devcenter. There he designs and develops processes and tools to build Devcenter's user base. This user base is also Devcenter's community, and it is called Devcenter Square. It is a community of African software design, development and delivery talents. In under a year, he has grown the community from about 300 members to over 2000 and an activity rate of over 35% weekly. He also enjoys capturing the world around him through words and pictures. He shares some of his writings via a DIY life hack blog called Sprime's Hacks. And he started Gani Nigeria to document the beauty of Northern Nigeria.