See your Favorite frogs on the SXSW Stage

How Will Cannabis Disrupt Your Business

Across the nation, attitudes towards cannabis are surprisingly uniform—84% of Americans support legalization. As people are granted the permission they need to try cannabis, we will quickly approach a future in which cannabis is not only legal but socially acceptable. Every industry will be affected from automotive to beauty and more. How will this shift disrupt your business?

Join frog and cannabis industry experts as we explore our research findings on Americans’ attitudes towards cannabis. Together, we’ll design a future where cannabis has reached mainstream adoption, incorporating emerging global consumer and retail trends, personas and concepts.You will leave this workshop with a point of view on how cannabis will affect your industry and a vision for your role in it.

Speakers: Kristina Phillips, Senior Strategist, frog; Sam Haddaway, Strategist, frog Sally Darby, Strategist, frog

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Digital Transformation: The Uncomfortable Truth

The global financial services industry is undergoing dramatic change. To stay competitive in a crowded landscape with rapidly emerging new players, established banks are transforming their businesses to stay on top of the rising demand for exceptional customer experiences. So, what does digital transformation really look like? Get an inside peek at the internal and external challenges of disruptive innovation from the teams at Frost Bank and frog design who partnered to drive change within Frost Bank, one of the oldest US establishments in financial services. Our talk will bring together the in-house team perspective alongside the design consultancy lens to transformation design; and will explore key insights to help you bring change to your organizations.

Speakers: Andreas Markdalen, Executive Director of Design, frog; Xiomara Alejandro, UX Manager, Vice President, Frost Bank

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Designing the Next Wave of Natural Language and AI

The rapid pace of change has seen the evolution of the web, the mobile revolution, and now the beginning of AI and ubiquitous computing. But what new future should we design? Speakers from Google, frog, Mercedes-Benz, and Microsoft will discuss and debate AI Next. What experiences should we unlock in an intelligent world? Will speaking be enough or will we have to invent something new? What shouldn’t we ask AI to do? In most industries not much measuredly changes in a year, but this wasn’t just any year. This year was so big (you know what we mean) that a reboot to our panel is a must. As practitioners what are we learning? What new questions are we grappling with? Join us as we explore what we are designing our way through and how it might impact this rapidly changing world. Buckle up!

Speakers: Karin Giefer, Executive Creative Director, Applied Data, frog; Ben Brown, Google Home Prod Lead, Google; Ed Doran, Principal Program Mgr, Microsoft Artificial Intelligence & Research, Microsoft; Andrew Hill, Director, Data & Artificial Intelligence, Mercedes-Benz Research & Development

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Art Museums As Spaces Of Digital Play

Many adjectives are ascribed to art museums, but “fun” isn’t usually at the top of the list. Institutions have tended to project authority rather than empathy and emotional connection. However, museums’ aspiration to grow attendance beyond traditional art audiences has begun to create opportunities for playful engagement almost unthinkable a decade ago. Digital experiences, particularly AR, have played a key role in this development. Focusing on delight, more than didactic forms of education, can have powerful effects on fostering understanding and engagement among visitors of all ages. This panel will examine trends in the field and take a deep dive on findings from the immersive Interpretive Gallery created by SFMOMA and frog in 2018 for the “Magritte: The Fifth Season” exhibition.

Speakers: Chad Coerver, Chief Content Officer, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA); Charles Yust, Principal Design Technologist, frog design; Sarah Brin, Curator, Independent

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Designing Technology For Longevity

There’s nothing quite like a classic product – like the watch inherited from your grandfather or the Persian rug that has warmed floors for generations. But increasingly, advanced and rapidly changing technologies are being embedded in the objects that might one day be considered a classic or heirloom – such as appliances, cars, furniture, and buildings. What happens when previously durable goods becoming disposable, because their embedded technologies expire long before the primary engine of their function deteriorates? In this talk, we will examine this existential risk, historical and contemporary examples for graceful technology decline, and new business models that can enable even smart, cloud-connected, AI rugs to last for decades.

Speaker: Ryan Wickre, Senior Mechanical Engineer, frog

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Designing Blockchain For Scale: It’s Not Your Ux

Blockchain technology enables new ways for individuals to engage in trustless and permissionless transactions, with network models that rely on aligned incentives and assume malicious actors. The emerging field of cryptoeconomics combines game theory, mechanism design, economics, and computer science to explore how to architect these blockchain-based protocols.

But user adoption of blockchain still lags. While many blame poor UX, we believe the incentive systems and network architecture themselves should be better designed for human participation. In this talk, we briefly review the blockchain space and cryptoeconomic models, identify barriers to mass adoption, and teach simple design thinking principles that can be applied to cryptoeconomic models to overcome these barriers.

Speakers: Samuel Haddaway, Strategist, frog Design; Chris Powers, Vice President, BTC Labs

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Designing Against A Data Dystopia

We need to design for data misuse. An economy has erupted around our personal data. And because our data is valuable, there is an economic incentive to misuse it. At times it feels like we’re living in a data dystopia. Palantir has developed “predictive policing” in New Orleans. Your Roomba is mapping the layout of your home without you knowing it. AT&T is selling your web browsing history associated with your real name and address. But we can use dystopia as a tool. Dystopia helps us imagine futures we don’t want to create and by reversal, the ones we truly do. Together, we can build a healthy data future with a little imagination and a defined set of values, beyond profit.

Speaker: Agnes Pyrchla, Senior Strategist , frog design

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Design For The Unexpected: Autonomous Mobility

Success in the market is not inevitable for those making autonomous, electric, and connected mobility products. Next generation transportation products based on historical trends or personal experience will miss the breakthrough ideas needed to compete in a shifting mobility landscape. An enormous opportunity space is about to open up. The concepts that succeed will likely be a surprise. Rather than falling behind, or being caught off-guard, creative strategy tools can be used methodically to explore unexpected, innovative solutions for shaping autonomous technology into commercial mobility services based on user experience.

Speaker: Theo Calvin, Creative Director, Transporation Sector Lead for North America, frog design

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