🔔 Registration opens July 18th @ 11am 🔔

Event Details

📅 Date: Thursday, August 14th, 2025

⏰ Time: 5:30 PM - 8:00 PM

📍 Venue: Intuit at The Well (19th Floor) - 8 Spadina Avenue, Toronto, ON M5V 0S8

Design skills got you in the door, but what takes you to the next level? Join us for an evening with two of Intuit’s top design leaders, Lenny and Armin, as they reveal how to transform your team from pixel-pushers to strategic powerhouses. Expect hard-won insights, followed by actionable workshops hosted by leading designers in the field, and plenty of food-fueled networking.

What to Expect:

1️⃣ Keynote: Learn the non-design skills that move the needle- (data, business acumen, and AI collaboration) straight from Intuit’s playbook.

2️⃣ Choose-Your-Adventure Workshops: You'll take part in one of four 45-minute workshops—lock in your pick during registration:

• Topic 1: Pitch Like a PM

  • Workshop Host: Maggie Chen, Principal PM @Ada

  • Stop waiting for PMs to notice your insight. In this fast-paced session, Maggie Chen shares a three-step framework to frame problems in outcome language, size impact and risk, and sell ideas to leadership before a pixel is pushed. Practice with her Design Pitch Canvas, learn the trade-off language execs love, and leave ready to keep design bets alive through shifting priorities.

• Topic 2: Designing for Outcomes, Not Just Interfaces

  • Workshop Host: Andrew Nguyen, UX Manager @ Canada Goose

  • Designers are expected to deliver beautiful, usable experiences but what about business results? In this hands-on session, Andrew Nguyen will walk you through how to connect design thinking to business goals and metrics that matter. You’ll explore the foundations of business fluency for designers, learn how to identify and influence key KPIs, and use practical frameworks to link your work to measurable outcomes. You’ll gain tools to work more strategically with product and analytics partners and confidently speak to the impact of your design decisions.

• Topic 3: Storytelling for Design Influence

  • Workshop Host: Ethel Zlotnik, Lead Designer @ TD Bank

  • Your design is beautiful. Thoughtful. Strategic. But if no one understands it, buys into it, or advocates for it… does it even matter? In this session, Ethel Zlotnik shows you how to turn your design decisions into compelling stories that people actually care about.You’ll explore practical storytelling techniques you can apply to design presentations, critiques, and everyday conversations. You’ll walk away with a toolkit to help stakeholders get it — and more importantly, feel it. Whether you're struggling to explain the “why” behind your work or just want to sharpen your influence, this workshop will help you stop losing buy-in and start leading with story.

• Topic 4: Defining High-Impact AI Use Cases

  • Workshop host: Karen Wai, Staff Product Designer @ Intuit

  • AI is a tsunami of potential, and many designers feel stuck on the shore, hoping a PM or leader will chart the course. But you don't have to wait. The future of design belongs to those who can spot strategic opportunities and translate them into a compelling business case. In this session, Karen Wai will walk over a simple, actionable framework to identify and articulate a compelling, business-focused AI use case.

3️⃣ Post-Workshop Hang: Debrief over food and make connections that last!

Why Come?

• Shift your mindset from “how” to “why”

• Walk away with tactics to amplify your impact

• Meet 100+ designers ready to grow with you

Event Schedule:

5:30 - 6:00 PM | Doors Open + Mingling

6:00 - 6:30 PM | Keynote

6:35 - 7:20 PM | Workshop Sessions

7:20 - 8:00 PM | Food & Networking

8:00 - 8:05 PM | Closing Remarks

🔔 Important:

• Registration opens July 18th @ 11am - stay tuned!

• All attendees will be required to show their government ID & QR Code for the event.

• Update your FoF profile name to match your ID.