Meet LeanLab – one of the partners for STHLM Xperience Conference 2022
LeanLab is a nordic digital innovation agency, helping brands to create better experiences for clients such as Google, Spotify, and Finnair. Together with Zington they are partners for this year’s STHLM Xperience Conference on the 10th of November. We sat down with LeanLabs CEO Ville Österlund and asked him a few questions about the conference and partnership
LeanLab are partners of STHLM Xperience Conference 2022. Why did you want to become a partner and what does the partnership mean to you?
There are not many events that would connect Designers in the Nordics together. We felt that STHLM Experience Conference offers a fantastic platform to connect and share learnings among designers. That's why we wanted to partner up and help STHLM Xperience Conference continue to grow and become a must-attend event for Designers in the Nordics.
How do you reflect/interpret the theme of Our Health of this year’s conference?
The health sector is something where Nordic countries can lead the way, a little like we did in the past decades innovating mobile phones and networks to the world. It is also a mission-critical area to find solutions, as an aging population and spiraling costs requires finding a good balance between high touch - high tech so that our health services can remain safe, accessible and affordable. One critical dimension in this context is to work closely with Users across all walks of life to design inclusive services, and that is something where we would be keen to hear best practices from the wider Design Community.
What do you think about the conference being held on World Usability Day on the 10th of November?
LeanLab's mission is to bring users to the design table with our end-user collaboration and insights platform. Usability. and connecting closely with users and their needs, is an irreplaceable part of Designing solid products and services. We are happy that the United Nation's initiative on WUD has been going strong over 15 years, and for us this presents the day in the year when the user takes center stage.
What does usability mean to you?
I personally like to see usability as a wider theme - not just building great experiences for a digital service but also smooth experiences going across multi-channel experiences, be it physical or digital. This way 'Usability' becomes something bigger, it cannot be ignored anywhere, and for the leading companies usability becomes a point of differentiation from going beyond "usable" towards memorable and meaningful experiences that really create loyalty and advocacy.
You are a speaker at the event, what is that talk about?
In short, that talk is about creating more meaningful and less stressful ways of working with users. Users no-longer want to be treated like lab rats, being thrown into a maze to complete usability tasks - they want to feel that they are part of the design process and see the impact of their participation over time. Our talk focuses on how to bring users closer to the creative process and increase the cadence of participation to maximize the Designer - User learning curve.
What are you most looking forward to at the conference?
Well, this is one of the first physical events we have participated in since Covid, so, it is finally meeting people face to face and getting out of home!
