Adam Connor
Design Leader & Experience Strategist
Hi. My name is Adam Connor.
I build clarity in complex systems, helping organizations figure out what to build, why it matters, and how to ship it without losing sight of the people they serve.
I've spent 25 years leading experience design and research across healthcare, education, and financial services. I've worked with C-suite leaders to reshape product strategies through customer insight and data, and led AI integration into product experiences and workflows, balancing automation with human-centered design. Along the way, I've built design and research into strategic functions, and designed operating models that transform how Product & Engineering teams discover, prioritize, and ship.
I care deeply about three things:
Using research and design to find, understand, and solve problems that matter
Building teams, operations, and cultures where people do their best work
Helping organizations make better decisions about what to build and why
I'm especially drawn to the challenge of keeping experiences human, coherent, and trustworthy as products become more complex and AI-enabled.
Most recently, I led Experience Design & Research at Labster, bringing researchers, educators, artists, and product, instructional, and game designers together into one team while directing experience strategy for AI-powered platforms serving 6M+ students across 3,000+ institutions.
If you're looking for someone to help your organization or team or establish vision, build practices, and drive execution with a focus on outcomes that matter, let's connect.
Thoughts & Talks
I occasionally share my thoughts on design practices and culture through articles and conference presentations like this:
You can find more of my presentations on Slideshare and posts on Medium.
Discussing Design
In 2015, I co-wrote Discussing Design: Improving Communication And Collaboration Through Critique with my friend and collaborator Aaron Irizarry.The book is the result of our interest in understanding how designers and their collaborators can have more effective conversations throughout the design process and has become the go-to educational resource for productive design conversations among product, design, and engineering teams.
