Join Product leaders and experts for a lively panel discussion about how to incorporate customer feedback to make products your customers love and deliver a better overall customer experience. We'll share best practices from industry leaders and give attendees a chance to ask their questions as well! 

The evening will be hosted at Vacasa’s office in the Pearl and emceed by the unofficial Godfather of Portland Tech, founder of Silicon Florist, cofounder of Portland Incubator Experiment, cofounder of Oregon Story Board, cofounder of TechfestNW, Rick Turoczy. He’ll moderate a panel discussion with Patrick Lightbody, SVP of Product Management at Delphix, Heather Knight of Airbnb, Greg Goodman, CEO of ProductPlan, Dan Podsedly, VP of Pivotal Tracker, and Kevin Steigerwald, CPO of Notion.

There will be snacks and drinks and plenty of time for networking and discussions.

AGENDA

• 5:30 Arrive

• 6:00 Panel Discussion: How Product can leverage Support to build better products

• 6:40 Q&A

• 7:00 Networking, Food, and Drinks

ABOUT THE PANEL

HEATHER KNIGHT

Heather is a former healthcare worker turned techie.  She started out on the Customer Experience at Airbnb and is currently on the Business Travel Team as an Account Coordinator for Enterprise-level companies.  She has developed a deep interest in product development and was part of a beta test group for a new internal product that was recently released into the wild.  When Heather is not working, she's learning how to code at Alchemy Labs part time program in the evenings. In her not so free time, she's also the Portland City co-director of Lesbians Who Tech.  Someday soon, when code school is finished, she hopes to resume her hiking, backpacking and international travel addictions.

GREG GOODMAN

Greg Goodman is the co-founder and CEO of ProductPlan. He has a passion for building products and companies. He was the founder of Miramar Systems, which was acquired by Computer Associates and has advised and invested in numerous technology startups including AppFolio, RightScale, HGData and Apeel Sciences. He has degrees in Computer Science and Business Economics from UC Santa Barbara.

DAN PODSEDLY

Dan Podsedly is a Pivotal Labs VP and the General Manager of Pivotal Tracker, the popular project collaboration tool for modern software teams. Dan has been with Pivotal Labs since their nascent days in the mid-2000s, and has experience in every aspect of software development, including engineering, product management, and UX design.

KEVIN STEIGERWALD

Full-stack product designer with over 10 years of experience designing, researching, marketing, planning, and building products. From package design in big-box retailers to indie games in the App Store, my passion is for designing experiences that make our lives easier and more enjoyable. I believe pies are for dessert not for charts, tortillas make the best utensil, and the iPhone 4 is the proper screen size for a phone.

We all know that the secret to generating long-term revenue growth relies on your ability to deliver outstanding customer value.

But how to do you create a growth strategy that consistently improves customer experience and converts leads into evangelists?

Join us for an informal candid discussion where we'll uncover how successful startup founders and leaders employ a customer-centric mindset to power and scale their revenue growth.

This event is hosted by RevDev, a collective of startup growth advisors, as part of their Portland company launch and kick-off. The RevDev founders will walk us through their take on Success Marketing - a strategy that integrates Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success to deliver bigtime customer value and generate sustainable revenue growth.

RevDev will then be joined by three leaders of thriving Portland startups for a panel discussion about how customer-centricity can supercharge your growth strategy. Hear first hand the challenges they've faced, their lessons learned, and their secrets for growing revenue and customer loyalty. The topics will be selected from audience suggestions beforehand, and you'll walk away with actionable, field-tested, bottom-line-driving growth strategies and tactics in the disciplines that actually matter.

Join us and tell us what matters most to you, your team, and your business so that we can help you kick ass in 2018! Agenda: 5:30 - Mingling, networking, food and drinks!

6:00 - Success Marketing introduction by Aaron Thompson, David Connors, and Kasey Jones from RevDev

6:20 - Panel discussion on how to use a customer-centric approach to fuel early growth

7:20 - More networking!

Meet our panel: Aaron Ward, CEO of AskNicely. Aaron is a serial entrepreneur, with 20+ years of experience designing and launching disruptive, new-to-market products, channels, and businesses.

Julia Alena, President and CEO of ReelDx. Julia's career is marked by her dedication to the unrelenting pursuit of scalable and profitable paths to rapid growth while delivering an exceptional customer experience.

Nick Hill, VP of Product for Lithium Technologies. Nick is a product leader with a passion for creating well-designed, innovative products that lead their market. Nick has experience growing a company from a 10 person startup to a 700+ person publicly traded company.

This event is proudly sponsored by StarveUps!

Starve Ups was Oregon’s first startup accelerator, and is its only scalerator, which is defined as an end-to-end accelerator. Starve Ups was founded by founders and is solely made up of a community of startup founders and their membership companies.

CX Obsession is a meetup for Customer Experience professionals and a showcase of brands doing awesome, innovative work in CX.

In Hospitality, experience is everything. So what can we learn from the industry that all but invented Customer Experience? AskNicely presents CX Obsession, an evening with four customer-obsessed hospitality brands relentlessly focused on delivering amazing experiences. Hear from the experts what sets them apart in their quest for the ultimate experience. You will walk away inspired and with a few new ideas to apply in your own practice, whatever your industry.

Taking place in Vacasa's beautiful Pearl District office space, come to CX Obsession ready to exchange questions, stories, and ideas with those just as customer-obsessed as you are. We'll provide the drinks and snacks.

Here's what we have planned:

5:30pm - 6:00pm Registration, Drinks & Appetizers: Check in and network with the CX Obsession community while you grab a bite to eat and drink.

6:00pm - 6:50pm Inspiring talks and a panel discussion/Q&A with our speakers:

Liz Walker, Product Lead — Airbnb Nate Tomlinson, Director of Customer Experience — Vacasa Chris Bebo, Director of Operations — Provenance Hotels Sean O'Connor, General Manager & Partner — KEX Portland

6:50pm - 7:00pm Debrief: In small groups, take a moment to reflect on what you've heard and share your observations. Write down one action item or takeaway that you will take back to your organization.

7:00pm - 7:30pm More Drinks, Apps, and Networking: Grab a few more nibbles and chat with your peers as we close out the evening (or take a peek at the view from the gorgeous rooftop patio!).