Presented at CHI*Atlanta by Jim Nieters, Director of User Experience Design, Yahoo! Thursday January 29, 2009 CHI*Atlanta: http://www.chia.org Video: http://chiatlanta.blip.tv Each of us wants to thrive in our careers. During challenging economic times, we all have reason for concern as companies tighten their financial belts and we feel our careers are at risk. The user experience (UX) field is no different from any other field in this respect. But there is hope. How can we survive during difficult economic times? Jim highlights strategies that all of us in the UX community can employ to increase the likelihood of thriving, and thus, emerge better prepared for an economic upturn. He'll talk about ways to make ourselves indispensable, and review examples that show how we can make our UX organizations indispensable. This way, we can protect our jobs, and also ensure that our groups are strategically positioned and valued by our companies. About the Speaker Jim Nieters is Director of User Experience Design for online advertiser products at Yahoo!, including search marketing and the open ad management platform, APT from Yahoo! (apt.yahoo.com). In this role, he works to ensure the user experience (UX) is a strategic differentiator for the business. Before moving to Yahoo!, Jim built and led Cisco¹s central UED group and turned it into an internal consultancy that tracked over $200 million in revenue increases each year based on innovation and design. He has been a UX design practitioner for more than 15 years, and a leader for nine of those years. He specializes in UX organizational leadership, process enhancement, and organizational transformation. He writes a regular column on UX management (www.uxmatters.com), teaches a course about leading innovation workshops, and speaks frequently at conferences and universities on innovation and leading UX organizations.