​This year, a lot of designers ended up wearing more hats than they signed up for. Some of them picked up code. Some started building their own apps with AI. And some got thrown into the deep end, going from Design Academy case studies straight into major sports brands’ projects.

​So we’re putting it all on stage. Four talks from STRV designers on changing roles, putting AI to work and how it all shook out.

​Lineup

​From Academy to █████ by Cesar Gonzalez

​I went from physical product design to digital and landed at STRV through the Design Academy. There, I learned the fundamentals on smaller, hypothetical case studies. Then I jumped straight into █████.

​In this talk, I’ll dig into the contrast between designing self-contained concepts as a beginner and joining a product that size, with its complexity, client expectations, technical constraints and collaboration across a big team. I’ll wrap up with how it changed my understanding of product design and a few things I wish I’d known when starting out.

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​From Designer to Design Engineer by Adam Kolmacka

​Over the past year, I went through a change that wasn’t on my 2026 bingo card. After more than a decade as a designer, I became a design manager. Then a design manager and design engineer at once, juggling my day-to-day work while pushing my skills to new levels.

​So where is the design role heading, and should we be scared? I’m going to share my point of view on both, as a designer, design manager and tech enthusiast.

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​Building My Own Apps by Tom Naute

​I started building with AI to solve a problem for myself, then saw how it could help other people too. Reaching my goal didn’t feel like an ending. It revealed more things the product could become.

​AI has made it easier to start building. The harder question is what to build. In this talk, I’ll share how I get started, what changes as an idea takes shape and why I think of product building as gardening: you make something small and keep tending it as it grows. I’ll also show a few products I’m working on now.

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​Fighting the Assets and Imperfect Processes by Filip Holdos

​This year, we worked on one of our major sports projects and used AI to generate its assets. Making them consistent took countless iterations.

​Take a peek behind the curtain at how we got there, what didn’t go as planned and why it’s so important to have dedicated professionals for different tasks.

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​How the night runs

• ​Doors open at 6 PM

• ​Talks kick off at 6:30 PM sharp

• ​Food and drinks included throughout

​After the talks: drinks, snacks and plenty of time to keep asking questions. Bring the ones you'd normally keep to yourself.

​By taking part in this event, you grant the event organizers full rights to the use of images resulting from the photography/video filming, and any reproductions or adaptations of the images for fundraising, publicity or other purposes. This might include (but is not limited to): the right to use them in printed and online publicity, social media and press releases.

​If you do not wish to be photographed, please inform an event organizer during check-in.