Lance’s International Design Team at Adobe is in the unique situation of needing to overcome the challenges of doing remote design work across five countries and creating tools for designers to help them deal with those same challenges. His talk will focus on the creation story of Modular, a suite of designer tools that connects the dots between remote ideation, rapid screen design, and final presentation. Although this work eventually benefited a wider design community in the U.S., Europe, and Asia it began while doing research with designers in Japanese agencies. Lance will share how designing for users in cultures outside of North America can unlock innovation and why international product design is key to the growth of global companies. Finally Lance will also reveal his team’s remote working hacks for designing across impossibly difficult time zones.

Lance is Director of International Design within Adobe Design. He leads a team whose mission is to create international-first solutions to help Adobe grow in new markets. One of their main focus areas is researching and creating UX design tools as Adobe XD plugins to unlock new designer workflows. Before Adobe, Lance had a 20-year career in Japan and the US as a design director, creative director, and designer for three global agencies (MRM, Scient, and Agency.com) as well as running his own UX design firm, iiD, in San Francisco. He received an MBA from McGill University and BFA in fine art from the San Francisco Art Institute. When not working, Lance enjoys surfing, touring the California coast by van, and film photography.