2026 Agenda

Tuesday, October 6th

One day of talks, panels, and networking with leaders across product, UX, AI, and dev.


8:00 - 9:00 AM

Arrive on time to receive your badge, grab coffee, and begin networking with other attendees.

Registration


9:00 - 9:10 AM

Join us as we kick off the day and welcome newcomers and repeat attendees to the third ever Denver Product Summit.

Opening Remarks

aaron stone

CEO & Founder, Crux Digital

alex smith

Co-CEO, Fuego UX


9:10 - 9:40 AM

How to fail hard enough to bounce back and evolve for your next challenges. Turning shame into action.

Keynote Speaker

Lead Designer, Anthropic


9:45 - 10:15 AM

Design leaders get honest about what's changed, what hasn't, and what still separates good from great.

Design Panel

Sr Product Designer, New York Times

Interaction Designer - Material Design, Google

Product Design Lead, Meta

Sr Researcher, Checkr

Co-CEO, Fuego UX


10:15 - 10:45 AM

Structured Networking Break

Icebreaker questions to help you meet other local tech folks early in the day.


10:45 - 11:15 AM

Product teams are moving faster than ever. AI, new tools, shifting team structures, and changing business priorities all add pressure. When that happens, teams need clear ways to stay aligned across product, UX, design, and engineering. This panel brings together product, UX, design system, and engineering leaders who are working through these changes now. They will share how their teams connect design and code, use shared standards to support faster delivery, and adapt their workflows as AI changes the way product work gets done. The conversation will be practical, candid, and grounded in real examples. Expect clear lessons about adoption, governance, cross-functional collaboration, and how teams can make shared systems useful in day-to-day work.

How Product Teams Stay Aligned Through Change

AI-Enabled Design Systems Panel

UX Design Director - Design System, ADP

Design Engineering Leader - Design Tokens Community Group

Senior UX Manager, Allegion

Design Systems Consultant

Positive Vibes Engineer, Knapsack


11:20 - 11:50 AM

Dev Organization Session

Session description coming soon.

aaron stone

CEO & Founder, Crux Digital

zach hendershot

Partner, Crux Digital


11:50 AM - 1:00 PM

A full hour to eat, recharge, and connect. Lunch is included.

Lunch & Networking


1:00 - 1:30 PM

You can't win the market without moving at the speed AI now makes possible, but every shortcut carries exposure you may not feel until years later. This panel puts that tension on stage. It brings together attorneys who advise companies on the front end of AI adoption, litigators who see what happens when adoption goes wrong, and a technology practitioner deploying AI for clients every day. All the panelists serve organizations ranging from startups to the Fortune 100.

Ship Fast, But Don't Get Sued: Navigating AI Legal Risk & Innovation

AI:Legal Panel

Wheeler Trigg O’Donnell

Wheeler Trigg O’Donnell

Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck

CEO & Founder, Crux Digital

Partner, Crux Digital


1:35 - 2:05 PM

Keynote Speaker

Why three years of AI tools haven't changed how your organization actually works

AI Is Easy to Use, Not Easy to Learn

Every company has the licenses. Almost none have the results, and three years in, it's fair to ask why. The answer isn't the tooling. It's that AI landed on operating models built for linear, handoff-heavy work, and no one was ever named to help people actually learn it. When we put a PC on every desk in the 1990s, we stood up help desks, training, and support. This time we bought everyone a piano and asked for a concert.
Melissa Reeve makes the case for the missing activation system. The named roles and responsibilities that turn AI access into AI capability, as well as why the skeptics your org is pushing out are the early-warning system you can't afford to lose. Practical, human-first, and actionable.

Author of Hyperadaptive


2:10 - 2:40 PM

A collaborative workshop led by Nate and Elif (Fuego UX). We take on a design problem, armed with background research, and prototype a solution with AI.

Design Process Session

Head of Research & Design, Fuego UX

Product Designer, Fuego UX


2:40 - 3:10 PM

Structured Networking Break

A second round of guided networking with fresh questions and new faces.


3:10 - 3:40 PM

Product leaders share how they're shipping in a fast-changing landscape.

Product Panel

VP of Product Management, Ibotta

Infrastructure Engineer, Linear

Principal Product Architect, Land ID


3:45 - 4:15 PM

Topic coming soon.

Keynote Speaker

Founder & CEO, Outside


4:15 - 4:25

Join in as we wrap up the key themes and learnings from the day and start the happy hour.

Closing Remarks


4:30 - 6:00 PM

Happy hour is located in the same building, grab a drink, and keep the networking flowing as we wrap up an amazing day!

Networking Happy Hour

Sponsored by

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