InformalLab
Created buzz in the Montreal talent market and reduced recruitment time by founding InformalLab, a series of community events on UX and product management.
Achievements
- Founded, organized, and hosted InformalLab, a casual community platform for UX and product practitioners
- Positioned IntactLab as a hub for Design, Fintech and Innovation, helping demystify working in insurance
- Hosted signature events including “The Age of Assistance” and “Technology and the Future of Storytelling”
Why This Existed
In 2015, a creative director turned down a role at IntactLab with a blunt reason:
“If I accept this job, I will lose market credibility and be stuck in insurance forever.”
Creative Director, declining a role at IntactLab, 2015That line became the brief. I founded InformalLab, a casual, recurring event series, to make IntactLab a community hub for Design, Fintech and Innovation, demystify what working in insurance actually looked like, and give Montreal’s UX and product community a reason to walk through the door.
The Format
Who Showed Up
The invite was deliberately loose: UX veterans, evangelists, passionates and impostors. No one had to already belong to the industry to be in the room.
The Structure
Every event followed the same 70-minute shape: arrive and socialise, a 25-minute themed talk from an evangelist with a panel grilling round, 25 minutes where three guest panelists apply the theme in short bursts, then 20 minutes of unmonitored debate to argue it out.
Past Events Hosted Under the InformalLab Banner
Driving Force Behind an Exceptional UX: User Testing
June 2017
User insights are the key differentiator when building a delightful and optimal customer experience.
Technology and the Future of Storytelling
October 2017
Throughout history, storytelling has been used to communicate, inspire and educate. Today, technology is reshaping the way we tell stories.
The Age of Assistance
March 2018
Four speakers shared insights about AI, machine learning, ambient computing and IoT, and how it impacts our daily life and businesses. Co-presented with Intact and Google.
A Side Door Into the Industry
The same reputation problem that made a creative director turn down IntactLab in 2015 is the one these three events chipped away at. InformalLab gave Montreal’s UX and product community an easy, casual way in, and gave IntactLab a face it didn’t have before: a place for Design, Fintech and Innovation, not just insurance.