Meet the Community Extension of the XD Team: XDIs

From the very beginning of Adobe XD, we’ve made close contact with the design community the heart of our process. Sticking to design best practices, the team has engaged the community through formalized user research methods, frequent customer and community meetings, and online user feedback through UserVoice, all of which is instrumental to the decision making process on the XD team.

Staying in touch with users, whether it is observing first time users or listening to power users, has served as a rich source of information, and it’s a lot of fun to do! We have also found that designers embrace the conversation with us and the exchange of best practices in research and product design, at these events.

We’ve found that workshops provide a great opportunity to collect community feedback. At these events, we share tips and tricks for using XD and discuss use cases, the product roadmap, and the principles that guide our product design process. While the team has hosted and continues to host workshops, we’re hoping to get in front of more users around the globe, on a more frequent basis. At the same time, we’ve received requests for professional inhouse training on XD.

To scale our efforts, provide the community with more opportunities to onboard and succeed with Adobe XD, as well as serve as a direct feedback conduit for the product, we’ve developed an extended team of interdisciplinary professionals from within our community: the XDI* team.

Started 2017 in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, and available around the globe since 2020, we are partnering with a select group of passionate practitioners. With a broad view of the entire design process, they are able to provide premium training services using Adobe XD.

Through facilitation, mentorship and inspiration, XDIs empower designers and stakeholders to challenge assumptions, identify opportunities, and evolve their design process. By having a direct connection to what the XD team is working on, XDIs are able to understand the impact of XD on the design process.

Adobe XD is community driven. XDIs are part of the design community. And they are here to give back to that community. As a team, we are proud to work as close as possible with this excellent bunch of professionals — be sure to follow them on Twitter and look out for them at an upcoming event near you!

Meet the XDI International Team

This is the team operating worldwide outside the Americas. For the Americas team of XD Instructors, please see this page.

Alina Lagarde

Based out of Paris, Alina is an independent design strategist, focused on UX research & metrics. She has been working in different fields from startups to institutions (Institut Pasteur, INSEE, Sénat) and large corporations (Open, Microsoft, RATP, SNCF, Belron Canada). Prior to working directly with clients she has worked in branding, advertising and communication agencies as designer and lead designer.

Find Alina on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Bud Peart

With a long history of digital design across agency and in-house teams, Bud has applied his multidisciplinary design and consultancy skills for some of Australia’s leading brands. He enjoys design challenges that reside at the intersection of user, brand and business. He is currently a freelance design consultant and is based out of Melbourne, Australia.

Find Bud on LinkedIn.

Chakib Labidi

With a background in industrial design, Chakib is a London based UX consultant and founder of UX Playground. He has taught user-centred design at Winchester University and UDK Berlin. Chakib has been working for almost 20 years with clients internationally to create digital products and services.

Find Chakib on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Claire-Lise Bengué

Claire-Lise is an independent experience designer based in Paris. She has been working in many sectors such as with media (Marie Claire), public services (CNOP), financial services (Saxo) and luxury brands (Hermes). She is passionate about the link between physical and digital spaces.

Find Claire-Lise on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Ethan Parry

Based in Barcelona and committee member of IxDA Barcelona, Ethan is a Service Designer and UX Researcher who has worked with international clients such as Adobe, SEAT, Banco Sabadell and Meliá Hotels. He regularly gives workshops and talks on UX Design, UX Research, Service Design, and Design Sprints. Ethan is also an adjunct professor and guest lecturer at several universities, design schools, and bootcamps.

You can find Ethan on LinkedIn, Twitter, or his website.

Farhad Pocha

Farhad is a strategic designer & trainer that excels in bringing people together to identify design challenges and create competent and resilient solutions. He has consulted on, designed, managed, and launched digital products and services for various companies and clients for over 10 years. His education in philosophy & politics, experience with visual design and product management, and extensive technical knowledge, give him an exceptional ability to understand the big picture and provide strong guidance with compelling results. Farhad is based out of Berlin.

Find Farhad on LinkedIn.

Hany Rizk

Hany is a UX & Product Strategist based in Berlin, running No BS, an innovation studio that runs Design Sprints to help companies solve real challenges and design meaningful solutions. For over 10 years he has designed and led in-house products and services for large corporations such as Volkswagen, and various startups — including his own Somuchmore that was later acquired. Hany mentors startups and regularly talks on UX, Product, and Innovation.

You can find Hany on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Jake Spillane

Jake Spillane is the founder of Antigrav, a full-service design consultancy. Based out of Newcastle NSW, Australia, they focus on collaborating with organisations to create compelling products by leveraging strong conceptual design experience and human-centred design principles to build industry-leading product strategies and eye-catching, highly engaging websites, application, software, and marketing campaigns. Providing their clients with a springboard to become industry leaders and equip them with the knowledge and tools to continually engage their audiences.

Find Jake on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Maria Matloub

Maria is an impact strategist, designer and venture builder based out of Milan, Italy. She runs GGUTT, a design and innovation hub helping organisations accelerate growth by combining purpose with profit, and the Otherdots Foundation. She was previously at Deloitte Digital working on CX and digital transformation projects for large brands across multiple industries. Maria mentors in various accelerators, lectures in design and business universities, co-runs the Founder Institute in Italy, speaks on design and innovation and hosts a podcast, GGUTTALKS. She plays drums and is fluent in four languages.

Find Maria on Twitter and LinkedIn

Matthias Ott

Matthias is an independent UX designer and UI engineer based near Stuttgart, Germany. He teaches Interface Prototyping at Muthesius University of Fine Arts and Design Kiel, curates the monthly newsletter prototyping.news, and frequently writes about the intersection of design, development, prototyping, and the (Indie)Web.

Find Matthias on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Mike Acler

Mike is a designer and design manager with more than 15 years of experience and based out of Prague. Working with clients like O2, Vodafone, Raiffeisenbank or Siemens he enjoys leading discovery sessions, defining strategy and concepts as well as evaluating them with customers. He’s been providing his services independently or through his agency Allprototypes.

Find Mike on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Shiro Inoue

Shiro is a Maastricht, Netherlands based design researcher and practitioner in communication design. He has been conducting research on designer’s creativity, delivering a series of lectures and hands-on workshops for both universities and enterprises.

Find Shiro on Twitter and LinkedIn or his website Shiro Inoue Design Laboratory

Shruthi Sasidaran

With a background in software engineering, Shruthi is a UX Designer based out of Sydney, Australia. Having prior experience with building customer-centric products, she works with international clients to enhance the customer journey on websites. She is passionate about strengthening the collaboration space between designers and developers to produce products that serve both users’ and businesses’ needs.

Find Shruthi on LinkedIn

Tim Kahle

Tim is in digital product design since the late 1990s. He entered the world of conversational design in 2015 and is now designing voice applications at 169 Labs, a voice assistant agency based in Munich and Cologne, Germany. He also runs an event series called ALL ABOUT VOICE. Amazon awarded Tim as one of the few 2018 Alexa Champions and SoundHound nominated him as Top Voice AI Influencer.

Find Tim on Twitter, LinkedIn or his website VUI.guru

Yasuhisa Hasegawa

Yasuhisa is a freelance design strategist based out of Tokyo, Japan. He works closely with clients, usually long-term, to improve the design process and the digital product experience. He has been a public speaker and engaging with Japanese web/app communities for a long time. He also publishes articles and podcasts about design.

Find Yasuhisa on Twitter, LinkedIn, or on his website

XDI alumnis

• Bill Tribble has been a member of the 2019 cohort of XDIs (Aug/19 to Jan/21). He is now working as a Senior Product Designer at hopin. Find Bill on Twitter and LinkedIn.
• Mattia Compagnucci has been a member of the first cohort of XDIs (Dec/17 to Nov/19). He is now working as a Head of Experience Design at lastminute.com. Find Mattia on Twitter and LinkedIn.
• Bradley Gabr-Ryn has been a member of the first cohort of XDIs (Dec/17 to Nov/19). He is now working as a Product Designer at Facebook. Find Bradley on Twitter and LinkedIn.
• Clive K. Lavery has been a member of the first cohort of XDIs (Dec/17 to May/19) and co-managed the group during his time as a member of the XD Strategic Development team at Adobe (May/19 to Apr/20). He is now working as Experience Design Lead at Moccu. Find Clive on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Meet the XDIs

2021

Since June 2020, you and your team meet XDIs via XD Immersive, an exclusive 3x2hr remote workshop. Reach out to your Adobe point of contact to schedule.

Jun 23, Miro Global Event, Online

Mar 25, UX Copenhagen, Online

Mar 3–4, UXDX APAC, Online

Jan 11–15, Interaction 21, Online

2020

Oct 6–8, UXDX 2020, Online

Sep 2–4, ProductCamp 2020, Online

Apr 24–26, EUvsVirus, Online

Feb 2–7, Interaction 20, Milan, Italy

2019

Dec 4, MSD, Prague, Czech Republic

Dec 3, Habitant via Experience Fighters, Madrid, Spain

Nov 2–6, Adobe MAX, Los Angeles, USA

Oct 29, XDDC, Heidelberg, Germany

Oct 15, XDDC, Nürnberg, Germany

Sep 30, XDDC, Leipzig, Germany

Sep 26–28, Euro IA, Riga, Latvia

Sep 24, World Interaction Design Day, London, UK

Sep 16–18, Intersection Conference, Lisbon, Portugal

Sep 5, XDDC, Hannover, Germany

Aug 19, XDDC, Frankfurt, Germany

Jul 25, XDDC, Stuttgart, Germany

Jul 9, XDDC, Düsseldorf, Germany

Jun 20–21, FLUPA UX-Days, Paris, France

Jun 12, XDDC, Dresden, Germany

Jun 4, UX Strategy, Zurich, Switzerland

May 23–25, ACE! Conference, Krakow, Poland

May 2, From Business to Buttons, Stockholm, Sweden

Feb 13–15, Awwwards Conference, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Jan 25, UXCGN/eresult/Publicis.Sapient, Cologne, Germany

Jan 18, University of Applied Science, Trier, Germany

2018

Dec 5, IxDA Malmö, Sweden

Nov 22–23, Pixel Pioneers, Belfast, Northern Ireland

Nov 22, UsByNight, Antwerp, Belgium

Nov 21, Tech Thursday, Kilkenny, Ireland

Nov 9, University of Applied Science, Krefeld, Germany

Nov 9, BTK Berlin, Germany

Nov 7, BTK Berlin, Germany

Nov 2–3, Service Experience Camp, Berlin, Germany

Nov 1–2, WUD Tallinn, Estonia

Oct 29–31: Amuse Conference, Budapest, Hungary

Oct 23–24: Chatbot Summit, Berlin, Germany

Oct 19–20: Push Conference, Munich, Germany

Oct 16–18: World Usability Congress, Graz, Austria

Oct 13–17: Adobe MAX, Los Angeles, USA

Oct 10–12: UX-DAY, Mannheim, Germany

Oct 3–5: UXDX, Dublin, Ireland

Sep 28: UX Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Sep 26: UX Playground, London, UK

Sep 26–28: designmatters, Copenhagen, Denmark

Sep 21–23: WebExpo, Prague, Czech Republic

Sep 18: SAE Institute, Berlin, Germany

July 5: Forward Festival, Hamburg, Germany

June 21–22: Bump Festival, Kortrijk, Belgium

June 16–17: element talks, Warsaw, Poland

June 7–9: ProductCamp, Gdynia, Poland

June 1–2: UXCamp Nordic, Helsinki, Finland

June 1–2: Forward Festival, Zurich, Switzerland

May 30–31: Forward Festival, Munich, Germany

May 23–25: UX London, UK

May 18: Typo, Berlin, Germany

May 7: beyond tellerrand, Düsseldorf, Germany

May 4–5: UX Camp, Copenhagen, Denmark

Apr 26–28: Forward Festival, Vienna, Austria

Apr 24–26: D&AD Festival, London, UK

Apr 16: Berlin Lean Prototyping, Berlin, Germany

Mar 15: IxDA Oslo, Norway

Feb 26: UX Copenhagen, Denmark

Feb 5: Interaction 18, Lyon, France

*What does XDI mean? Well, we started off with an acronym for “XD Instructors,” but quickly came to realize that our XDIs represent much more than just instructing: They are inspirational, interfacing to the team, iterating, icebreaking, informing, insiders, improvers, ideators, Italians 😉 …and they are also incredible! As Phil Karlton once said, “There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and naming things.” We decided to just leave it with XDI. Now you know!

• Download Adobe XD
• Adobe XD Twitter account — also use #adobexd to talk to the team!
• Adobe XD UserVoice ideas database
• Adobe XD forum

Originally published at theblog.adobe.com on February 23, 2018.