Sydney Design Thinking, Sydney (2026)

24/05/2026

We celebrated Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) at Sydney Design Thinking (SydDT) #126 last Tuesday night. We were lucky to have a great lineup of speakers with Kate Jenkins and Kath Hamilton from Remarkable and Pawel Wodkowski from Atlassian‘s accessibility team.

Kath Hamilton led an insightful fireside chat with Max Burt OAM from WheelEasy and Carolyn Mee from Sound Scouts. All three are alumni of Remarkable’s Accelerator program.

We also heard from a few of the disability tech startup founders in the current Remarkable Launcher cohort… Josh Aarons from Squidly, Mark Gibbs and Nadine Dundas from Visitex, and Kathleen Nicholls from Safe Ride.

So many great insights and so many ways to get involved. Here are some ways…
• The Remarkable Launcher 2026 Showcase is on 12pm Tuesday, 26 May. It’s free and online. Register now! https://events.humanitix.com/remarkable-launcher-2026-showcase
• Check out and support Squidly, Visitex, Safe Ride, Sound Scouts, WheelEasy and all the other great disability tech startups
• Give Pawel’s a11y.md a go to bake in some accessibility standards into your prototyping https://github.com/pwodkowski/a11y-md
• Keep talking, thinking, and learning about digital access and inclusion – not just during GAAD but in our daily practice

Thanks to everyone who came along and made it such a fun night. Couldn’t make it or just want to relive it? Watch it now... https://dynamic4.com/ideas/syddt-126-global-accessibility-awareness-day-2026

Thanks to Ben Crothers from Bright Pilots for his awesome sketchnoting this month... and a shout out and thanks to Bex Haar for another great write-up with her reflections and key takeaways.

A massive thanks to Pawel Wodkowski from Atlassian, Kath Hamilton & Kate Jenkins from Remarkable Tech, and Dynamic4 for making it all happen.

Our next meetup is SydDT #127: The Human Loop – Keeping the Customer at the Core of AI on Thursday, 11 June with Tarra van Amerongen, Alex Zinoviev, Riley Coleman, and Kristin de la Fuente sharing their observations and insights… brought to you by Thoughtworks, GenAI Lab, and Dynamic4. Grab your ticket! https://dynamic4.com/ideas/syddt-127-the-human-loop-keeping-the-customer-at-the-core-of-ai

21/05/2026

𝗦𝘆𝗱𝗗𝗧 #𝟭𝟮𝟳: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗛𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗟𝗼𝗼𝗽 – 𝗞𝗲𝗲𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝗜. 𝗧𝗵𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝟭𝟭 𝗝𝘂𝗻𝗲 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 @ 𝟲𝗽𝗺
As AI rapidly accelerates product delivery, it’s easier than ever to ship features that look impressive but fail to solve real customer problems.

For Sydney Design Thinking (SydDT)’s 11th birthday celebration, we’re collaborating with our friends from GenAI Lab to bring together a panel of design and product leaders to discuss how to balance the sheer speed of AI with genuine, human-centered design.

We’re lucky to have Tarra van Amerongen, Alex Zinoviev, Riley Coleman, and Kristin de la Fuente sharing their observations and insights.

They’ll cut through the hype to explore how user research needs to adapt for generative AI models, how to design for trust and transparency, and how the designer’s role is shifting from pixel-pusher to system orchestrator.

There might even be cupcakes 😃

Come join us for some fun conversations with interesting people in and around the design thinking community. New members are welcome! Be quick and grab your ticket before it sells out... https://dynamic4.com/ideas/syddt-127-the-human-loop-keeping-the-customer-at-the-core-of-ai

This event is brought to you by Thoughtworks and Dynamic4.

13/05/2026

𝗦𝘆𝗱𝗗𝗧 #𝟭𝟮𝟲: 𝗚𝗹𝗼𝗯𝗮𝗹 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗔𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗗𝗮𝘆. 𝗧𝘂𝗲𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝟭𝟵 𝗠𝗮𝘆 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 @ 𝟲𝗽𝗺
We’re stoked to be collaborating with Remarkable Disability Tech Accelerator and Atlassian to celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) this year.

We’re lucky to have an amazing lineup of speakers – and this is a great opportunity to meet and hear from people working directly on inclusive and accessible solutions.

We’ll have short talks by Kate Jenkins & Kath Hamilton from Remarkable and Pawel Wodkowski from Atlassian‘s accessibility team… with some founders from the current Remarkable Launcher cohort sharing their story/pitch.

Kath Hamilton will then host a fireside chat/panel with Max Burt OAM from WheelEasy and Carolyn Mee from Sound Scouts… all three are alumni of Remarkable’s Accelerator program.

The purpose of GAAD is to “get everyone talking, thinking, and learning about digital access and inclusion, and the more than one billion people with disabilities/impairments”.

GAAD is on 21 May, so we’re celebrating a couple of days early… and for SydDT regulars, yes we’re doing this on a Tuesday!

Remarkable’s mission is to “empower disability tech innovators by providing the training, capital, and networks they need to create a future that is accessible, equitable and inclusive for all”. Accessibility is also core to Atlassian’s mission – to unleash the potential of every team.

Come join us for some fun conversations with interesting people in and around the design thinking community. New members are welcome! Be quick and grab your ticket before it sells out... https://dynamic4.com/ideas/syddt-126-global-accessibility-awareness-day-2026

This event is brought to you by Atlassian, Remarkable, and Dynamic4.

16/04/2026

We were lucky to have Gordon Burnett taking us through prototyping at the right fidelity at Sydney Design Thinking (SydDT) #125 last week. His core theme was about finding the “just right” fidelity.

As he said... prototyping is not just about making something, it’s about answering the right questions at the right time…
• Low-fidelity: “Do we need this?”
• Mid-fidelity: “How should it work?”
• High-fidelity: “How will it work and how will we build it?”

Gordon is Design Lead – Health Prototyping at eHealth NSW, so he was able to share why prototyping really matters in complex and safety-critical environments. Inclusive design and accessibility are non-negotiable core practices – as it really needs to be for all of us.

They use prototyping for almost everything: workspace layouts, clinical workflows, policies, digital systems, paper artefacts, equipment, devices, and even kitchens and pathology labs.

Prototyping is a learning strategy, not a deliverable – low, medium, and high fidelities each answer different questions, and skipping steps (especially by jumping straight into AI) risks missing critical insights.

There was so much gold in what Gordon shared… from mindset and approach through to practical methods. Designing and building something, worth hearing from him directly.

Thanks to everyone who came along and made it such a fun night. Couldn’t make it or just want to relive it? Watch it now. https://dynamic4.com/ideas/syddt-125-from-assumption-to-evidence-prototyping-right-fidelity-gordon-burnett

Thanks to Ibrahim Iftikhar who did the awesome graphic recording this month. This initiative is a collaboration with Shapeshifters and their Think Visual! meetup community. SydDT is a friendly environment for people to practice their live graphic recording skills.

A massive thanks to Gordon Burnett for sharing his experience... to Sasha Pometko and Frankie Balfour from Atlassian, Alan Chen and Diana Ayoub from Shapeshifters, and Dynamic4 for making it all happen. And Lucas Mara for being the lead organiser for this one.

Details for our May meetup... coming soon.

31/03/2026

We were lucky to have Emma Carter and Catherine Fitzpatrick share their experience building positive change in our workplaces and society at SydDT #124 on 12 March – and a panel led by Kate Ingram exploring this year’s IWD theme… Balance the Scales.

Emma took us through what it actually takes to elevate design inside organisations. Not just the theory. The reality.

Design maturity ladders tell you where you are – but not how to get there. So she and Diana Adorno built one that does. Eight dimensions, six levels, with descriptions of what each actually looks like inside an organisation.

Catherine shared her story as a bank exec discovering that abusive messages were being hidden in bank payment descriptions – one-cent transactions used as a weapon. Her team analysed 11 million transactions over three months and found 8,000 serious threats.

They mapped 51 design interventions, built a data dictionary to block harmful language in real time, and shared their methodology with every other bank in Australia. Since 2019, banks have collectively blocked more than a million abusive messages.

Kate Ingram led the panel, bringing her lens from KPMG’s design practice and government work. The conversation covered how to talk about design without using the word design, the power of equity impact assessments applied to financial products, and the data organisations already have but don’t use.

An evening celebrating the achievements of women in design.

Thanks to everyone who came along and made it such a fun night. Couldn’t make it or just want to relive it? Watch it now. https://dynamic4.com/ideas/syddt-124-building-positive-change-in-our-workplaces-society

We did this one as Design Connection #7… another in our design megameetup series with our friends from the CCX and EUX meetups.

Morteza brought his sketchnoting magic to the medium of a used pizza box for this one. Love your work mate 😃

A shout out and thanks to Bex Haar for another great write-up with her reflections and key takeaways.

A massive thanks to Adam Faulkner from blueegg and Enterprise UX (EUX), Susan Wolfe from Leapfrog Studio, Kate Linton, Lucas Mara from SydDT, Kevin Wilkins from CCX, and Ben Pecotich from Dynamic4 and SydDT for making it all happen.

Our next meetup is SydDT #125: From Assumption to Evidence: Prototyping at the Right Fidelity with Gordon Burnett on Thursday, 9 April… brought to you by Atlassian, Shapeshifters, and Dynamic4. Grab your ticket! https://dynamic4.com/ideas/syddt-125-from-assumption-to-evidence-prototyping-right-fidelity-gordon-burnett

30/03/2026

𝗦𝘆𝗱𝗗𝗧 #𝟭𝟮𝟱: 𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗔𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗘𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲: 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗼𝘁𝘆𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗙𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗚𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗼𝗻 𝗕𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘁𝘁. 𝗧𝗵𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝟵 𝗔𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗹 @ 𝟲𝗽𝗺
For our April Sydney Design Thinking (SydDT) event, we’re lucky to have Gordon Burnett taking us through prototyping at the right fidelity – and why it matters more than most people think.

We all prototype… but how often do we stop and ask whether we’re prototyping at the right level of detail for the stage we’re at? Too polished too early can lock in assumptions. Too rough too late can undermine confidence.

Getting the fidelity right – at the right moment – is what turns prototyping from a checkbox into a genuine decision-making tool.

Gordon will share a range of methods and real-world case studies – from simple sketches and quick experiments to 3D printing and AI-assisted prototype development – showing how to move from assumption to evidence at every stage of the process.

In collaboration with Shapeshifters, Ibrahim Iftikhar will be doing the graphic recording for this one.

Come join us for some fun conversations with interesting people in and around the design thinking community. New members are welcome! Be quick and grab your ticket before it sells out... https://dynamic4.com/ideas/syddt-125-from-assumption-to-evidence-prototyping-right-fidelity-gordon-burnett

This event is brought to you by Atlassian, Shapeshifters, and Dynamic4.

25/02/2026

𝗦𝘆𝗱𝗗𝗧 #𝟭𝟮𝟰/𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 #𝟳: 𝗜𝗪𝗗. 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲𝘀 & 𝗦𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗲𝘁𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗘𝗺𝗺𝗮 𝗖𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿, 𝗖𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗙𝗶𝘁𝘇𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗸 & 𝗞𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗜𝗻𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺. 𝗧𝗵𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝟭𝟮 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 @ 𝟲𝗽𝗺

For our International Women's Day event this year, we're exploring how design leadership can drive real, meaningful change – in our workplaces and across society.

Emma Carter and Catherine Fitzpatrick will share the great work they’ve both been doing... and the two talks will be followed by a panel led by Kate Ingram exploring this year’s IWD theme – Balance the Scales.

The evening is dedicated to honouring the achievements of influential female design leaders and exploring the profound societal impact design can have on safety, equity, and systemic change.

We hope you’ll feel inspired to think bigger about the transformative power of design leadership across organisations and industries. This is more than a celebration – it’s an invitation to take action.

We’re doing this one as Design Connection #7… another in our design megameetup series with our friends from the CCX and EUX meetups.

Design Connection is a collective of three Sydney design meetups... Ben Pecotich from Sydney Design Thinking (SydDT), Adam Faulkner from Enterprise UX (EUX), and Kevin Wilkins from Creative Customer Experience (CCX), with Susan Wolfe and Vera Chan being the backbone of Design Connection 😃

Come join us for some fun conversations with interesting people in and around the design thinking community. New members are welcome! Be quick and grab your ticket before it sells out... https://dynamic4.com/ideas/syddt-124-building-positive-phange-in-our-workplaces-society or link in bio.

This event is brought to you by blueegg, Design Connection, and Dynamic4.

17/02/2026

We were lucky to have Sarah Stokes and Shari Elle lead us through an interactive session on moving from conflict to co-creation at SydDT #123 on Thursday night. How to structure hard conversations with nonviolent communication.

So many great insights with time to reflect and practice a powerful framework…
• Observations. Observing what’s happening without judgement
• Feelings. Naming how we’re feeling about it with self-compassion – and without falling into the trap of faux feelings
• Needs. Understanding what matters to each of the people in the interaction – and what we each need
• Request/how might we. Proposing actions that contribute to the need and are focused on what we DO want. There was also the critical point that we need to be ok if we get a “no” to our request… and that this points back to another need to identify

Thanks to everyone who came along and made it such a fun night. Couldn’t make it or just want to relive it? Watch it now. https://dynamic4.com/ideas/syddt-123-from-conflict-to-cocreation

Thanks to Dominika Strumińska who did the awesome graphic recording this month. This initiative is a collaboration with Shapeshifters and their Think Visual! meetup community. SydDT is a friendly environment for people to practice their live graphic recording skills.

A massive thanks to Sasha Pometko and Frankie Balfour from Atlassian, Alan Chen and Diana Ayoub from Shapeshifters, and Dynamic4 for making it all happen.

Our next meetup on Thursday, 12 March is our International Women’s Day event – SydDT #124: IWD. Building Positive Change in Our Workplaces & Society with Emm Carter & Catherine Fitzpatrick. Grab your ticket! https://dynamic4.com/ideas/syddt-124-building-positive-phange-in-our-workplaces-society

08/01/2026

𝗦𝘆𝗱𝗗𝗧 #𝟭𝟮𝟯: 𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗹𝗶𝗰𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗖𝗼-𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗦𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗵 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗸𝗲𝘀 & 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗶 𝗘𝗹𝗹𝗲. 𝗧𝗵𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝟭𝟮 𝗙𝗲𝗯𝗿𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 @ 𝟲𝗽𝗺

We’re lucky to have Sarah Stokes and Shari Elle kicking off Sydney Design Thinking (SydDT) for 2026 with a workshop on moving from conflict to co-creation… how to structure hard conversations with nonviolent communication.

Grab your ticket before it sells out… https://go.dynamic4.com/syddt-2026-02

This will be a practical workshop-style session on using authentic communication methods to navigate conflict and the difficult situations we face as designers. Things like saying no to a feature request, receiving pushback on design implementation, and the age-old speed vs quality conversations.

In the workshop you’ll get to use a simple, repeatable process for turning difficult conversations into opportunities for deeper connection and collective problem-solving.

This event is lovingly brought to you by Atlassian, Shapeshifters, and Dynamic4.

Come join us for fun conversations with interesting people in and around the design thinking community. New members are welcome!

31/10/2025

𝗦𝘆𝗱𝗗𝗧 #𝟭𝟮𝟮/𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 #𝟲: 𝗘𝗢𝗬 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗠𝗲𝗴𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗲𝘁𝘂𝗽. 𝗧𝗵𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝟮𝟳 𝗡𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱 @ 𝟲𝗽𝗺

For our 15th and final Sydney Design Thinking (SydDT) for 2025, we’ll be reflecting on and celebrating the year that’s been. This will be a very interactive session with a focus on spending time with each other.

A good chance to reconnect with the regulars in the community and welcome plenty of new people. New friends and old.

We’re doing this one as Design Connection #6… another in our design megameetup series with our friends from the CCX and EUX meetups. This continues our tradition of EOY megameetups since 2018.

Design Connection is a collective of three Sydney design meetups… Ben Pecotich from Sydney Design Thinking (SydDT), Adam Faulkner from Enterprise UX (EUX), and Kevin Wilkins from Creative Customer Experience (CCX), with Susan Wolfe and Verawaty Chan being the backbone of Design Connection 😃

Come join us for some fun conversations with interesting people in and around the design community. This will sell out fast… be quick 😃 https://dynamic4.com/ideas/syddt-122-2025-eoy-design-megameetup

This event is brought to you by Atlassian and Dynamic4.

In the meantime, our annual State of the Design Nation SydDT event is on 13 November with Ben Crothers, Nila Rezaei, Brandon Gien, Rachel Wells & Martin Tomitsch. A big finish to another big year!

Sydney Design Thinking

24/05/2026

21/05/2026

13/05/2026

16/04/2026

31/03/2026

30/03/2026

25/02/2026

17/02/2026

08/01/2026

31/10/2025

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