Throughline 2027: Early-bird ends next week

We get it. Time flies. Seasons are confusing. Here in Philly, we were still wearing shorts a week ago. But apparently, it’s about to be November (??!?!). And you know what that means...  

And seriously? We’d hate for you to miss that rate. Because Throughline is THEE conference for experienced designers who want to find their way through industry change… without losing the values that brought them to UX in the first place. 

We’ve got you. Snag one of our need-based tickets for $159—it includes everything in a main conference pass.

If that’s still out of reach, you can also sign up for our scholarship waitlist. we’ll reach out in December with more information on what we can offer and how to apply.

You’re trying to reposition the role of UX in your org. You’re perplexed by your cross-functional partners. You want to use AI in ways that actually solve problems—and you want to talk about the ethics and tradeoffs and slop of it all, too. 

Oh, and you’re also navigating existential angst, layoff dread, and at least three or four overlapping identity crises at any given moment. 

Yeah. We get it. And so does our lineup. Because we’ve selected every single speaker for this year’s Throughline specifically because we know they can help you and your team meet this moment. 

Not with platitudes about “doing more with less.” Not with quick-fix process hacks. And definitely not with more doomer takes. But with practical perspective on how we can claim real agency right now, both in our jobs and in our lives—and with a whole lot of heart, too. 

Like Katie Kovalcin, a distinguished designer at Gusto. Her talk explores a question we’ve heard a lot lately: Can you do AI-first design and still feel like a designer? After leading design on Cofounder, Gusto’s AI assistant, her answer is a resounding yes… if you bring all your hard-earned skills and perspective along with you. 

Or Rosa Vieira de Almeida, whose talk explores how to handle it when our work as designers uncovers rifts UX can’t solve—like the tension between community and commercialism in open-source products. What do you do when your audience calls your hard work “enshittification”—and has a point? 

Or Yoko Sakao Ohama, a former product designer turned accounting specialist. She’ll share her story of choosing to leave design—and why taking a broader perspective on our careers can help us all recognize and honor the skills, interests, and values we bring to work. 

Or Dan Brown, whose talk focuses on the future of information architecture. How do we help people understand where they are and what they can do in digital spaces that are increasingly ambiguous? How do we organize content when flows aren’t linear and categories are increasingly fluid? 

Or Hertje Broderson, a service designer working in the German public sector. Her talk explores how focusing on “merit” in our profession has led us astray. Her take: the more we believe we deserve our place in the field because we’re exceptional, the harder it is for us to design equitably. What if the increasing automation of cognitive and creative work gives us a chance to step away from that story—and become more human-centered as a result? 

There’s so much goodness on the Throughline calendar: an opening showcase of lightning talks, two days of main-stage talks, one day of workshops, and a whole week of bonus events after the main conference. We’ve curated them all just for you.