Sun Life's first ever XD Month!

With all the XD skills, experience, and work at Sun Life. We wanted to showcase everything going on. Building on our design community meetings, we envisioned.

XD Month: Sun Life's first ever Experience Design (XD) global event.

The Global XD Team brought together XD leaders, practitioners, and enthusiasts for an internal series of sessions spanning the month of May.

Sun Life employees came together to learn and share. Providing a deeper understanding of the XD practice at Sun Life. And building on the great work in our design community. XD Month featured 4 senior leaders, 5 topic streams, 18 sessions. XD Month had close to 300 unique participants.

Where participants attended multiple sessions:

• 97 participants attended 1 session
• 73 attended 2 to 4 sessions
• 54 attended 5 to 9 sessions
• 35 attended 10 to 14 sessions
• 23 attended 15 or more sessions
• Total 282 unique participants

In 7 countries, across 5 time zones.

Let's take a closer look at everything we covered.

XD Senior Leaders

• Sessions exploring leaders' viewpoints on XD. "We won't be delivering on our purpose, full stop, if we don't adopt a design mindset." - Chris Wei, EVP, Chief Client and Innovation Officer
• In conversation with Deepika Malik, AVP, Global Experience Design. “There is absolutely a commitment and understanding that XD is not just a desire, but a critical must from a competitive standpoint. This will drive customer centricity and focus on building Clients for life.”​ - Simona Salter, SVP, Client Experience Office, Canada
• In conversation with Deepika Malik, AVP, Global Experience Design. “[Being Client centric] requires us to think and query things from a Client's perspective. What do our Clients want and need? How do we ensure that we provide propositions that are simple, reliable and relevant? How do we improve our performance and deliver a seamless experience across touchpoints for them?” - David Broom, Chief Client and Distribution Officer, Asia
• "XD gives us the ability to create better experiences leading to improved perceptions and customer satisfaction scores. XD is about improving outcomes for Clients and for the business as well." - Milos Vranesevic, SVP, Global Chief Client Experience and Marketing Officer

XD Intersections

Sessions covering how XD intersects with other key areas

Intersection of XD and Brand

• Marianne Arnaudon, AVP, Global Brand and Marketing
• Andrei Sherwin, Global Creative Director
• Marissa Fread, Director, Global Experience Design

Intersection of XD and Tech

• Anna Foat, Director, Design Literacy and Education
• David Arbuthnot, Director, Enterprise Innovation Lab
• Dana Parsons, Director, Strategy and Planning

XD Tools

Sessions covering the main tools XD practitioners use.

Helios Design System Overview and Update

• Karina Limongi, Manager, UX and Design
• Sarah Rath, Senior UX Lead

Figma Plugins

• Westlee Barichak, Senior UX Writer. During this session, participants from Asia requested a plugin to help streamline the translation and review process. It's being implemented with the potential to save approximately 4 thousand hours per year!

Plus sessions with

XD Careers. Panel discussions highlighting the main roles within XD.

Research and Testing Roles

• Vera Bogdanovich, Journey Design Research Operations Lead
• Dana Gougeon, Senior UX Research Lead
• Bill Franz, Principal UX Researcher
• Linh Tran, DesignOps Manager
• Sade Fape, Senior Journey Design Researcher

Journey and Service Design Roles

• Warren Duffy, Director, Journey Design
• Peter Rose, Senior Journey Designer
• Nico Guiridilian, Director, Client Experience

UX Design and UX Content Roles

• Dana Giuliana, AVP, UX Design
• Russell Jon Reyes, Senior UI/UX Designer
• Eric Haft, Principal UX Designer
• Melissa Tomko, Senior User Experience Designer
• Darren Monteith, Senior UX Writer

DesignOps Roles

• Rob Williams, AVP, UX Design
• Daniel Chan, Director, Global DesignOps
• Craig Moore, Director, Design Operations
• Jessica Matson, Design Operations Lead

XD Skills. Sessions covering key areas of XD and the skills required

Research and Testing Deep Dive

• Dana Gougeon, Senior UX Research Lead
• Corey Sawkins, Senior User Experience Researcher
• Madina Siddiqui, Senior Journey Designer

Building Relationships with Business Partners

• James Szollosy, Director, User Experience Design
• Gillian Liu, Senior Journey Designer

Building Relationships with Business Partners

• James Szollosy, Director, User Experience Design
• Gillian Liu, Senior Journey Designer

Service Design Overview

• Warren Duffy, Director, Journey Design
• James Law, Director, Journey Design

Design Thinking Deep Dive

• Marissa Fread, Director, Experience Design Strategy
• Peter Buckingham, Director, Experience Design
• Alicia Tyree, Associate Director, Experience Design Coach
• Karri Ojanen, Director, Transformation Design Coach

XD Month was well received by participants. Here's what they're saying.

• "This is my first time to experience a company that really talks about XD and gives importance to it."
• "This is the largest XD community I got to join in my career so far."
• "Feel like I now have a finger on the pulse of what XD is at Sun Life."

Thanks to everyone who participated. We look forward to XD Month 2024! XD Month: Sun Life's first ever Experience Design (XD) global event. Check out our website sunlife.com/design for more info.