Tiff Ng is the Founder and Chief Storyteller at The Social Story. She is passionate about empowering people to tell their stories in meaningful ways through social.
She has a decade of experience in social media, finding ways to connect the dots between the audience and the business. She focuses on how businesses can build lasting relationships that inform, inspire and activate their audiences. Moreover, she looks at ways that social can be a tool for social impact – from how we can make it more accessible to how we can promote ideas of inclusivity and sustainability with every post.
Mike has been leading product and design teams for over 20 years. Starting in the madness of the dot com bubble, Mike’s career has taken him from fast-growing startups to multinational corporations in Sydney, London and Tokyo and on to some of the biggest tech brands in Australia.
Mike is currently Head of Product at Mad Paws. He was previously Head of Product & Design at Gumtree, part of the eBay Classifieds Group, and Head of Experience at Hipages, Australia’s largest two-sided marketplace for home services. Before that, Mike led design and product management for mobile innovation on the CommBank app.
Driven by the belief that the best customer experiences are made by passionate, empowered people, Mike is committed to coaching individuals to success and guiding organisations to new levels of product and design maturity.
Sue-Lin has 15 + years of experience working in various industries, from finance to media, building meaningful customer experiences. She started her career as a web developer and business analyst. Along the way, she has acquired an MBA and two children, in that order.
Sue-Lin works at the intersection of technology and business and is passionate about delivering products with a clear strategic vision. She is innately curious about the customer experience, thinking about the big picture of the product and how each detail can contribute. Currently, she leads digital solutions & innovation for a commercial real estate company, always asking the question ‘what’s the problem you are trying to solve?” With various real-life experiences across many projects, Sue-Lin is keen to share this knowledge and work with up and coming designers.
Kayla Heffernan is currently the Head of UX at WISE Employment. Over the last 12 years she has worked in UX design and research roles across multiple industries with a passion for products that do good in the world, particularly in the health space. Kayla is passionate about solving ambiguous problems with accessible and inclusive solutions. She is data informed and believes that UX goes beyond the digital screen.
Kayla’s PhD dissertation explored the technological realities and capabilities of emerging devices that go inside the body for non-medical purposes. She compared these uses to the fears and discourse that surround these controversial devices.
An accomplished UI/UX and digital Product Designer who has been present in the field since 2005, Renan Castro brings a wealth of experience across various domains. His career highlights include serving as a Design Consultant for a prominent medical company in Pittsburgh, US, and pioneering the role of the first-ever UX Designer at a thriving Canadian tech corporation in Montreal, boasting a workforce of 800+ talented individuals.
He also contributed his expertise to expanding Xref, an Australian HR tech startup, witnessing its team flourish from 21 to 100 dedicated professionals. Furthermore, he assumed leadership positions, notably as the Head of UX / Design Director at Helium, a respected Australian consultancy agency.
Since 2021, he has been mentoring and guiding newcomers into the exciting realm of UX, and in 2024, he joined Bugcrowd as a Senior Product Designer.
Laura is a Lead UX Designer and Mentor from Paris. While her background is in Art Direction, it’s no surprise that she naturally ended up in UX, a career that blends her passion for design with her interest in human behaviors, technology and business.
She is a hardcore problem solver and brings over 10 years of extensive industry experience across B2C and B2B companies (within agencies, startups, and consultancy), and remote teams. Part pragmatist, part aesthete, she specialises in solving problems with seamlessly intuitive yet beautifully executed UX solutions. She is a big picture thinker, and delivers digital products with a clear strategic vision, down to the details.
As a mentor, you can expect her to share many industry insights, tips about career growth, and technical support. She will make sure you leave the program with as much UX knowledge as possible and some strong confidence about your newly acquired skills.
When not at work, you’ll find Laura hiking in nature, observing creatures deep in the ocean, improving her photography skills, or doing yoga.