OUR PANELISTS

Jenn is a Senior Design Lead within our Allovus Design Studio. Jenn has experience in product design, research, UI/visual design, and copy editing—she can contribute to almost any creative need a team has. Jenn’s mission is to create simple, meaningful, and human-centric designs that make a difference. Jenn enjoys working on projects that require both strategy and visual design, as well as building new brands and product development. With 18+ years of experience, she is still passionate about digging into data and creating thoughtful brand experiences for clients. 

Jenn’s career began in advertising. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin with a degree in Journalism, Jenn followed her creative passions into a writing career, which is where she was introduced to UX design. She began to gravitate to design work and has been providing creative direction at a variety of agencies throughout her career, from Chicago to LA to Seattle.

Jenn finds inspiration in all areas of her life, especially through great design, stories, music, disco balls, and unicorns. And her doxies, Frankie and Murph, are pretty damn cute, too. She loves to travel, enjoys a good sweat, and can always be counted on for a good, hearty laugh. We love her!

Growing up in Mexico City, Adolfo began his career in sound design, with a passion for films and video games. He focused his time on Halo, supporting 343 Industries before joining Microsoft full time to move into technical design, focusing on incubation projects with hardware, software, and D365 Connected Spaces.

Adolfo joined Adobe three years ago to lead audio design for Premiere Pro, re-designing the new audio clips and incorporating Enhanced Speech, Audio Tagging and Remix as capabilities using AI in the most recent Premiere Pro release. Some of his accomplishments include:

– More than 30 films as Sound Designer
– 20+ US Awarded Patents
– MPSE Award for Best Sound Design and Music for Halo 5 Cinematic
– Designer of the Audio Team that won the Mix Award for best of show at NAB 2024

Amanda
Snellinger, Ph.D.

Researcher, Microsoft Incubation Studio

Meet Amanda, the dynamic design researcher and anthropologist, wielding a versatile toolkit honed through myriad field experiences. With a keen eye for systems thinking, she deftly navigates complexities, synthesizing diverse data streams and perspectives. Amanda’s skill lies not only in connecting conceptual dots but also in adeptly reframing insights to suit varied audiences. Her insatiable curiosity fuels collaborative efforts with fellow creative minds, refining strategies and optimizing products and processes with precision and finesse.

Amanda is a distinguished alumna of Cornell University, where she earned her doctorate in philosophy and anthropology. After an illustrious academic career, she transitioned to the realm of user research in 2017. Over the past seven years, she has been an invaluable asset to Microsoft, delivering insightful research findings across various product suites.

Currently, Amanda serves as a pivotal figure within the Microsoft Incubation Studio, where she lends her expertise in user research and program management. In this role, she collaborates with early-stage concept teams, guiding them in crafting informed strategies and developing robust product roadmaps.

Read her most recent article on AI here: What is an AI-affirming future? UXDR are not bullshit jobs that AI can… | by Amanda Snellinger. Ph.D. | UX Collective (uxdesign.cc)

James
Tee

Principle Design Manager, AI Cognitive Services, Microsoft

James began his career in graphic design at Hornall Anderson where he spent 13 years. James began as a senior designer, moving up to creative direction, serving clients across the globe before joining Microsoft in 2012. He currently leads a team of UX designers and researchers under the Azure platform. His team is responsible for creating AI platform services and customization tools across Speech, Vision, Language and Decision AI offerings. 

“Our goal is to bring AI within reach of every developer—without requiring machine-learning expertise—so they can embed the ability to see, hear, speak, understand, and accelerate decision-making into their experiences.”