Join us for an inspiring talk with Sara Jane Falcon, Director of UX Strategy at Wiley, as part of the Eastman Innovation Series. Learn how she transitioned from engineering to design, blending Industrial Design and UX in her career. Sara will share insights on AI-enhanced tools, real-world projects, and aligning your values with professional goals. Stay afterward to enjoy food and connect with the design community.  

About the Speaker:

Sara discovered Industrial Design in 2006 - right as she was about to graduate with her bachelor's in Engineering. She was having a tiny existential crisis, wondering why she chose engineering as a major, when a friend asked if she wanted to visit him at the ID studio. Within the first five minutes, she was overwhelmed with a desire to be a part of whatever nonsense was happening in that dingey studio basement. Meeting other intensely curious, creative, and delightfully nerdy people made her feel at home. She applied to NC State’s ID Master's program the next week.

 Today, Sara is the Director of UX Strategy at Wiley, where she leads the strategic development of Generative AI-enhanced digital tools, business models, and policies that serve the global academic and professional publishing community. Her work includes UX Research to uncover key stakeholder motivations and challenges, concept ideation and MVP development, and pilot prototyping and testing. She works with UX Researchers and Designers who bring these ideas to life for our customers and users. Her current passion is supporting research authors and publishing colleagues in safely and ethically using GAI tools in their work.

Prior to Wiley, Sara spent over a decade designing packaging for fast moving consumer goods companies such as P&G, SCJ, Unilever, and J&J. As the Global Design Manager at Silgan, Sara focused her efforts on elevating the strategic role of design (aka getting designers more respect and pay) and building a solid Discovery process for concept development and exploration with Design at the heart of these efforts.

In Sara's experience, professional fulfillment isn't just about getting designs on the shelf – it comes from knowing your values and the environments in which you thrive - and trying to work in that sweet spot as often as you can.