DesignOps Global Conference 2022

Presenter Profile: Hammad defines himself as a purpose-led design evangelist, having infused HCD across physical, digital and now virtual experiences. Having started his career in the UK during the Web 1.0 dotcom-boom , Hammad has spent the Web 2.0 era in strategic design consultancy; building and managing his own businesses as well as at EY and Accenture. Based in Dubai and focused on impact initiatives across the middle east for the last decade, Hammad is currently a strategic advisor for Atolye.io (Kyu Collective) and founder at LYFE/x – a metaconsulting venture studio. Although self-taught as a design-tech entrepreneur, he has recently found new love for academia – as an MBA Candidate with Warwick Business School and adjunct lecturer at the Dubai Institute for Design & Innovation. He is also the middle east chapter lead for the Service Design Network and regular host for Global Jams.

Presentation Title: Welcome to the Middleverse

Outline: In this talk, I’ll address the thorny topic of who are the actual audience groups of the metaverse and what do we know about them today? I’ll be launching and presenting five top-level metaverse personas (identified from primary research), to aid organisations in converting NPC/Noobs, scaling the genpop for critical mass and embedding HCD principles into the creator economy – all against an inspiring backdrop of how my expat homeland of Dubai has made huge strides already to position itself as the centre of the metaverse economy; creating 42,000 jobs, a government HQ in the Sandbox and many more cool initiatives to attract talent.

Company Website: https://lyfex.net