Leaning in to the change: Hatch Conference 2025
Catch up with conference insiders about what we’re carrying forward from this year’s Hatch
Leaning in to the change: Hatch Conference 2025
Catch up with conference insiders about what we’re carrying forward from this year’s Hatch
The Hatch Conference 2025 took place at silent green in Berlin and brought together senior product design professionals from across Europe.
The “pace of change” is a term we’re hearing everywhere these days — and product design is no exception. Tech and business leaders are talking about all of the opportunities and possibilities opening up as more new technologies hit the market. At the same time, many designers aren’t completely sure what this means for their work.
This year’s Hatch Conference brought together senior design professionals from across Europe and from across the industry. I had the pleasure of going to Hatch along with several other members of Zalando’s design community, including some whose attendance was sponsored by Zalando. As a co-sponsor of the event, we also had the chance to interact with hundreds of attendees (and capture everyone’s conference fits at our photo booth).
Stefanie Youett and Gare Anighoro at Zalando’s booth at Hatch 2025.
Even with all the great speakers and inspiring workshops, my most memorable moments at the Hatch conference unfolded in conversation. Connecting with designers, some of whom traveled internationally for the event, was a profound source of learning. We exchanged insights into their communities, individual practices and organisational cultures. It was also incredibly valuable to meet DesignOps managers, offering a clearer picture of how this function is tailored and implemented across different companies. The blend of meaningful talks and these personal connections made the entire experience immensely worthwhile.
Connecting with designers, some of whom traveled internationally for the event, was a profound source of learning.
The tagline for Hatch this year was “Level up and fall back in love with design.” The levelling-up part is a necessity, because the technological shifts are not going away or slowing down. But the speakers and designers at Hatch are seeing this as an invitation. Leaning into this moment of change might be exactly what enables the second part: staying passionate about the craft of design.
Keep reading to hear from other Hatch insiders about their experiences and what they’re planning to carry forward.
What was impactful for you about Hatch Conference 2025?
Damian Martone
Founder, Hatch Conference
One thing that was clear at Hatch is that AI will do a lot more of the work for us, and the role of the designer will be even more focused on setting the direction: framing change, creating safety and curating what truly matters in a world of infinite options.
A Hatch memento from our photo booth, starring Gare, Stefanie, Felix, Drake and Yishi from Zalando’s Product Design community
Drake Dereniowski
Senior Product Designer
What impacted me was the creativity, innovation and the eagerness of the design community to evolve with the opportunities AI is bringing to the design field. There was a really strong feeling of optimism/curiosity/excitement in the room. We could all feel that we’re at the beginning of this huge journey ahead that nobody has the answers to yet, but there were so many interesting ways to begin building our way to the future. It was really energising to see so many designers being eager to lean into the change, evolve our ways of working and expand our ability to contribute and drive impact.
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Rachel Rosenson
Head of Product Design, The Studio
Hatch showed the real clash of design worlds that’s currently happening. Speakers on stage were enthusiastic, hopeful and curious about how empowered design can be in a new age of AI, whereas a lot of audience questions showed the uncertainty designers have about what this means for their careers.
Right now, there’s an opportunity to re-level the playing field and to make your own rules. It’s a time to be inspired and lean in rather than be afraid of the change.
Hatch featured a full-day schedule of keynote speakers.
Felix Rossel
Senior Product Designer
At Hatch, one of the big takeaways for me was how the design tool landscape is evolving. We can now quickly create functional HTML prototypes using LLM tools like Lovable, V0 and Replit, which means we can get to a workable prototype faster and spend more time on the details we sometimes had to rush through before. It also makes the product designer role more flexible, letting you shift between visual UI work and more product- or business-focused responsibilities. It’s our responsibility as product designers to explore these new tools, understand their boundaries and figure out how they shape the future of our work. These insights really help me see how I can move my role forward as the landscape of product design keeps evolving.
Yishi Yang
Principal Product Designer
“Every designer should ship a PR by Q2” — intercom’s quarterly plan — sticks with me. AI empowers all disciplines to go beyond existing boundaries and it blurs our roles as designers, PMs and engineers. It’s time to take an adventure mindset and try things we didn’t try before — ship something end to end, even if it’s a Figma plugin. Treat new tools as a toy to experiment with, but know that you will learn so much afterwards.
A great group of people from the Zalando Design community went to Hatch this year, including Nina, Stefanie and Yishi.
Stefanie Youett
Talent Acquisition Partner
As someone who works in Product Design Talent Acquisition but isn’t a designer myself, I’m always looking for ways to bridge the gap. The most impactful moment at Hatch for me was a conversation with one of the speakers — a high-level design executive — who listened so attentively to my thoughts on hiring and even went out of his way to explain design concepts to me. This, coupled with all the fun, inspiring conversations about everything from design systems to funny product anecdotes, made the conference truly special.
Keep reading
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