Brian Sullivan

Meet product and UX leader Brian Sullivan and explore his Pixels & Priorities conversations about empathy, customer research, product strategy, and leadership.

Brian Sullivan brings decades of experience in UX research, design strategy, product development, education, and community building to Pixels & Priorities. Across two conversations with Metsy Rose and J Schuh, he explores both sides of meaningful product work: understanding the human ecosystem around a product and building the professional relationships that help ideas travel farther.

Brian challenges product and design professionals to broaden empathy beyond end users, think more strategically about research, and remain involved from early discovery through measurable customer outcomes. He also offers practical guidance for building authentic professional communities before a career transition or crisis makes those connections urgent.

🎧 Episode 012: UX Research to Product Strategy in the AI Era

🎧 Episode 013: Build Your Network Before You Need It

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More About Brian

Brian Sullivan is the Executive Director of the Big Design conference held in the DFW metroplex. His professional background spans user research, design thinking, product strategy, usability, accessibility, technical communication, education, and organizational leadership. He is also the author of The Design Studio Method: Creative Problem Solving with UX Sketching.

Brian helped build the Big Design conference as an accessible, multidisciplinary gathering for professionals across design, research, development, filmmaking, product management, and related fields. The conference reflects his belief that valuable ideas often emerge when people leave their professional bubbles and encounter different methods, perspectives, and experiences.

His two Pixels & Priorities episodes connect that community-building philosophy to product work. Whether mapping stakeholders, interpreting research, thinking through the implications of AI, or helping introverts approach networking, Brian consistently returns to curiosity, contribution, human judgment, and the importance of seeing systems more holistically.

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