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RON BRONSON
Public sector design leader and assistant professor
he/him
45-MINUTE TALK
Design As Repair
Systems don't usually fail all at once. They leak, jam, get stuck. And when that happens, it's not designers or senior leaders who respond; it's the people embedded in those systems, doing the work that keeps things running.
Drawing from years inside federal and local government delivery, Ron believes the designer's job should focus on maintenance, not just shiny UIs and dashboards.
This talk is for anyone who's tired of being told to innovate when what we actually need is to tag what's broken and start fixing it.
MORE About thIS SPEAKER
Ron Bronson brings a unique mix of service design, delivery leadership, and critical urbanism to public sector technology.
He has led large-scale digital delivery teams in government, including leading the design function at 18F from 2021 to 2025, and creating the all-volunteer Portland Digital Corps in 2025.
Ron is an Assistant Professor of Practice in the Urban Technology program at the University of Michigan.