Insight Out 2025: A global stage for customer insights

With Insight Out 2025 just around the corner, our teams—both in Sydney and San Francisco—are busy working behind the scenes to create the event of the year for customer-obsessed teams. Last year’s inaugural event was a huge success, and we’re thrilled to return for a second year, building an even bigger and better gathering for our global community of product leaders across research, design, product, CX, and beyond.

Before we launched Insight Out, there weren’t a lot of moments for our community to come together and put customer insights front and center. We wanted to create that moment, and elevate the conversation around the role of customer intelligence in today’s fast-moving, AI-fueled world. And importantly–talk about the great innovation that's only possible when you truly understand the people you’re building for.

And what a conversation it will be. We are incredibly excited to host a legendary lineup of speakers. Product leaders from the likes of Microsoft AI, Atlassian, Snowflake, OpenAI, Vanta, Chick-fil-A, and so many more will take the stage at the historic Fort Mason Center in San Francisco on April 23rd and 24th 2025.

As we continue to work on-the-ground to bring you Insight Out 2025—preparing the venue, gathering world-class speakers, putting the final touches on our agenda—today we’re giving you a peek behind the curtain.

Why now?

The tides are changing. AI is rapidly changing the way we work, the way we engage with customers, how we gather and analyze insights, and how we build products. Speaking with our customers, we know that for many, there is apprehension around the explosion of AI and the uncertainty it has brought to the future of how we work. While fears and uncertainty are apparent, through these changes, we’re also seeing a lot of opportunity emerge in the way teams collaborate and how they can stay close to customers.

At Insight Out 2025 we’ll be addressing these changes and opportunities head on. 

What to expect

We’ll be tackling the big questions of today: How are roles in UX and product evolving? What’s gained—and lost—when AI steps in to assist human interpretation? Who should own customer insights? How can we prepare for changes in the job landscape?

We’ve worked closely with leaders across research, design, product, and CX, to define the topics that will move the conversation forward and help people navigate the future. Here’s a sneak peek at a few sessions that we’re looking forward to on day two of the conference:

• The human-machine paradox: How AI makes product development more human In this panel, Co-founder and CEO of symbol.ai, CTO of Scale AI, and Co-founder and CEO of outset.ai, will explore how AI helps us tap into “big qual” data, bringing product teams closer to users.

• Ignore all previous instructions: Where is UX Research headed now that AI is everywhere? From navigating the intersection of data and intuition to shaping innovative research practices, Microsoft AI’s Head of UX Research will share stories and a few spicy takes from his time at some of the world’s most forward-thinking organizations.

• The missing piece: Why trust is the real driver of product and design success In this session, Vanta’s VP of Design, Deb Kawamoto will share how building trust fuels collaboration, reduces friction, and drives both design and product success.

Check out more sessions on the website.

Discover what’s new in Dovetail

We’ll be offering a peek into Dovetail’s craft, culture, and vision for the future of customer insights. Last year at Insight Out, we launched a host of new AI-powered features: magic transcribe, magic summarize, magic highlight, and magic reels. We unveiled magic search and our entirely new voice of customer product Channels. This year at Insight Out 2025, Dovetail’s CEO, Benjamin Humphrey, will be announcing our latest product innovation on stage.

And for the second year in a row, we’re thrilled to be hosting Dovetail Spark Talks at the Discovery stage where some of our team members—across design, security, and engineering—will be sharing how they’re navigating change, as well as the technology, innovation, and values driving their roles and teams forward.

Check out the full agenda on the Insight Out 2025 website.

Who you’ll hear from

We’ve carefully handpicked a lineup of industry leading speakers for this year’s Insight Out. On day two—the main event—leaders across research, design, AI, and product will take the stage including Sarah Karp, Head of Design at Atlassian, Jess Holbrook, Head of UX Research at Microsoft AI, Sara Caldwell, Head of GTM Readiness at OpenAI, Zack Gottlieb, Head of Product Design at Snowflake, Deb Kawamoto, VP of Design at Vanta, legendary usability expert, Jakob Nielsen, Ph.D., and many more.

For the full speaker lineup head to the Insight Out 2025 website.

Why Fort Mason?

Insight Out 2025 is all about breaking down borders—between teams, industries, and ideas.

We chose the historic Fort Mason in San Francisco (for the inaugural Insight Out in 2024 and for this year’s Insight Out) because we think it’s the perfect venue to bring our community together and create an immersive experience. Fort Mason overlooks the waters of the San Francisco Bay and offers stunning views of the Golden Gate Bridge. 

For Dovetail, community is all about sharing and celebrating diverse perspectives and knowledge across teams and industries. We’re curating the networking experience at Fort Mason to: 

• Provide a forum for people to share ideas and perspectives and explore collaborations

• Help people to level up—in their roles, teams, and careers 

• Enable people to come together, celebrate, and network with peers and industry leaders

What’s new this year?

Two tracks, more action

This year, the action at Insight Out is rolling out across two stages—the Frontier stage at the Gateway Pavilion and a second Discovery stage, at Cowell Theater, Fort Mason. We’ve decided to run two tracks this year to pack in as much action into the conference as we can and to give attendees the option to choose the sessions that resonate with them.

Workshops and Dovetail certification

Following the success of last year, we know that attendees were super fired up by the content, the talks, and big ideas from Insight Out 2024. Yet, we heard they were eager to learn how to put these ideas and strategies into practice. That’s why we created an entirely new workshop day. Day one offers a hands-on experience for both Dovetail beginners and experts, where you learn the ins and outs of building taxonomies, sharing insights, and leveraging AI-driven tools to streamline research practices, with a Dovetail certification off the back of it. Day one is sold out but if you are interested, you can join the waitlist to hear about any openings or future events. Or to learn more about what to expect on day one (and day two), check out the full agenda.

Day two tickets are still available, but selling fast. Get your tickets today.

Not able to make it to San Francisco? Tune in online—for more details head to the website.