User Needs First International Conference 2025: the post-conference webinar

The User Needs First International Conference (April 9-11, Amsterdam) was packed with insightful talks, engaging breakout sessions, and thought-provoking panel discussions. We would like to continue the discussion! Join us for an exclusive Follow Up & Forward webinar, where we will reflect on the key takeaways, identify emerging themes, and explore what’s next in user-centered digital services.

What to expect

The webinar summarizes the key insights from the User Needs First International Conference 2025, which took place in April. What were the major learnings from the conference?

But, we’ll also offer new content. The webinar offers the opportunity to listen to speakers who were unable to join in Amsterdam.

Lastly, there will be a live Q&A: your chance to ask questions and share your thoughts.

Programme

After an introduction and sharing key insights from the conference, we’ll have several presentations, including:

From stakeholder to users – Shifting power through co-design and collaboration

How can we build digital public services that truly serve the people they’re meant for? In this presentation, Dirk Heider and Charlotte Vorbeck from the German Digital Service share how collaboration and co-design can radically shift power dynamics, moving from top-down decision-making to inclusive, participatory design processes.

Drawing on real-life examples from their work in the German public sector – including a new legal data system, online tax declaration, and lawsuit platforms – they explore how involving both stakeholders and citizens throughout the research, design, and delivery phases leads to better, more trusted services. The session will offer best practices, challenges faced, and lessons learned, along with a vision for how to empower citizens to play an active role in shaping digital services.

About the speakers

Charlotte Vorbeck

Charlotte Vorbeck is a UX designer with a background in technology. She spent the first ten years of her career as a front-end developer for apps, websites, and games, before switching to the field of user experience. Charlotte is passionate about creating technology that solves real problems for real users by combining context, empathy, and design tools into the art of engineering. Today she is consulting and building software for the German administration with the goal to build software that works better for everyone.

Dirk Heider

Dirk Heider is a Service Designer at DigitalService, working to reshape the public sector with user-centered design. After spending numerous years working in graphic design and branding, he went back to uni, completing a Master in „Urban Futures“. He is passionate about the intersection of transformation, facilitation, and design and now applies his experience on making government services more human-centered and accessible. Dirk believes that public sector transformation requires endurance, collaboration, and fresh perspectives to tackle complex challenges and create lasting change.

We’ll continue to update the list of presentations in the coming weeks. So stay tuned!

Don’t miss this opportunity to revisit the highlights, gain fresh insights, and be part of the ongoing conversation on user-centered service design.