After 14 years at Google, Javier Bargas has experienced how fast this industry moves. It can be thrilling, but also confusing, overwhelming, even cruel. He's seen brilliant people burned out, pushed aside, or made to feel like they don’t belong.

Javier has built and led UX teams across Cloud, Ads, YouTube, and Play. He has published over 30 articles and delivered over 150 talks globally. he is an active contributor to the UX community and lecture at both the University of Basel and the University of Applied Sciences in Olten.

In 2025, Javier Bargas co-founded Astrolabium with Nina Weber. They turned their decades of experience at Google and in UX leadership into a coaching and training space for UXers who want to grow with integrity, not pressure. They believe in honest mentorship, thoughtful strategy, and careers built on values, not fear. Today, he support UX professionals of all levels who are facing change - layoffs, toxic work environments, career crossroads.

The Workshop

De-Risking Product Development - User Segmentation and Product Strategy Risks

Javier Bargas will facilitate this workshop with Nina Weber

Most product teams believe user discovery is too expensive and takes too long—so they skip it. The result? The majority of launched features create no user value, wasting massive resources. Product teams operate on untested assumptions, shallow user understanding, and coinflip decision-making.
This workshop provides pragmatic methods that product managers can apply immediately—without hiring researchers or running month-long studies. Participants learn to identify critical unknowns, ask the right questions, and validate assumptions with appropriate, accessible methods.
Why this matters for product makers: As teams scale, early assumptions break down. One focused workshop can prevent weeks of misdirected development and give product managers the foundation to validate strategy alongside building features.

Participants work on their own products throughout, using both structured frameworks and AI-enabled prompts. They leave with concrete deliverables: prioritized user segments or risk assessments, plus exploration questions and an implementation plan they can execute with their teams immediately.
Real outcome: One team went from no user feedback in years to 10 completed interviews within 2 weeks after the workshop—completely re-focusing their product strategy based on what they learned.
Relevance: Bridges the gap between "we know we should talk to users" and "we actually do it systematically."

What You Will Learn

• Identify what they don't know: Systematically surface the critical assumptions and unknowns in their product strategy or user understanding—before those gaps derail development.

• Ask the right research questions: Move from vague curiosity ("we should talk to users") to specific, actionable exploration questions that directly inform product decisions.

• Choose appropriate methods: Match research questions to pragmatic methods they can execute without specialized UX resources—knowing when a 5-user interview is enough versus when they need broader validation.

• Take action immediately: Leave with a concrete plan and deliverables (prioritized user segments or risk assessments) they can share with their teams and start executing next week.
  
  

The meta-learning: Discovery doesn't require perfection, long timelines, or dedicated researchers. Product teams can integrate lightweight, iterative validation into their existing workflow—shifting from "coinflip decisions" to evidence-based product development.