The structure of the day.

Six question areas, three rounds, one thread

Spotlight speakers open the day. In between, the day runs in three rounds, and each round pairs one Building question area with one Navigating question area.

Every question area runs in two parts:

• Ribs: small groups. Six rib sessions run at once in each round, three for each of the round's two question areas. Pick one. You get the room to think properly about your question, with people facing the same problem.
• Spine: back together. After the break, those groups combine for a "spine session", where the rib conversations turn into something useful for the whole room, rather than staying in separate corners.

The ribs go deep and the spine pulls it together. That's the thread running through the day. A break, or lunch after Round 2, separates each round's ribs from its spine.

Rounding up the day, a final facilitated plenary will pull all the sessions together.

Carrying the thread with Deckle

Between rounds, a good conversation can evaporate. This year, Deckle is the thread that stops that happening.

From before the day to the final session, you'll be invited to answer short fill-in-the-blank prompts on your phone, with a single link or QR code and no login. They take seconds, and your answers come in your own words. Everyone's responses feed a live picture of what the room is thinking, anonymised and grouped so no individual is singled out.

The final facilitated session is then built from what the day actually produced, not a generic wrap-up. The most common words and themes from all six question areas go up on screen, and the room works out together what they mean and why.

• The thread runs from start to finish. What you say in a rib session still counts in the closing session.
• The room tells the story. The conclusions come from the people in the room and their experience, not from a headline or a slide.
• You leave with something shared. You see how your thinking compares to everyone else's, and take home takeaways you helped write.

Why questions, not themes

At Signal Not Noise, engineers, product managers, designers, delivery leads, data practitioners and the leaders who work alongside them get honest about the tough questions they're dealing with.

These six question areas are starting points, not an exhaustive list. No one has all the answers yet. Our promise is more clarity, and a path to answering your gnarliest questions.

So instead of choosing a session because it's tagged "Engineering" or "Product", ask one thing: does this help me answer one of the questions?