Join the conversation: User needs as a north star ⭐ - rethinking alignment in complex organisations

Tuesday, Mar 10th 2026 · 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM GMT

Online event Register here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1983612436194?aff=oddtdtcreator Many organisations claim to be user-centric, yet alignment remains difficult. Teams optimise locally, trade-offs escalate, and coordination becomes a constant overhead. Despite mature practices, alignment often relies on effort rather than clarity.

DORA’s research shows that genuinely user-centric teams consistently outperform others, while management research suggests most organisations overestimate how user-centric they really are. This talk explores why that gap exists.

Rich Allen argues that the root cause is orientation. When user needs remain implicit, alignment becomes fragile and inside-out. When user needs are made explicit and treated as a shared north star, alignment shifts from coordination to coherence — enabling better decentralised decisions.

The talk also examines AI as a stress test for user-centricity, revealing whether alignment is real or merely assumed. Attendees will leave with a fresh perspective on alignment and a practical reframing of user needs as decision-shaping infrastructure rather than a discovery artefact.

Rich Allen is a sociotechnical architect, consultant, speaker, and author of User Needs Mapping: Aligning Teams Around What Matters. He created User Needs Mapping to help organisations make better structural decisions by working outside-in from real user needs, rather than inside-out from org charts and systems.

With over two decades of hands-on experience across software engineering, technical leadership, and organisational design, Rich helps leaders and teams reduce friction, clarify boundaries, and improve flow by lowering cognitive load and evolving team interactions safely over time.

Rich has also played a key role in the development and teaching of Team Topologies, helping shape the core materials now used in Team Topologies training and consulting worldwide. His work blends mapping, systems thinking, and practical facilitation to help organisations move from misalignment and dependency pain to clarity, autonomy, and faster flow.