Astrid van der Flier is a Dutch design strategist based in France. She helps organisations adopt a user-centered approach to deliver products and services that are more inclusive and empowering.

Over the past 6 years her focus has been on financial inclusion for underserved people living in Africa. First at a microfinance institution where she built a design team from scratch by recruiting and coaching self-taught African UX designers. Then she helped an insurance brokerage startup bring online insurance to Francophone African countries.

In 2012, Astrid co-founded an IoT startup offering French households a smarter way to consume energy. She now inspires larger organisations to work in lean ways. Build to learn!

Previously, Astrid worked at design and innovation agencies. She spent 5 years at IDEO in Palo Alto and San Francisco, mainly working on mobile interaction design for telcos such as Nokia. Her first job was at EdenSpiekermann in Amsterdam in 2002, where she worked on one of the first versions of the Dutch online tax return program.

Ask Astrid about:

• User research in (francophone) Africa
• Remote leadership of product teams
• Mobile-first design