Blog Nordic Business Forum 2016 Past Events

Speaker of the week: Des Traynor

Des Traynor, the Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Intercom, will be speaking under the theme digitalization at Nordic Business Forum 2016.

The Irish entrepreneur and strategist, Des Traynor, started his career after graduation in the University of Maynooth in Ireland as a software developer and a lecturer. Later he also worked as a lecturer in the National College of Ireland but went on with his career to work as a UX designer for Contrast.

In 2010, Traynor co-founded a technology company called Exceptional, which provided error tracking and reporting platforms for web applications. At Exceptional, Traynor saw over 50 000 developers adopting the products. Three years ago the company was successfully sold to Rackspace.

Only a year after founding Exceptional, Traynor co-founded Intercom in California with three other Irishmen. The company offers “a customer communication platform with a suite of integrated products for every team – including sales, marketing, products, and support”. In five years, Intercom has grown into a company of more than 250 employees, who serve more than 13 000 customers worldwide.

Traynor is not only the Co-Founder of Intercom, but he is also the Chief Strategy Officer of the company. This means that he works with issues such as product strategy, content marketing, customer support, and customer education. Furthermore, Traynor is actively writing the ‘Inside Intercom’ blog and is also regularly speaking in different seminars and conferences on e.g. product development, product strategy, and user experience.

At Nordic Business Forum 2016, Traynor will enlighten us on the process of creating a “Product First Company”.

Top picks from the speaker:

  • If you are interested in learning more on Intercom’s way of thinking, you should read their newest ebook ‘Intercom on Jobs-to-be-Done’.
  • In an article in the newest Nordic Business Report, Traynor gives his comments on the pros and cons of using and running SaaS (Software as a Service) applications.
  • Watch this video to learn, how Des Traynor explains product development and product innovation processes at Intercom.

More on Des Traynor:


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