Failure is an axiom of life but for as much good as it creates, it gets a bad rap. The real travesty isn’t our failure, but that too often we don’t make use of it, learn from it, or lean into it. Some of the biggest disasters in history have come from the misapplication of failure, while some of the best ideas and biggest innovations have failure at the heart of their inception. In this talk we’ll look at failure at both its best and worst, and answer some important questions along the way. Is it possible to fail without resorting to blame and shame? How does cognitive bias prime us to fail? Are there both good and bad ways to fail? (*spoiler alert* YES!) Is failure a better teacher than success? With historical examples and real-life stories of failure in design and development, we’ll look at the anatomy of failure and discuss proven techniques for failing fast and approaches to handling failure to take back to your team and organization. At least one attendee will go home with a copy of Fail Better: Design Smart Mistakes and Succeed Sooner.