Asking the Right Questions: Life, Hope and Moving Forward During the Pandemic
Summary
Key Insights
-
•
Starting meetings or classes with a simple warm-up increases attentiveness and presence.
-
•
Remote teaching often results in students keeping cameras off, impacting engagement, but this can be navigated with inclusive strategies.
-
•
Peloton taught the speaker practical leadership lessons including compassion, collaboration, and community support.
-
•
Consistency is critical in leadership and personal growth, exemplified by the speaker's 73-week exercise streak.
-
•
Inclusive leadership requires acknowledging where people are physically and emotionally, offering alternatives accordingly.
-
•
Organizations must consistently provide education and enforce policies addressing discrimination, considering intersectional identities.
-
•
Leadership must listen actively and avoid placing the burden of diversity work solely on marginalized groups.
-
•
Recognizing external stressors such as global events is essential to empathetic leadership and inclusive workplaces.
-
•
Language matters; everyday expressions can unintentionally exclude or offend marginalized communities.
-
•
Inclusion and accessibility should be embedded into every designer's responsibilities, not isolated to specialists.
Notable Quotes
"I had you all do a warm-up before we started to help everyone be present and calm."
"Sometimes working with a bunch of boxes and letters on Zoom was the reality of remote classes."
"Be compassionate with yourself and others. Not everyone likes high fives, and that's okay."
"Collaboration is key. I'm never alone in a Peloton class, even at 4:30 in the morning."
"Consistency is key. I'm on a 73-week streak right now, and that's pretty badass."
"Identity is not monolithic; policies should address layered experiences."
"It is not the responsibility of marginalized groups to do all the educating about their experiences."
"Listen is a skill that is not emphasized enough in leadership."
"Watch your language; terms like 'that's so lame' can be exclusionary or offensive."
"Inclusion and accessibility need to be part of every designer's role, even if today it is one person's job."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"This is not a checklist or promotion tool; you don’t have to excel in everything to grow."
Laine Riley ProkayHow DesignOps can Drive Inclusive Career Ladders for All
September 30, 2021
"AI is pretty good at finding semantic patterns among codes after human researchers have done the initial coding."
Laura KleinHuman vs. machine: Testing AI’s ability to synthesize and analyze research
March 11, 2026
"Data tells you what happens; qualitative research tells you why it happens."
Prayag Narula Hannah HudsonEmpowering Designers to do Good Research
March 11, 2022
"We constantly collect feedback to improve our community and design practice because iteration is key to impact."
Lona MooreScaling Design Beyond Designers
June 11, 2021
"The best partnerships depend on a mere common goal but a shared path of equality, desire, and no small amount of passion."
Dr. Nikki SmithResearch Strategy: Connecting Insights to Outcomes
March 12, 2025
"Biases are baked in through the evals used during model training and post-training."
Peter Van DijckHands-on AI #1: Let’s write your first AI eval
October 8, 2025
"Design ethics can impact some harms of new technology but not all."
Alexandra SchmidtWhy Ethics Can't Save Tech
November 18, 2022
"Color tells you where to look. That’s why color in data visualization must be intentional."
Theresa NeilJust Build Me a Dashboard!
April 9, 2019
"It’s really hard for product managers to find time for actually doing the work because of all the meetings."
Aditi Ruiz Christian Crumlish Farid SabitovPulse Check: Empathy Mapping Your Product Manager, Pt. 2
December 6, 2022
