Asking the Right Questions: Life, Hope and Moving Forward During the Pandemic
Summary
Details to come.
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
"Drag and drop ease, and collaborative affinity diagramming in the tool, were unexpected but very welcome advantages."
Taylor Jennings Joe Nelson Alex KnollRepository Retrospective: Learnings from Introducing a Central Place for UX Research
March 9, 2022
"Users are not just sources of data; they're partners who bring their experiences and insights."
Amy Brana StuartRest in Peace Fly-in-fly-out Design
June 9, 2022
"Designers need better training to work with off-the-shelf enterprise software like Sitecore, Salesforce, and SharePoint."
Alexandra SchmidtEnterprise UX Playbook
December 1, 2022
"UXers are decision architects; we mediate billions of decisions every day, many with real climate impact."
Mike Brzozowski Laura Palotie Steve Isley Nancy TsangUX in everyday products: Empowering climate conscious choices
July 17, 2024
"Right sizing research respects communities by matching the scope to what participants can reasonably engage with."
Megan Blocker Amy Bucher Katie Hansen Ricardo Martins Nidhi Singh RathoreDay 2 Theme Panel
March 12, 2025
"Design ops is a lot of change management, and asking people to change again requires appreciation and celebrating wins."
Michelle ChinThe DesignOps Starter Kit
September 29, 2021
"Life has a way of working itself out."
Maria GiudiceEmpowering change: Reigniting purpose, passion and impact in research
March 13, 2025
"I kind of think of it one as like fields of influence — staff influences the team or pillar, principal influences organization-wide."
Catt Small Micah Bennett Brian Carr Jessica HarlleeWhat's Next for ICs: Exploring Staff and Principal Designer Roles
February 22, 2024
"Look for the commonality in our definition of inclusion rather than the differences."
Saara Kamppari-MillerTheme Three Intro
September 9, 2022