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
"We need to design for the many error states generative AI can produce, however unpredictable."
Cennydd Bowles Dan Rosenberg Lisa WelchmanDay 1 Panel
June 4, 2024
"The greatest impact is when people call me directly or give a brief to me directly; it's about relationships."
Megan Blocker Mujtaba Hameed Victor UdoewaPanel: Excellence in Impact
March 25, 2024
"Responsible systems are systems that keep humans in control."
Carol SmithOperationalizing Responsible, Human-Centered AI
June 7, 2023
"Working with video should be as easy as working with text."
Prabhas Pokharel Mayo NissenOrder and Chaos: New Ways of Collaborating on Synthesis and Storytelling
March 10, 2022
"We tend to put the end user first, but we must also ask who we might be doing harm to beyond primary users."
Cornelius RachieruHandling Complexity: Framing a Scale of Design
June 9, 2021
"Personas need to push back. Conflict makes for better stories and better products."
Dan WillisEnterprise Storytelling Sessions
June 3, 2019
"AI moves the practitioner into an editorial or supervisory role, which often signals de-skilling."
Sheryl Cababa Ethan Marcotte Milena PribicDay 2 Panel
June 5, 2024
"Stakeholders often fear participatory research because they don’t know the resources required or the outcomes they’ll get."
Nidhi Singh Rathore Amber DavisEmbracing participation to unlock deeper truths in commercial research
March 12, 2025
"Small data is about creating personalized connections by piecing together tiny clues from customers’ micro experiences."
Iulia CornigeanuQuantQual Book Club: Small Data
March 8, 2024
Latest Books All books
Dig deeper with the Rosenbot
How do product risk categories like feasibility, viability, desirability, and usability relate to research method choice?
How has the collapse of design institutions like IDEO impacted designers’ professional identity?
How have historic social contracts marginalized Black Americans compared to white Americans?