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
"Designers need better training to work with off-the-shelf enterprise software like Sitecore, Salesforce, and SharePoint."
Alexandra SchmidtEnterprise UX Playbook
December 1, 2022
"Our partnership is like cat and dog—sharing a body but having distinct identities and personalities."
Gina Mendolia Jasmine ToyCoordinated collaboration: a Service Design & DesignOps love story
November 19, 2025
"Accessibility was considered kind of an inspiring hack, an inspirational rarity."
Sam ProulxTo Boldly Go: The New Frontiers of Accessibility
June 10, 2022
"If you start launching design systems without having got your culture in place, you’re basically just turning the design team into a factory."
Lori Muszynski Peter MerholzKeeping Design Weird
October 2, 2023
"We hire these people full time to be designers, and they were only spending about three hours per day actually designing."
Brennan HartichCommunicating and Establishing DesignOps as a New Function
November 7, 2018
"Layoffs are a collective trauma – it’s okay to acknowledge the emotions and grief you feel."
Corey Nelson Amy SanteeLayoffs
November 15, 2022
"Design talent is the most valuable asset; empowering them to be part of decisions retains and motivates them."
Prerna MakanawalaAchieving Balanced Design Consistency
June 9, 2021
"In jazz, the structure is head, I solo, you solo, then back to head—repeated often and universally."
Jim KalbachJazz Improvisation as a Model for Team Collaboration
November 6, 2017
"If a client isn’t in the room when UX work happens, they don’t see the value and don’t understand it."
Leah Buley Joe NatoliAsk Me Anything with Leah Buley and Joe Natoli, co-authors of The User Experience Team of One (2nd edition)
October 8, 2024