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
"How might we empower communities to initiate, lead, and design solutions that impact them directly?"
Meghan Hellstern Joanne DongThe Next 100 Years of Civic Design: How Might We Better Rise to Meet the Challenges of Today and Tomorrow?
December 10, 2021
"The hackathon gave design the ability to produce coded components quickly, showing executives the value of design investment."
Sabrina Mach Nina WainwrightHow to Design Your Design Operating Model
September 29, 2021
"Behavioral fit means the system’s behavior matches the behavior and mental models of users."
Dave MaloufClosing Keynote: Amplify. Not Optimize.
October 24, 2019
"Sustainability is already in our DNA as UX people because we talk about less is more and good design is as little design as possible."
James ChudleyDecarbonising User Journeys: How minimising enables us to do more with less
February 19, 2025
"Helper texts appear when hovering on unfamiliar features, explaining what buttons or controls do."
Rittika BasuAge and Interfaces: Equipping Older Adults with Technological Tools
February 23, 2023
"We need honest, transparent conversations about futures because the impacts can be huge and wide-ranging."
April ReaganLook, Think, Act: The Futures-Smart Design Organization
October 1, 2021
"The State Department removed burdensome medical requirements, allowing people to self-attest their gender on passports."
Amy Paris Danielle ThierryDelivering Equity: Government Services for All Ages, Languages, Sexual Orientations, and Gender Identities
December 9, 2021
"Startups promised limitless growth but often had cultures of microaggressions, isolation, and favoritism."
Lisanne NormanWhy I Left Research
March 27, 2023
"By understanding other teams’ pain points, you can show them how democratized research can help solve their challenges."
Nicole Wright Ned DwyerDemocratizing Research at HoneyBook
March 9, 2022
