Summary
The talk, featuring the speaker's recount of personal and professional experiences, highlights the increasing importance of emotional equity in corporate strategy and product development. The speaker shares a personal story involving their daughters’ innovative 3D-printed casts, illustrating how empathy and emotion underpin meaningful user experiences. They stress that markets are shifting rapidly into complex, dynamic spaces requiring ethnographic methods to understand hidden emotional needs that traditional surveys miss. Collaborating with peers like Steve and referencing experts such as Trisha Wang and Ellen Isaac, the speaker explains rapid ethnography, ethno probing, and insight studies that convert data into stories—vital for convincing stakeholders and guiding strategic decisions. Real-world case studies, including work with educational clients and healthcare.gov, demonstrate how emotional segmentation and continuous feedback loops foster innovative, user-centered products. The speaker also discusses organizational shifts from siloed, engineering-driven cultures to progressive, experience-focused ones facilitated by lean UX, highlighting Lego’s turnaround as an exemplar. Ultimately, they argue that brands must earn trust through emotional connection, balancing ethos, pathos, and logos to build lasting, meaningful experiences in a fast-evolving marketplace.
Key Insights
-
•
Emotion is becoming a core driver of corporate strategy and product success, beyond just usability or logic.
-
•
Ethnographic research reveals emotional needs that users themselves may be unaware of, critical for innovation.
-
•
Rapid ethnography can deliver meaningful, actionable insights in just 4 to 6 weeks.
-
•
Combining big data sentiment analysis with ethnographic 'FIC data' storytelling enhances understanding of user behaviors and attitudes.
-
•
Insight studies conducted over time capture evolving user feelings and behaviors, supporting product iteration and loyalty.
-
•
Emotional segmentation of users (such as brand-driven, frugal, or experience-driven) often reveals marketing opportunities missed by traditional demographics.
-
•
Storytelling is essential for translating research into impact within organizations and convincing executives.
-
•
Corporate cultures need to shift from siloed, engineering or marketing-centric models to collaborative, experience-driven models.
-
•
Lean UX practices help unite business, design, and engineering teams with shared language and processes.
-
•
Successful brand trust today relies on sustained emotional engagement, aligning with Aristotle’s ethos, pathos, and logos framework.
Notable Quotes
"Empathy is so overused but it’s really important for us to understand we’re no longer designing for single experiences."
"People’s ability to cope with information complexity isn’t increasing exponentially, so we need to find the perfect innovation space."
"Unless your products yield exceptional emotional value, they’re not going to succeed."
"If you don’t know the questions to ask, you should do more ethnographic fieldwork rather than just surveys."
"FIC data delivers stories and stories become very important for strategy."
"We don’t have time for ethnography, yet executives still don’t have answers without it."
"There’s nothing more exhilarating than meeting actual customers using your products and services."
"Storytelling helps convince internal stakeholders and C-level executives that emotional insight is critical."
"Insight studies create ongoing, real-time feedback loops that impact business decisions quickly."
"Emotion is the new brand value; trust is earned over time and emotional connection drives loyalty."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"We have to think beyond projects to the larger ecosystem and understand the ladder of intended outcomes."
Matt StoneScaling Empathy, A Case Study in Change Management
June 11, 2021
"Product managers carry a lot of pressure and accountability without a lot of ability to force people to do anything."
Aditi Ruiz Christian Crumlish Farid SabitovA PM State of Mind: Empathy Mapping Your Product Manager, Pt. 1
December 6, 2022
"We need to start thinking about fluidity in identity because there is no 'this' anymore; people are multiracial, fluid in sexual identity, neurodiversity, and more."
Dave Malouf Meredith Black Farid SabitovThe Past, Present, and Future of DesignOps: a 2-part DesignOps Community Call (Part 1)
February 17, 2022
"Getting something accessible is a straight line; keeping something accessible requires process change."
Sheri Byrne-HaberAccessibility at Scale
June 9, 2021
"Participatory sessions provide a unique chance to connect with users who might otherwise be hard to reach."
Nidhi Singh Rathore Amber DavisEmbracing participation to unlock deeper truths in commercial research
March 12, 2025
"If something was unclear or uncomfortable to even one person, it was a sign it needed editing."
Laine Riley ProkayHow DesignOps can Drive Inclusive Career Ladders for All
September 30, 2021
"The whole give yourself an oxygen mask before helping others metaphor is very true here."
Ariba JahanTeam Resiliency Through a Pandemic
January 8, 2024
"Product designers I have worked with have experience deeply grounded in standards like NIST, ISO, IEEE, and HL7 for healthcare."
Noreen Whysel Katie SaindonShort Take #4: UX/Product Lessons from Your Industry Peers
December 6, 2022
"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
Latest Books All books
Dig deeper with the Rosenbot
Why do private sector innovation models often fail when applied directly to public sector organizations?
What are practical strategies for embedding inclusive design early in product and service workflows?
What roles do narrative and shared sense-making play in measuring learning within organizations?