Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.
Log in Create free account100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.
Summary
Our guest, Cheryl Platz, applies her extensive experience as a professional improv performer and educator to her design work in "unexpected" ways. Improv is more than a performance technique - it's a mindset that helps us energetically embrace constraints and uncertainty.
Key Insights
-
•
Improv skills like 'yes and' help designers build on colleagues' ideas rather than dismissing them, improving brainstorming and critiques.
-
•
The concept of justification in improv mirrors how designers incorporate business or stakeholder constraints into design solutions.
-
•
Understanding 'status' through microbehaviors helps with navigating and influencing workplace dynamics and presentations.
-
•
Physical and verbal improv skills complement each other; nonverbal storytelling is often stronger in English as a second language participants.
-
•
Improv requires abandoning shame and creating a safe, consensual environment to unlock creativity, which varies across cultures.
-
•
Many beginner improvisers mistakenly focus on humor rather than honesty and storytelling, which are core to impactful improv.
-
•
Improvisational storytelling strengthens abilities to build meaningful customer narratives and story arcs in design.
-
•
Applied improv role-play can train medical professionals and design teams, but requires internal trust to overcome self-consciousness.
-
•
Cultural expectations and language barriers significantly influence improv participation and success in global teams.
-
•
Practicing physical presence and managing gestures can counteract nervousness and unconscious biases in professional settings.
Notable Quotes
"Yes and means taking the ideas someone else gives you and building on that, not dismissing them outright."
"Abandon all shame—that's the money quote when it comes to improv and unlocking presence."
"Status is about microbehaviors like eye contact and gestures that shape how confident or intimidating someone appears."
"Improv isn't about being funny; honesty and storytelling matter much more."
"Playing silly improv games reconnects you with your kindergarten self and builds hidden listening muscles."
"In design critiques, framing feedback through justification helps incorporate seemingly impossible requests into context."
"Not everyone is comfortable with the physical side of improv, and that's totally fine—mental exercises also build core skills."
"You have to be very careful with audience participation: it must be consensual and overexplained to avoid vulnerability."
"Improv helps me be high energy and engaged in meetings, which others sometimes notice as 'winging it' fluidly."
"Cultural differences mean improv expectations vary widely—what works in the U.S. might not in Italy or Africa."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Measuring impact means linking research insights back to decisions and how they affect roadmaps and priorities."
Ned Dwyer Emily Stewart James WallisThe Intersection of Design and ResearchOps
September 24, 2024
"Efficiency doesn’t necessarily reduce workload; it often results in burnout rather than leisure time."
Angelos ArnisNavigating the Rapid Shifts in Tech's Turbulent Terrain
October 2, 2023
"The edit rate, our metric of human-added characters over total characters, tracks AI output quality without burdening users."
Jennifer KongJourneying toward AI-assisted documentation in healthcare
June 5, 2024
"Our nervous system cannot tell the difference between a company reorg and a hungry lion trying to eat you."
Alla WeinbergWorkers Are Sick of Change: The Cure is Psychological Safety
June 6, 2023
"I think to understand how they work, it’s not just understanding how they operate, it’s understanding how to make the sausage rather than consume the sausage."
Tom Armitage Carla Diana Kanene Ayo HolderDay 2 Panel: Looking ahead: Designing with AI in 2026
June 11, 2025
"It helps to find shared goals, areas that both groups feel passionate about and where they can make a big difference."
Laura SchaeferDesignOps: A Conduit for Inclusion
September 9, 2022
"Too often research lives in silos, making it hard to connect the dots across streams."
Jake BurghardtStop wasting research: Unlock more value from research insights
June 24, 2025
"Establish yourself as a trusted expert advisor whose work drives meaningful positive change."
Megan BlockerGetting to the “So What?”: How Management Consulting Practices Can Transform Your Approach to Research
March 26, 2024
"Designing for AI means designing for behavior because you will not always get the same result for the same question."
Lukas Moro“Feels Like Paper!”: Interfacing AI through Paper
June 11, 2025
