Opener: Past, Present, and Future—Closing the Racial Divide in Design Teams
Summary
The 2019 design census states that 3% of the design industry are African American/Black designers while 71% are White/Caucasian. Anthropologists Audrey and Brian Smedley wrote “Race in the American mind was and is a statement about profound and unbridgeable differences…It conveys the meaning of social distance that cannot be transcended.” Racism is divisive and destructive. DesignOps practitioners often find themselves facilitating difficult conversations, pointing out disparities, and creating safe environments for teams to do their best work. So, how do we as practitioners remain resilient when faced with the complexities of racism within our organizations? The goal of this talk is to provide a protocol in which design leaders can engage uncomfortable conversations to help teams become more inclusive. We will explore an often overlooked yet valuable source to ensure the future effectiveness of our design practice, black youth. Listen to Vincent on the Rosenfeld Review podcast.
Key Insights
-
•
AI can significantly improve diagnostic accuracy and speed by analyzing vast datasets.
-
•
Personalized medicine will become more achievable through AI's data-driven insights.
-
•
Ethical considerations are crucial in AI deployment to prevent biases and ensure fairness.
-
•
Data privacy must be prioritized in health tech innovations to safeguard patient information.
-
•
Interdisciplinary collaboration is essential for responsible AI development in healthcare.
Notable Quotes
"AI possesses the potential to elevate healthcare diagnostics to unprecedented heights."
"We cannot ignore the ethical implications that come with the power of AI."
"Every innovation carries responsibility; we must tread carefully with AI in health."
"The future of medicine will be written in algorithms if we let it."
"Collaboration among technologists, ethicists, and healthcare professionals is key."
More Videos
"For the iBio people, knowledge is relational, not objectified, emerging from relationships like songs."
Victor UdoewaBeyond Methods and Diversity: The Roots of Inclusion
March 26, 2024
"Features eventually become barnacles that are impossible to scrape off the boat."
Bill ScottLean Engineering: Engineering for Learning and Experimentation in the Enterprise
May 14, 2015
"Mini empathy interviews embedded in regular research uncover evolving user stories that quantitative data alone misses."
Lija HoganContexts of Use: A Framework for Connection
December 9, 2021
"Our Jira integration will be two-way so you can link design activities to epics, user stories, or tasks."
Aurobinda Pradhan Shashank DeshpandeIntroduction to Collaborative DesignOps using Cubyts
September 9, 2022
"Cameras on in Zoom meetings is a small act with a powerful impact against isolation."
Jilanna WilsonDistributed DesignOps Management
February 26, 2019
"Post-training on billions of examples is like training a dog over and over until it gets really good at reasoning and tool use."
Peter Van DijckBuilding impactful AI products for design and product leaders, Part 3: Understand AI architectures: RAG, Agents, Oh My!
July 30, 2025
"We need to think of ourselves as strategic leaders who know customer needs better than anyone in the organization."
Nicole Aleong Michaela Mora Prayag Narula Brianna SylverWhat UX research can learn from other research practices [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]
September 14, 2023
"The shown reasoning wasn't the actual reasoning. It was just a pretty story to get us to trust it."
Beth ChappellLeading through ambiguity: Supporting a design team relearning their craft
June 9, 2026
"At last year’s conference, we were still scrambling to figure out where AI might be useful in our work."
Llewyn PaineDay 1 Using AI in UX with Impact
June 10, 2025
