The Authentic UX Talent Show
Summary
Who’s got talent? The UX community, that’s who! And we’ve got the live acts to prove it! Join us for an express tour of the wild, weird, and wonderful of UX talents, carefully selected from the Enterprise Experience community by our eagle-eyed talent scout, Michelle Kaplan.
Key Insights
-
•
Integrating humor and music, as Matt Lawrence does, can effectively evangelize UX within engineering teams.
-
•
DT Dar’s Bhangra dance workshop emphasizes joy and cultural storytelling to engage participants actively.
-
•
Puppetry, showcased by Anna Maria Montero Barantez, can be a creative metaphor and tool to express UX research and communication.
-
•
Nate Osborne demonstrates that childhood-inspired creativity and multi-tasking skills can enhance UX-related thinking.
-
•
The session blends art forms and UX philosophies to emphasize that user experience should be fun, human-centric, and integral to product development.
-
•
Matt Lawrence’s UX anthem highlights ongoing challenges UX professionals face in gaining full team integration.
-
•
Community events blending talent and UX provide new ways to connect and inspire practitioners during social distancing.
-
•
Smiling is presented as a fundamental rule in DT's dance workshop, reinforcing positive user (and participant) experience.
-
•
Research and creative risk-taking are central to Anna’s puppet making, paralleling product design practices.
-
•
The playful banter and personal stories throughout make technical topics more relatable and memorable.
Notable Quotes
"The only rule is to maintain your smile and just to feel the being that have fun."
"For the right audience, if applied correctly, humor and music can move people in many ways."
"I am not throwing away your UX."
"We want to stay in the game no users cursing our name."
"With enough creativity and imagination, you can make anything interesting."
"Puppetry lets you communicate like, I don’t like what you said, how come you said that to me."
"Research in science fiction helps make research real and creative all the time."
"I believe there's really no such thing as a boring place at the state of mind."
"UX should be a critical dependency, not an afterthought or checkbox on the to-do list."
"We may not have tech prowess but our sticky notes, card sorts, and test reports are our real superpowers."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"This day is focused on me, my job and my specific day-to-day challenges, not on some invisible finish line or senior title."
Bria AlexanderTheme Two Intro
October 3, 2023
"Resilience is being able to maintain self needs and effectiveness at moments of change, tough demands, and adversity."
Ariba JahanTeam Resiliency Through a Pandemic
January 8, 2024
"In product design, we answer questions to design; in service design, we ask the right questions to design."
Cornelius RachieruHandling Complexity: Framing a Scale of Design
June 9, 2021
"Automated tests only get you so far; manual QA by people aware of accessibility needs is essential."
Megan Clegg Michael Haggerty-Villa Alexis MorinSpace for Everyone: Reframing Accessibility Through a Wider Lens
June 10, 2021
"I call this an anti org chart because it’s organic, messy, and structures emerge rather than imposed."
Saara Kamppari-MillerCartography for Design Communities
September 10, 2025
"Openly sharing stories helps us learn from those who came before us and carve new paths."
Kara KaneTheme One Intro
November 16, 2022
"How do we become facilitators who can encourage and model true power sharing? That’s the big question."
Natalia RadywylCo-Designing New Power in Australia's Public Sector
November 16, 2022
"If you want to scale, incorporate global UX research from day one and test your assumptions broadly."
Nancy DouyonWe'll Figure That Out in the Next Launch: Enterprise Tech's Nobility Complex
June 15, 2018
"There’s a lot of steps behind the scenes to make conversations useful and safe."
Peter Van DijckBuilding the Rosenbot
June 4, 2024