Theme 1 Intro
Summary
Despite personal struggles with COVID, the speaker expresses gratitude and frames the conference as an act of defiance against systemic global issues like the pandemic and war. They emphasize advancing research as a practice and profession with a human-centered focus to shape better futures. The program includes Devon Powers discussing lessons from futurists and trend watchers, Sam Ladner exploring ethno futures and strategic foresight, Mackenzie Geinen addressing career and gatekeeping challenges, and Metro providing perspectives on learning frameworks for researchers outside big tech pedigrees. After lunch, Brian Moss will focus on resilience within research teams, and Victor Udayawa will delve into participatory research, decolonization, and research justice. The speaker calls for self-reflection to move beyond self-congratulation and confront extractive practices for imagining inclusive futures.
Key Insights
-
•
Research as a human-centered profession must grow to address systemic problems and institutional failures.
-
•
Futurists often study immediate futures, but their insights remain crucial for organizational foresight.
-
•
Ethno futures and strategic foresight enable researchers to play a larger role in shaping better futures.
-
•
Gatekeeping in research careers risks excluding diverse voices, requiring new learning frameworks.
-
•
Resilience is vital for research teams to sustain impactful work in challenging times.
-
•
Participatory research and decolonization are key to delivering on human-centered design promises.
-
•
The field must avoid insularity and exploitative practices by encouraging personal accountability.
-
•
The conference program reflects diverse geographic and professional perspectives, including voices from Jakarta.
-
•
Research aspirants must be aware of challenges noted by futurists to avoid repeating them.
-
•
The speaker frames the conference as defiance against global crises, highlighting research’s societal role.
Notable Quotes
"I feel like probably the luckiest person here. And I have COVID."
"Six million people worldwide have died of COVID. Millions more are dealing with lasting effects."
"We’re here, not in denial of plague and war, but in defiance of it."
"The researchers I know aspire to do lofty work, but we have a long way to go to get there."
"The futures the field seeks to shape are typically more immediate than those studied by futurists."
"We need to create learning frameworks that allow researchers to be effective, even without big tech pedigree."
"To do the kind of work we aspire to do, we need to better understand the role of resilience."
"Participatory research, decolonization, and research justice are vital takes on human-centered discipline."
"I challenge all of us to pull back from self-congratulations when we hear talk of extractive practices."
"What am I personally doing to contribute to the dynamics that stand in the way of better futures?"
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Taking stakeholders on the journey by involving them in interviews really changed how they saw the product and business strategy."
Dr Chloe SharpUsing Evidence and Collaboration for Setting and Defending Priorities
November 29, 2023
"Design ops has the opportunity to set a new default future, not follow the path set by the past."
Dr. Karl JeffriesThe Science of Creativity for DesignOps
January 8, 2024
"Fable’s OZ adapts the System Usability Scale to better measure perceived usability for assistive technology users."
Amber KnablEmpowering innovation: The critical role of inclusive product development in the AI era
June 4, 2024
"Kill them with kindness. Be professional no matter how you’re feeling."
Dorelle RabinowitzThe Magic Word is Trust
June 15, 2018
"Pushing my boundaries and getting out of my comfort zone helped me learn what I was capable of."
Dan WillisEnterprise Storytelling Sessions
June 3, 2019
"Helping your team take risks and stretch is critical even though design ops tend to be risk averse by nature."
Courtney KaplanTaking it to the next level: Career paths in DesignOps
November 8, 2018
"The linguistic shift from we have AI to we’re redesigning how we work signals maturity."
Bethany BrownRewiring operations with service design and AI
November 20, 2025
"Using AI to scan large archives of research is a game changer for meta-analyses, even if it’s imperfect."
Laura KleinHuman vs. machine: Testing AI’s ability to synthesize and analyze research
March 11, 2026
"I tried different prompts and roles, but they didn’t fundamentally improve ChatGPT’s ability to generate meaningful frameworks."
Weidan LiQualitative synthesis with ChatGPT: Better or worse than human intelligence?
June 4, 2024
