Panel Discussion: Methodologies and Work Environments
Summary
In this engaging session, Maria, Megan, and Hannah share their experiences applying UX and change management methodologies within complex organizations like McKinsey, rail transit systems, and tech-driven environments. Maria highlights the value of user empathy and evolving goals in large projects, like the rail system redevelopment, emphasizing intuition and user connection beyond just end customers. Megan discusses the importance of building open, editable playbooks that evolve through team contribution, stressing the need for balancing following rules and embracing scrappy innovation. Hannah introduces the concept of positive deviants, people who naturally exhibit better behaviors on the margins, and explains the importance of leveraging community and social proof to scale those behaviors rather than imposing top-down change. Together, they explore managing designer burnout through diverse challenges, work-life balance, and experiential learning such as field trips. The panelists also address maintaining optimism amid messy change by focusing on advocates and achievable impact areas rather than forcing universal adoption. They share tactical insights on setting flexible timelines within agile frameworks and choosing when to persist or pivot in organizational battles, weighing impact against effort. Their perspectives offer practical guidance on sustaining momentum, fostering inclusive culture, and evolving UX practices in fast-paced, mission-critical environments.
Key Insights
-
•
Open, editable playbooks encourage continuous improvement and team ownership.
-
•
Positive deviants provide powerful, community-driven models for scalable change.
-
•
Change is more successful when it leverages existing behaviors rather than imposing new ones.
-
•
Avoiding designer burnout requires variety in work and strong emphasis on work-life balance.
-
•
Physical user engagement, like field trips, recharges designers and grounds empathy.
-
•
Choosing the right 'hill to die on' depends on an impact versus effort analysis.
-
•
Success metrics vary widely between organizations, making adaptable frameworks essential.
-
•
Focusing on advocates accelerates adoption even when others remain skeptical.
-
•
Deadlines should be ambitious but flexible, acknowledging discovery and learning.
-
•
Building change from within the community fosters social proof and sustains adoption.
Notable Quotes
"If I can't make the actual playbook available, I'm very happy to talk about what it consists of and how we did it."
"It's all of our job to question why we’re doing what we’re doing and how we’re doing it."
"We keep our playbook in a place where anyone can edit it from the team."
"Positive deviants operate on the fringes and get the best results by doing things differently."
"Change has to come from within, social proof is key."
"Sometimes you just need to do something completely different than what you’re working on."
"We pick our battles and show what a great party it is without worrying about pulling everyone in."
"I am uncomfortable too. Change is uncomfortable, exhausting, but it can also be fun and exciting."
"It’s not a fight; it’s about finding that soft spot where people are already trying to do something."
"We set deadlines but accept that we don’t always make them, and that’s okay."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Movement building requires healing, grief work, and physical movement to sustain people."
Deanna ZandtThe Unspoken Complexity of “Self-Care” with Deanna Zandt
July 21, 2022
"Leadership modeling of vulnerability and human challenges is the first step towards trauma-informed organizational culture."
Matt Bernius Sarah Fathallah Hera Hussain Jessica Zéroual-KaraTrauma-informed Research: A Panel Discussion
October 7, 2021
"Communication with users will be primarily in person, over the phone, or maybe some texting—not surveys."
Emily Danielson“I mean, I can lift a shovel”: Design Skills in Disaster Response
June 9, 2022
"You are never too busy to send a handwritten note. It deepens relationships, creates trust, and enriches the cultural fabric."
Michelle MorrisonCulture Design
May 21, 2020
"AI will soon enable us to automatically flag leading questions and coach researchers for quality."
Ned DwyerRight horses for the right courses – how and when to democratize research
November 20, 2025
"Designing a metric starts with the goals, not the metric itself."
Alberto FerreiraMaking it Count: Developing a custom digital metric framework that works
October 15, 2021
"Save all this content into a shareable playlist you can copy into your own learning management system."
Louis RosenfeldHow to use the Rosenbot
March 16, 2026
"We found a greater variety and depth of questions that require richer methodologies, so BYO works better for us."
Benjamin Wiedmaier Annie MayfieldRedefining Toolkits: Unbundling to Create a Perfect Match
March 11, 2025
"Design ops is actually all about fragility. We do stability, security, planning, but can we add more experimentation and comfort with ambiguity?"
Silke Bochat5 Antifragile Strategies for a DesignOps 2.0
September 23, 2024
