Team Resiliency Through a Pandemic
Summary
Leading a team during the pandemic may seem impossible given it’s likely the most stressful time of your team’s lives. Recently, I lead our team through a design sprint where we explored improving unemployment benefit access in the middle of the pandemic, which required us to shift how we work. In this talk, I’ll share how we reimagined collaboration, communication, and processes to reduce the stress load while maintaining forward momentum. Together as leaders, we’ll explore how to ethically lead our teams while keeping their resiliency in mind and bring these learnings into the post COVID work life.
Key Insights
-
•
Resilience differs from survival by aiming to maintain steady energy rather than exhausting oneself to get through crises.
-
•
Using the battery metaphor helps teams visualize fluctuating emotional and mental energy levels and the need to recharge.
-
•
Clear, co-created communication norms reduce remote work stress from excessive or duplicative digital messaging.
-
•
Regular check-ins and check-outs that share headspace, heartspace, and needs foster psychological safety and trust.
-
•
Allowing flexibility such as video-off meetings respects emotional bandwidth and prevents burnout.
-
•
Leaders need to understand individual signals of stress, which can vary widely, to provide appropriate support.
-
•
Talking openly about mental health, racial justice, and personal challenges at work creates inclusion and resilience.
-
•
Resilience practices must evolve as external conditions change; what worked pre-pandemic may not suffice now.
-
•
Nurturing a team's resilience includes fostering autonomy, shared decision-making, and prioritizing wellbeing over productivity.
-
•
Leaders must consciously cultivate their own resilience to sustainably lead and support their teams through ongoing stress.
Notable Quotes
"Resilience is being able to maintain self needs and effectiveness at moments of change, tough demands, and adversity."
"Survival can feel like a roller coaster with big energy spikes and drops, often leaving us completely depleted."
"When the pandemic hit, those in the resilient 'yellow' zone had enough reserve to readjust and come back."
"People were taking vacation days just to homeschool or take care of a loved one."
"Creating space to name what we’re experiencing without guilt allowed us to unload some of that emotional weight."
"We co-designed our environment and expectations around what we needed as a team during these times."
"On days with many user interviews, the team wanted internal meetings video off to take a break from 'smiling all day.'"
"Check-outs and reflections normalized pausing and being honest about what we don’t know."
"Mental health, systems of oppression, and racial justice should have been normal conversations at work all along."
"The whole give yourself an oxygen mask before helping others metaphor is very true here."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Designers need better training to work with off-the-shelf enterprise software like Sitecore, Salesforce, and SharePoint."
Alexandra SchmidtEnterprise UX Playbook
December 1, 2022
"We set a goal to fill 25% of our early career roles with underrepresented demographics and landed 37%."
Jen Crim Jess Quittner Saritha Kattekola Alex Karr Gurbani PahwaCulture, DIBS & Recruiting
June 11, 2021
"It’s best thought of as a service and enabling role where you orchestrate people and bring out their best collectively."
Christian CrumlishAMA with Christian Crumlish, author of Product Management for UX People
March 24, 2022
"We have to slow down hiring to be more thoughtful and deliberate about who we bring on the team."
Libby MaurerTreating Diversity & Inclusion in Hiring as a Design Problem
December 5, 2019
"When we engage people in the planning process, they take ownership of their city."
Ali Jeffery Sheri ChudowHow DesignOps Helped Enable Wall Street to Work Remotely
October 22, 2020
"Jamie Foxx spent 14 hours with his eyes closed to inhabit Ray Charles’ world."
Daniel GloydDesigning From the Inside Out: How Method Acting Can Inspire Design Research
February 12, 2026
"We are not replacing teachers; we are enhancing their ability to teach effectively."
Kristin SkinnerFive Years of DesignOps
September 29, 2021
"Research was completely evaluative and tactical, positioned as serving design by validating wireframes and high fidelity prototypes."
Johanna KollmannInsights-Driven Product Strategy: Get your Research to Count
December 6, 2022
"Friction isn’t just annoying; it’s a force that reshapes behavior and can slow or stop user flow."
David SternbergUncovering the hidden forces shaping user behavior
July 17, 2025
