Training Portfolio

Previous engagements and workshops by the Forging UX team:

Building a Skilled and Joyful Team: Career Ladders, Culture, and Communication

UXPA International Conference, Ft. Lauderdale Florida, 6/2024

We’ll discuss practical tips on establishing a career ladder (and why), setting standards, building psychological safety through systems and ceremonies, and integrating open lines of communication in remote teams. Through engaging dialog, we’ll cover the importance of continuous learning tied to the culture and career progression, including examples of how to do it on a limited budget.

More Than Empathy: Building connections through emotional responses, a workshop in storytelling and Play Thinking for emotional outcomes!

UXPA International Conference, Austin Texas, 6/2023

In partnership with the Ustwo Strategy team, in this workshop you’ll learn how storytelling and meaningful play can connect with users at an emotional level and elicit those magic moments. We’ll talk about how a well crafted vision ties the “big picture” to actionable designs and incremental releases without losing focus or suffering the death of a thousand compromises. We’ll experience Play Thinking, a design strategy that pursues emotional responses as key outputs of the design process, rather than as byproducts of functional outcomes.

Internal Training & Other Speaking Engagements:

  • Accessibility & Design Systems, FedPoint 2024, PowerSchool 2019, Vista UX Summit 2019, ACM Conference on Universal Usability 2000
    Understanding accessibility as it relates to design system patterns and testing.

  • Agile UX & Process Flows, FedPoint 2024, PowerSchool 2018, Big(D) Design 2018, UXPA 2017, Vista Best Practices 2016 and 2017, Active Network 2016
    Inclusion of UX deliverables and inputs within the software development lifecycle.

  • Career Ladder Creation, FedPoint 2024, UXPA 2024, SNHU 2022
    How to design a career ladder for the specific team within the specific contexts of the company, how to build an inclusive and flexible career ladder.

  • Color Theory & Design Systems, FedPoint 2024, SNHU 2023
    Basics of color theory and how color theory might help users visually move through the UI of a design system, accounting for different states and statuses.

  • Cultural Markers & UX, PowerSchool 2019, Active Network 2017
    Understanding Hofstede’s cultural markers (identifying cultural tendencies that vary by country) and how they impact design and communication.

  • Design Competencies, FedPoint 2024, SNHU 2022, AICAD 2018, 2017 & 2016
    Working across different units within an organization to define design competencies and proficiency levels, using competencies to define training curriculum & career progression.

  • Persona Creation, Online Learning Consortium 2019, PowerSchool 2019
    How-to presentation on creating and using personas in design and development to keep the user in mind.

  • PlayThinking, UXPA 2023, SNHU 2021
    Using Ustwo’s PlayThinking framework to coach teams through unpacking complex design problems and using play to uncover new perspectives and solutions for them.

  • Problem Identification, SNHU 2022, PowerSchool 2019, University of Texas Dallas 2018, Vista UX 2017, Active Network 2017
    How to discover, define, and refine problem statements to clarify user issues for actionable solutioning.

  • Storytelling, SNHU 2022, PowerSchool 2019, Active Network 2015, University of Texas Dallas 2014, CA Technologies 2013
    How to use the power of stories to communicate throughout the software development lifecycle, from problem definition to solutions to execution and refinement.

  • Success Metrics, PowerSchool 2019, Vista Best Practices 2015
    Defining success metrics for stories to know whether what you have created solves the problem you defined.

  • Technical Writing, Active Network 2017
    Basics on technical writing for new writers

  • UX KPI Development and Reporting, PowerSchool 2018 & 2019, Active Network 2016
    How to define, develop, and report on UX KPIs for enterprise level reporting

  • UX Maturity, FedPoint 2023
    Workshop to self-assess UX maturity of the organization, identify areas for growth, and develop strategies to move towards a more mature UX function within the company.

  • UX Research Basics, PowerSchool 2018, Big (D) Design 2015, Active Network 2014, CA Technologies 2010
    Basics of research, including techniques, timing, and bias

  • UX Writing, SNHU 2023, PowerSchool 2019
    Understanding the differences between technical writing and UX writing and how to establish a UX writing practice