Summary
- Jana Sedivy (Principal, Authentic Insight): A Story about Stories (VIDEO) - Carla Pileggi (UX Architect, Design System Lead, Pitney Bowes): A Sympathy Card for a Front-End Developer (VIDEO) - Ramya Mahalingam (UX Architect, Cardinal Solutions): The Road to Being a Bridge Is Not at all Paved (VIDEO) - Audrey Crane (Partner, DesignMap): Thoughts on Vulnerability (VIDEO) - Lada Gorlenko (Director of Research, Smartsheet): Make My Day (VIDEO) - and a horror story from Adam Polansky (XD Strategist, Bottle Rocket Studios) (VIDEO)
Key Insights
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Delivering a concise five-minute story is often harder than a longer 45-minute talk.
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Audience engagement is crucial in rapid storytelling formats to maintain narrative flow.
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Alternating sentence structures with connectors like 'fortunately' and 'unfortunately' can effectively build collaborative stories.
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Involving the audience as active participants enhances focus and retention in talks.
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Clear body language and lip-reading cues help maintain timing and cooperation in group storytelling.
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Rapid story exchanges challenge both speakers and listeners to think creatively and quickly.
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Storytelling exercises help reveal the complexities of coherent information delivery under time constraints.
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Humor and playful exercises make difficult communication tasks approachable and fun.
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Group dynamics and peer motivation are valuable for encouraging volunteer participation.
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Practicing specific cue words aloud prepares the audience for coordinated responses during participatory sessions.
Notable Quotes
"It's harder than a 45 minute talk to give a five minute talk."
"Normally you go into a talk and they build just like a story: a little bit of information, more information, more information, here’s my point, and then they’re out."
"I’m worried you aren’t up to it, frankly."
"We’re going to get everybody to tell stories in the whole room."
"I need 10 people sitting next to each other to volunteer."
"Fortunately, that was terrible. Let’s try the other word."
"When the dot com bubble burst, I had a great design job."
"It was at another dot com. Fortunately, there was another boom."
"They made it very easy for me [to resign]. I was moved to support a life insurance company."
"With that life insurance, we were able to send our team to Mars."
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