Tanya Snook
Tanya Snook popularized UX Theatre seven years ago as the viral critique of superficial design rituals. She’s founder of spydergrrl consulting and CanUX Conference (Canada’s longest-running UX event).
Tanya coaches facilitators using her proprietary Workshop Workshop methodology to architect real collaboration, not theatre. Her corporate workshop design training transforms chaotic sessions into engineered outcomes.
Tanya’s work has been featured in Fast Company Co.Design. She has spoken about design leadership and UX Theatre for various UX events and podcasts. She shares facilitation secrets through the Workshop Alchemy newsletter and writes about design leadership at spydergrrl.com.
Presentations
UX Camp Winter 2026
Are You Performing Workshop Theatre? (3 Red Flags)
72% of meetings are unproductive, costing $37B annually (Zippia). Sticky notes everywhere, outcomes nowhere. Are your workshops any better — or just Workshop Theatre (superficial collaboration rituals that look productive but deliver zero value)?
I popularized UX Theatre seven years ago. Now I’ve diagnosed its workshop mutation: 3 Vital Signs reveal if your sessions are healthy or dying.
Join me to explore (and fix!):
- Red Flag #1: No preparation = “What are we even doing here?”
- Red Flag #2: Wrong activities = busywork, not outcomes
- Red Flag #3: Poor facilitation = “Loudest voice wins”
This session is perfect for: UX practitioners, service designers, workshop facilitators, and teams battling collaboration chaos. And you’ll have a chance to grab my 10-question diagnostic scorecard to help you diagnose your workshops.
Tent Talks with Tanya Snook
Beyond UX Theatre: Real Impact in AI, Mental Health, and Leadership
In our Tent Talks session with Tanya Snook, we’ll explore the intersections of design, technology, and well-being in the workplace. Tanya Snook, a seasoned user experience designer known for her critical eye on UX Theatre and her commitment to genuine design leadership, will share her insights on creating more humane performance reviews, addressing anxiety and mental health in the workplace, and critically examining the role of AI in our design practices. This session promises to shed light on how we can navigate the rapidly evolving landscape of workplace technology and culture with empathy, ensuring that our approaches to design and leadership foster environments where innovation thrives and employees feel valued and understood.
Listeners will gain not just an understanding of the challenges and opportunities presented by modern design and technology but also practical strategies for implementing change. This is an essential talk for anyone interested in the future of work, the role of design in creating meaningful user and employee experiences, and how to lead with humanity in the face of technological advancement. Join us to explore how we can collectively shape a workplace that embraces technological innovation without losing sight of the human element.
Leadership By Design 2018
Designing the Team Experience: Building Culture Through Onboarding
Why do some project teams work well, while others just can’t seem to get it together? Why do some teams have a strong sense of culture while others feel like a group of strangers working on the same task?
When a team comes together, whether it’s for a short-term project or ongoing long-term operations, a culture emerges: you can see it in how the team works toward common goals and how they interact with one another. Although you can’t force team culture, you can design for it. Through an enterprise project case study, we’ll look at onboarding techniques and methods that can be used to deliberately build strong team cultures.
