Tanya Snook
Tanya Snook is a user experience designer who builds citizen and employee experiences in the Government of Canada. She is best known for popularizing the phrase “UX Theatre” to describe the superficial posturing that some organizations do in the place of proper user experience design. Tanya is a founder and host of CanUX, Canada’s longest running user experience conference. She is also the co-host of the Government of Canada UX Network. Tanya writes about user experience and design leadership at spydergrrl.com.
Presentations
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.
