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October 8, 2025
October 8, 2025
🎶 Pro tip: Cue up the Co-Lab Spotify playlist while you read this–trust me, it’ll set the tone!
We just wrapped our third in-person Co-Lab Conference in Chicago—three luminous late-summer days of conversation, curiosity, and connection.
Co-Lab is intentionally intimate: a gathering for 100 emerging and established UX leaders to think together about where we stand, and where we want to go next. Talks, panels, and breakout sessions explored the role of research and design in building products and shaping strategy, alongside lively debates and serendipitous hallway moments that often held as much insight as the sessions themselves.
We’ll keep the spark alive in November at Co-Lab Continued, our virtual experience for the broader community. Expect replays, live Q&A, and a lively chat. Register here!
This year’s theme—The Emerging Shape of a New UX—came with an Alice in Wonderland twist. Like Alice, we find ourselves tumbling down a rabbit hole, in a topsy-turvy world where familiar rules no longer apply. Our world seems full of distortions and odd characters indeed.
But unlike for Alice, this isn’t a dream. It’s a real, radical cultural and cognitive transformation of how we think, work, and create—ushered in by an unpredictable new guest at our tea party: AI.
Co-Lab wasn’t about AI exactly; it was about what this early AI era is revealing about us—our values, our craft, and our place in shaping what’s next. Speakers and attendees explored our surreal environment with a fierce curiosity and strong sense of possibility. Across talks and table conversations, one truth kept surfacing:
The future of UX isn’t happening to us. We’re shaping it—together.
And shaping means acting. Everyone left Co-Lab with provocations, ideas, and actions they were determined to #trynextweek.
As for me, I immediately started acting on a few key insights I synthesized from the conference:
Roles are evolving, boundaries are blurring, and the most exciting work is happening where disciplines intersect—even though how this plays out is very situational. But in the future even UX gatherings like this one must open wider to Product, Engineering, and beyond.
Learn, think, try, act, do, learn (be honest), and repeat. Whatever your role, seniority, or situation, you can own your ability to be curious and experiment. It will pay off.
If you’re uneasy about how AI (or anything else) is unfolding, resist “or” and “versus” thinking (especially us vs them). Reclaim your agency. We all belong in the conversation–whether that’s our organizations, our industry, our local communities, or society.
Acknowledge that the situation is intense. Cultivate calm within yourself and find community to connect with. This moment is a lot, from every angle, and we need one another to navigate it.
In this article, I’ll break down each section of the conference—part recap, part reflection, part preview for Co-Lab Continued. But honestly? The best way to experience it is live, in conversation with this growing community. Join us in November. Let’s keep shaping what comes next.
Keynote and Panel Facilitator: Julie Norvaisas, Strategic Advisor and Community Curator, Dscout
Panelists:
I opened Co-Lab with a simple truth: we’re past the “believer vs. skeptic” stage with AI. The work now is discernment—integrating what’s useful into our work, questioning what’s not, and staying grounded in what makes us human.
My first provocation this year: AI could usher in a power shift that favors UX. This moment demands courage, clarity, and action. It’s an opportunity for UX.
We’ve spent decades building skills and systems to do work that executives and organizations need and value more than ever: empathy, vision, curiosity, creativity, ethics, and judgment—skills a disembodied AI can’t replicate.
I shared new Dscout research from Taylor Klassman, Director of Research, that captured the emotional and cognitive tensions and tangles many of us are feeling, on top of all the pressure:
Existential tension → Excited but terrified → Is this safe for humanity?
Practical tension → Hopeful but doubtful → Can I trust what it gives me?
Operational tension → Eager but overwhelmed → What does it take to learn to use AI?
It’s a lot. And yet, this is where the real work lives—holding contradictions and moving forward anyway. How do we do this? A second provocation offered some relief: AI is simply augmentation.
It’s not a rival, a buddy, or an intern—it’s a tool. Anthropomorphizing it doesn’t serve us. Like a microscope or telescope, AI can give us superpowers, expanding what we can see and reach, bringing us closer to the humanity of our work. But it’s a specialized tool, not magic, and requires skill development and training to use well.
From there, I invited our keynote panel to explore how this shift is reshaping roles, teams, and leadership. Here are a few standouts from that conversation:
The panel was bookended by reflecting on our theme of “shapes.”
What shape were we, what are we becoming? From tectonic plates to Kintsugi bowl repair. From origami to kaleidoscopes. From logs to knitting. From trees to compost. All reminders that growth comes from integration, not perfection.
🎧 You can hear the full conversation—and the metaphors in their own words—at Co-Lab Continued in November. Register here.
The panel was followed by four sessions of lightning talks.
This session explored a central question: What makes our contributions uniquely human—and how do we augment UX to gain influence and accelerate progress?
Host: Michael Winnick, CEO and Founder, Dscout
Speakers:
Dscout founder Michael Winnick opened the cohort by rallying us to embrace the humble ampersand (&)—a symbol of integration over opposition, in a moment obsessed with “or” and “versus”.
AI invites us into quant & qual, speed & quality, depth & breadth, us & them. He reminded us that this is UX’s moment to lead with clarity and conviction—because even the most confident executives are craving direction and stability in a rapidly changing landscape.
Dave Brown, Director of UX Design at Qualtrics, radiated the energy of someone already in the deep end of the AI pool, calling on UX to stop observing the revolution and start steering it.
He reframed design’s frontier as a move from golden paths to infinite edge cases, where our task is to shape the intent layer between humans and machines. His rallying cry: you now have infinite skills and can build anything.
His talk framed AI as a creative accelerant—collaborating, conversing, coding, and even literally jogging alongside it. Leadership in this era, he argued, requires abundance thinking. Transparency is table stakes, and context is the new currency.
Sabrina Kang, Principal Researcher at Salesforce, brought a deeply human counterpoint, using The Bear as metaphor for transformation through trust, competence, and care.
Her “4 Cs” framework reminded us that brilliance emerges not from speed, but discernment:
This session explored how UX is adapting to the emerging shape of cooperation—powered by new technology, evolving team structures, reimagined processes, and hybrid roles.
Host: Kevin Newton, Head of UX Measurement, LinkedIn
Speakers:
Kevin Newton, Head of UX Measurement at LinkedIn, opened with a metaphor that landed instantly: collaboration is the mishmash of a potluck, but cooperation is the chaos of cooking an integrated meal together. He challenged us to move beyond parallel efforts and toward truly co-created work—anchored in rigor, shared responsibility, and continuous discovery.
Kim Stockley of Capital One reminded us that innovation isn’t about originality, it’s about remix—because there’s no such thing as an original idea. She reframed discovery as a compassionate, continuous practice, offering tactics for teams stretched thin.
From reaching across organization borders to trying simple rituals like “Silent Book Clubs” and “Spark Safaris,” she showed how to sustain creative energy and empowerment. Her call to action was clear: small, steady steps taken together create the conditions for big ideas to emerge.
Katherine Cuyler from Spring Health addressed a common, modern scenario: when “continuous discovery” enthusiasm makes research teams perceived bottlenecks.
Instead of defending boundaries, her team redefined them. By introducing clear distinctions between quick discovery and deep research, a risk-based prioritization model, and a friendly “But-to-And” toolkit, she turned friction into thought leadership—ultimately demonstrating how resilience, clarity, and generosity can transform perception and impact.
Lauren Stern of WHOOP Labs offered a window into research as showrunner—balancing the scientific rigor necessary in her context, with creative iteration.
She uses a three-pronged process of milestones, parallel learning, and continuous communication. That process turns long, complex studies developing highly technical hardware products into living systems of cooperation. From data scientists to designers, everyone plays a part—and everyone stays engaged.
This session challenged us to rethink influence. UX has worked hard to measure impact and value through ROI and evangelizing, what happens if we start thinking—and deciding—like executives?
Host: Marissa Dulaney, Founder, Experience, MD
Speakers:
Marissa Dulaney of Experience, MD set the tone beautifully, reminding us that “executiveness” isn’t a title, it’s a mindset. She called out that each talk to come would follow a shared pattern: identify a problem, make a bold decision, and see it through—whether at the level of projects, teams, or personal practice.
Danielle Shoshani from Atlassian reframed executive-minded research leadership through the metaphor of a musical conductor. Research, she argued, should not simply support—it should align with the tempo to drive decisions.
This is the difference between making sound and making music. Drawing from her experience at Thumbtack, she described creating a rolling research program that aligned feedback cycles with product decision speed, then later, the courage it took to end that program when the organization’s needs shifted.
Her lesson: decisive leadership means knowing when to be flexible and adapt your rhythm.
Megan Blocker of Justworks shared how a simple question—“How are decisions really made here?”—sparked a movement. Despite having access to talent and data, many teams chronically struggle at a systemic level to make timely decisions, leading to "roadmap drift, team spin, and trust erosion."
At McKinsey, Megan led the way by building an “Insights Fluency Model” to turn decision-making into an organizational habit. The framework helped teams move from spinning in data to acting with shared confidence, rebuilding trust and momentum.
Decisiveness isn’t just a trait, it’s a teachable framework that, despite requiring some investment, pays big dividends.
Christelle Ngnoumen of Voya Financial brought our focus inward, offering a profound reminder that time isn’t scarce—we only believe it is.
Through her DRIVE framework (Diagnose, Recognize, Invest, Value, Enhance), she invited us to examine how culture, multitasking, and “efficiency traps” distort our perception of time.
She called on us to reclaim minutes and hours, pause with purpose, and invest attention where it matters most.
As AI accelerates UX into more strategic territory, this session asked: How do we prepare to truly deliver at that level? Strategy, foresight, and speculative design are no longer luxuries—they’re survival skills.
Host: Katy Mogal, Interim Head of UXR, Ring
Speakers:
Katy Mogal, Interim Head of UXR at Ring, opened with a powerful reframing: UX stands at an existential crossroads.
She anchored us with a reminder that photography was a technology which transformed painting from a documentation-focused art form to one that became much more subjective and expressive.
Similarly, AI’s rise could free us from routine craft and challenge us to redefine what only humans can do—create meaning, shape direction, and lead with intention.
Danielle Morrison of UCSF Health built a compelling case that UX strategy must look inward as well as outward.
Drawing from her experience as a research team of two sitting across one of the nation’s most complex health systems, she demonstrated how applying service design methods internally—mapping relationships, understanding mental models, unblocking communication, aligning incentives—led to deeper strategic influence. Quiet, graceful persistence and reflexivity created seismic influence.
Lyric Metroplos from H-E-B Digital invited us to weave the future—literally.
Using the metaphor of weaving, she showed how individual insights become threads, and with the pattern of intentional design create the fabric of a preferred future. Citing research that 98% of leaders value foresight (but 96% lack time for it), she argued that UX is uniquely positioned to fill this gap.
Through her CUTE framework (Culture, Utility, Technology, Environment), and other frameworks based in strategic foresight, she illustrated how even small scenario exercises can help teams co-create futures that generations yet to come deserve, with clarity and purpose.
Ashton Snook of Vodafone closed with a personal reflection on leadership and craft. He described the paradox and dissonance of rising in title but drifting from creation, and introduced creator mode—a leadership stance that integrates making and managing.
Staying close to the work, he argued, doesn’t dilute authority; it strengthens it. By leading through creation, we reconnect to our purpose, reignite our passion, inspire our teams, and model a form of strategic leadership that defies convention.
After catching our breath and sharing reflections in hallway conversations, LinkedIn posts, and quiet messages between peers, it became clear that Co-Lab 2025 marked more than a moment. It felt like a turning point.
Together, we’re reshaping…
At Co-Lab we surfaced hard truths, creative sparks, and a shared determination to lean back into possibility (even when we’re tired) and ambition (even when we feel constrained). We agreed: this is not the time to shrink back.
In this wonderland of shifting ground and emerging forms, we are steadying ourselves, and recommitting to the conviction that the core skills of UX—empathy, discernment, creativity, and care—have never been more vital.
Yes, the landscape is surreal, full of rapid change and unanswered questions. But if we keep our eyes open and our hands on the work, we’ll find that we are not lost—we are leading. The appetite for stories, experiments, and new ways of thinking is immense. The conversation has only just begun. Let’s keep building, learning, and shaping—together—the emerging shape of a new UX.
Join us this November for Co-Lab Continued, where we’ll revisit these ideas, share fresh stories, and continue co-creating this bold new chapter.
We're taking our Co-Lab event online for Co-Lab Continued! We’ll revisit the most imaginative, provocative sessions from this year’s in-person Co-Lab, plus hold several live Q&As with featured speakers. Register now!
