Impactful Reporting for UX part 2/3 3902 1 hr 5 min See part 1 here... Get the Workbook for Impactful Reporting

Impactful Reporting for UX

If stakeholders are not engaged, your reporting of User Research only gets you so far. Too many teams invest in research but fail to share findings in ways that spark action. Therefore, impactful reporting is critical. You need stakeholders to be moved to action. Like you support users with decision-making from e-commerce to healthcare, your internal audience needs their hearts and minds moved.

In Impactful Reporting for UX, UX veteran Frank Spillers will cover how to tailor your insights for different stakeholders, structure deliverables that land quickly, and use accessible formats that everyone can understand. He'll reveal secrets from decades and hundreds of user research reports, chock-full of lessons, his mistakes, and the results that led him to generate up to 300% revenue improvements on UX projects with his consultancy Experience Dynamics.

Moreover, in this workshop, you will learn when to tell deep context stories and when to keep your storytelling for UX stakeholders short and sweet.

 What we'll cover in this Impactful Reporting for UX workshop

• Types of reporting in UX research
• How to create reports that drive decisions: tips for memorable and actionable deliverable layouts
• Hands-on reporting activities (using real user research data)
• Tailoring your insights for different stakeholders
• Using AI in reporting- do's and don'ts for 2025
• Using storytelling strategically to impart contextual intelligence
• UX reporting checklist (one-pager)

About UX Inner Circle Workshops:

These workshops are live events with an informal presentation by Frank Spillers and group activities and discussions, with a more hands-on experience to learning the material presented. Online workshops are included as part of your UX Inner Circle membership. They allow a deep study of UX topics, with insights drawn from process best practices and case studies from Frank Spiller's 25 years in the field.

66 min. Frank’s notes for this discussion...

Developing Your Improv Skills Workshop- part 2 3896 1 hr 23 min Part 2 of 2 Part 1 recording...

Workshop: Developing Your Improv Skills (for Designers)

Get out of your head. Get into the moment.

Improvisation is a professional skill and an essential soft skill in the UX designer and researcher repertoire.

Why it matters: Design work often demands quick thinking, active listening, and confidence in the unknown. This hands-on workshop uses improv techniques to help designers become more adaptive, collaborative, and creative. This matters especially in high-stakes conversations, service design and co-design sessions, and team sprints.

You'll practice core improv skills like "Yes, and...", active listening, and storytelling. Then apply them to real-world design situations. Expect to move, laugh, and build skills that stick.

Frank Spillers will build on past events like Improv for Design Innovation. In this two-part session you'll have the chance to practice and strengthen your improv skills.

Who should attend? Great for UXers, service designers, content folks, and anyone who works with people. No improv experience needed. Just curiosity and a willingness to play.

Topics we will cover in Developing Your Improv Skills:

• 5 Keys to Building the Improv Mindset
• Blending the Power 3: Storytelling, Systems Thinking and Improv
• Exercises to build confidence, listening and conversational fluidity
• Role-playing: service prototyping, personas and more?

About UX Inner Circle Workshops:

These workshops are live events facilitated by Frank Spillers, a leading UX and Service Design consultant and trainer. Workshops involve group activities and discussions, with more hands-on experience in learning the material presented. Online workshops are included as part of your UX Inner Circle membership. They allow a deep study of UX topics, with insights drawn from process best practices and case studies from Frank Spillers two decades in the field. Join the monthly subscription UX Inner Circle to get this free plus 250+ videos of past events.

Why Join?

The UX Inner Circle is a professional learning community with a program of monthly events for UX researchers and designers, managers, and directors practicing UX and Service Design. We are a small group of currently 50 UX and Service Designers, Directors, and Researchers currently 100% working in UX. Attendees come from orgs like Harvard, Google, IBM, Accenture, Deloitte, Capital One, US Bank, healthcare, government, and non-profits. So why join?

• Refine or expand your current skills– push the boundaries of your learning.
• Get advice and guidance: Put a top-performing UX expert (Frank Spillers, CEO of award-winning UX firm Experience Dynamics and top instructor at Interaction Design Foundation) in your pocket. Stay connected with the latest on what Frank is thinking and prioritizing in UX and Service Design.
• Ask other UXIC colleagues anything on a dedicated private Slack channel. Also, collaborate during monthly meet-ups (Masterclasses).
• Get a promotion at work or upgrade your skills, portfolio, or process knowledge. This is the #1 reason folks keep subscribing to the UX Inner Circle.

See Pricing- starting at $99/ mo. or Inclusive Pricing (education/ nonprofit or living in the Global South) 50% discount

55 minutes No Time for Empathy Empathy gets a b...

60 min. Frank’s notes for this discussion...

60 min. Cost: FREE for all member types, r...

Background files – please review: ChatGpt...

Workshop: Developing your Storytelling skills- Part 3 3835 1 hour 29 min See Part 1 and Part 2 here Download the Story skills workbook

Workshop: Developing your Storytelling skills- Part 3

Storytelling is a core soft skill for UX Designers and UX Researchers. Why? Our brains are wired for story. Studies by psychologists like Melanie Green reveal that stories immerse us in a phenomenon called narrative transportation, where we become emotionally and cognitively involved in the content. Stories, the theory goes, can change people's attitudes and intentions by making them lose themselves in the story. So, influencing stakeholders means being good at taking them ‘there’ with your retelling of user research scenarios, pain points and dilemmas. Bottom line: Researchers like Zak (2012) found that inspiring stories make us react. Taking action, prioritizing carefully and pinpointing solutions based on a user’s actual story (not one cooked up for an Agile User Story) is key. In this Workshop, Frank Spillers will guide you through tried and tested story techniques. You will learn to build out your story repertoire and become more confident with story creation and delivery.

Topics covered in this Workshop...

Developing your Storytelling skills

• Storytelling frameworks.
• Building your “storytelling machine”- using building blocks so you can retell and shape stories ‘on demand'
• Case Study: How storytelling influenced a major UX decision at Microsoft.
• Balancing emotional and data-driven storytelling
• Using story across UX and Service design stages.
• Tailoring insights for different audiences (stakeholders, teams, users)
• Using Story as a Research tool- using ‘Story-mapping‘ to communicate your user journey.
• Improv for design innovation- going into Mentalizing to activate ‘hidden empathy’ for user scenarios.
• Using Story as a Design tool- using ‘Question-storming‘ to warm up teams to user needs discovery
• Quickfire challenge: Convert dry research data into a compelling story
• Presentation skills and techniques for smooth and impactful story delivery.
• Mini-pitch: presenting your microstory.

About Monthly MasterClasses:

These monthly meet-ups are topic-driven live events with an informal presentation by Frank Spillers and group activities and discussions. Monthly MasterClasses are included as part of your membership. They allow a deep dive into important UX topics, with insights drawn from process best practices and case studies from Frank’s two decades in the field.

Developing Your Improv Skills Workshop- part 1 3769 1 hr 28 min Part 1 of 2 Part 2 recording...

Workshop: Developing Your Improv Skills (for Designers)

Get out of your head. Get into the moment.

Improvisation is a professional skill and an essential soft skill in the UX designer and researcher repertoire.

Why it matters: Design work often demands quick thinking, active listening, and confidence in the unknown. This hands-on workshop uses improv techniques to help designers become more adaptive, collaborative, and creative. This matters especially in high-stakes conversations, service design and co-design sessions, and team sprints.

You'll practice core improv skills like "Yes, and...", active listening, and storytelling. Then apply them to real-world design situations. Expect to move, laugh, and build skills that stick.

Frank Spillers will build on past events like Improv for Design Innovation. In this two-part session you'll have the chance to practice and strengthen your improv skills.

Who should attend? Great for UXers, service designers, content folks, and anyone who works with people. No improv experience needed. Just curiosity and a willingness to play.

Topics we will cover in Developing Your Improv Skills:

• 5 Keys to Building the Improv Mindset
• Blending the Power 3: Storytelling, Systems Thinking and Improv
• Exercises to build confidence, listening and conversational fluidity
• Role-playing: service prototyping, personas and more?

About UX Inner Circle Workshops:

These workshops are live events facilitated by Frank Spillers, a leading UX and Service Design consultant and trainer. Workshops involve group activities and discussions, with more hands-on experience in learning the material presented. Online workshops are included as part of your UX Inner Circle membership. They allow a deep study of UX topics, with insights drawn from process best practices and case studies from Frank Spillers two decades in the field. Join the monthly subscription UX Inner Circle to get this free plus 250+ videos of past events.

Why Join?

The UX Inner Circle is a professional learning community with a program of monthly events for UX researchers and designers, managers, and directors practicing UX and Service Design. We are a small group of currently 50 UX and Service Designers, Directors, and Researchers currently 100% working in UX. Attendees come from orgs like Harvard, Google, IBM, Accenture, Deloitte, Capital One, US Bank, healthcare, government, and non-profits. So why join?

• Refine or expand your current skills– push the boundaries of your learning.
• Get advice and guidance: Put a top-performing UX expert (Frank Spillers, CEO of award-winning UX firm Experience Dynamics and top instructor at Interaction Design Foundation) in your pocket. Stay connected with the latest on what Frank is thinking and prioritizing in UX and Service Design.
• Ask other UXIC colleagues anything on a dedicated private Slack channel. Also, collaborate during monthly meet-ups (Masterclasses).
• Get a promotion at work or upgrade your skills, portfolio, or process knowledge. This is the #1 reason folks keep subscribing to the UX Inner Circle.

See Pricing- starting at $99/ mo. or Inclusive Pricing (education/ nonprofit or living in the Global South) 50% discount

Rethinking Empathy: What Works, What Doesn’t in UX 3847 90 minutes

Rethinking Empathy Masterclass: What Works, What Doesn’t in UX

“Empathy” has long been a staple of UX thinking. Design Thinking promoted it as a key tool. It’s portrayed as the gateway to understanding users and making better design decisions. But in recent years, it’s become a controversial topic — overused, misapplied, and rejected by many in the UX field.

In this masterclass, we’ll unpack the empathy backlash in UX. We’ll explore why it happened, what it reveals about our tools and assumptions, and how we can move toward a more grounded practice of care, accountability, and shared responsibility in design. Frank Spillers will take you through a tour of the science of empathy and show you how it works and how to use it better, based on his practical experiences and exploration of empathy over 25 years in the field.

Topics covered in this Rethinking Empathy Masterclass:

• What’s all the fuss about? The roots of empathy backlash in UX
• How empathy works: the brain-based mechanism and how it gets distorted
• What empathy can and can’t do for UX Design
• Identify practical approaches beyond Design Thinking empathy

About Monthly MasterClasses:

These monthly meet-ups are topic-driven live events with an informal presentation by Frank Spillers and group activities and discussions. Monthly MasterClasses are included as part of your membership. They allow a deep dive into important UX topics, with insights drawn from process best practices and case studies from Frank’s two decades in the field.

Why Join?

The UX Inner Circle is a professional learning community with a program of monthly events for UX researchers and designers, managers, and directors practicing UX and Service Design. We are a small group of 50+ UX and Service Designers, Directors, and Researchers currently 100% working in UX. Attendees come from orgs like Harvard, Google, IBM, Accenture, Deloitte, Capital One, US Bank, healthcare, government, and non-profits. So why join?

• Refine or expand your current skills-- push the boundaries of your learning.
• Get advice and guidance: Put a top-performing UX expert (Frank Spillers, CEO of award-winning UX firm Experience Dynamics and top instructor at Interaction Design Foundation) in your pocket. Stay connected with the latest on what Frank is thinking and prioritizing in UX and Service Design.
• Ask anything to other UXIC colleagues on a dedicated private Slack channel. Also, collaborate during monthly meet-ups (Masterclasses).
• Get a promotion at work or upgrade your skills, portfolio, or process knowledge. This is the #1 reason folks keep subscribing to the UX Inner Circle.

Get this event FREE:

• Join FREE, or Paid- access starting at $99 USD/ mo.
• Membership includes access to ALL monthly event recordings and more (going back 25 years of Frank's UX career). 200+ recordings.  Monthly live meet-ups (Masterclass topics) and workshops (every other month). Miniclasses (short webinars) and more...

Financial inclusiveness membership: USD$49 per month for Nonprofit-Student- or you live in the Global South/ Emerging Market (.org; .edu) Regular membership: USD$99 Individual per month 20% discount on Annual Price; switch anytime, cancel anytime.

30 min live with Sheryl Cababa Reading Circle- ...

    Real-Time Prototyping for Fun or ...