EPIC Talks is a webinar series created by our community, for our community. Talks cover topics that are highly relevant to us as practitioners, introducing methods, technologies, ideas, and best practices that make our work better and foster meaningful professional connections. Formats can range from lectures or seminars to panels, discussions, and debates. EPIC Talks are proposed and created by EPIC members, bringing together a global community on the leading edge of ethnography in business. Participation is free and open to EPIC Members—join now!
Does the intense focus on “what’s next” come at the expense of “what’s valuable”? Why is it considered more important to design for what is changing than what we want to hold on to? An EPIC Summit with & , IS IT A BIRD OVERVIEW | AGENDA | PRESENTERS | READING & RESOURCES | WHAT…
An EPIC Talk with , Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow The world is looking for business to step up—now—and address profound social and environmental issues at local and global scales. The essential connections between current business models and climate change, inequality, and many other significant problems is clear, and demand from customers, employees,…
An EPIC Talk with and Many business and organizational environments lack a strong understanding of ethics and institutionalized processes for ethical research practice. As a result, navigating ethics and establishing ethical practices can be stressful and challenging, and many researchers encounter organizational constraints and resistance. In this session, Nazima Kadir and Sam Harvey will: provide…
An EPIC Talk with , Bayes Business School & , JC & Associates Organizations are realizing that successful change requires the ability to understand work practices as cultural practices. They need to go beyond the ubiquitous employee survey to develop a more holistic view of meaning and behavior as they unfold on the ground. Join…
Learn about new concepts and practices in the evolving intersections of ethnography and design. An EPIC Talk with , University College London Overview This talk explores the role of ethnographers when collaborating with designers, and especially about how material culture can play a part in this collaboration. There is no longer a clear distinction between…
Watch , author of Anthro-Vision and editorial board chair (US) of the Financial Times, in conversation with , VP Global Talent Management at Steelcase, and , EPIC Board President Anthro-Vision is a powerful argument for the predictive, strategic, practical, and moral value of understanding the world through a cultural lens. In her new book,…
an EPIC Talk presented by , Facebook Overview In this talk Nadine Levin presents research she led at Facebook that pushed the organization toward more inclusive and accessible design. She describes a multi-phase project on digital literacy from inception to impact, including how she scoped and carried out the research; how the team addressed learnings…
an EPIC Talk presented by , Fuse Foresight Overview Strategic planning is becoming less and less viable in a volatile world prone to black swan events. Prediction is a low-percentage approach to an unknowable future. But we still need to navigate change and set course to a better future for businesses, for people, and for…
an EPIC Talk presented by , Catalyst Constellations & EPIC co-founder Overview Burnout is at an all-time high and mental health at an all-time low. From vague head fogs to serious illness, we feel it in ourselves and our families, friends, teams, and research participants. What’s going on, and what in the world are we…
An EPIC Talk moderated by , Principal Design Researcher, Code for America Panelists: , Tech Talent Project & EPIC Board , Director of Research and Future Planning, Mayor’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer , UX Researcher, Central Integrity, Facebook , Service Design Lead & Customer Experience Strategist, NASA Overview Ethnography has always illuminated the…
An EPIC Talk with (Youngblood Group), (American Board of Internal Medicine) & (Amazon Lab126) Overview User research and human-centered design help us solve real challenges and create better experiences. But there’s a problem: when we explore user experiences, we often frame these as individual, personal engagements with products and services. This can cause us to…
An EPIC Talk with , Facebook Overview Building relationships within cross-functional teams is always challenging. Join Jay Hasbrouck as he explores four key ways to build on your skills as an ethnographer to find more effective ways for working across disciplines. His talk will help you discover ways to expand your empathy, usher a process…
An EPIC Talk with , Lyft Overview As the world has shifted to digital everything, the practice of mapmaking—or modeling and communicating spatial information—has seen profound shifts. Once artifacts-on-paper that we unfurled across our laps on road trips (and then couldn’t quite fold back up), maps have become highly interactive “experiences” that support us with…
An EPIC Talk with and , A Piece of Pie Overview Ongoing digital transitions, punctuated by erratic responses to the COVID pandemic, are changing how we approach health care as a service and business. This volatile moment invites the design of original and imaginative solutions: we are transitioning to a new patient-centric era that challenges…
An EPIC Talk with , Spotify Overview Systematic study of people as users of services and products has a long history, but the practice in the industry, commonly known as user research, is as vague as it is ubiquitous. User research draws from many fields—social sciences, behavioral sciences, computer science, design, business, media studies, and…
