In this episode, our panel dives into the real-life story of a UX designer in a large enterprise company, where career growth feels unclear and mentorship is missing. With a supportive but limited manager, this designer faces the challenge of driving organizational UX maturity almost single-handedly — and it’s exhausting. The panel explores questions like: How can a designer proactively assist their manager in shaping a career path? What does it take to lift UX maturity in an organization? And how can designers avoid feeling stranded in the “mentorship desert”?
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Why UX? 55# Michael McKay
With a background in innovation and product development, Michael has focused on implementing user centric and innovative practices in large size enterprises the last years. He has worked in Tech companies like Amazon, PayPal, eBay to understand how a large digital company works and is now implementing user centricity and design cultures and methods at scale in global enterprises. He currently drives Digital Products in a transformation team at Novo Nordisk, implementing UX Design, Strategic design, Product Managment and Product Adoption
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Why UX? 54# Kevin Hawkins
Kevin is a globally seasoned VP of Product Design & Research, now based in Barcelona after shaping teams and products across the U.S., Europe, and Asia. With 17+ years of experience — from Booking.com to Glovo — he’s led award-winning design orgs, launched innovative products, and scaled user-centered strategies at global scale. A passionate advocate for inclusive teams and cross-cultural learning, Kevin brings sharp product thinking, deep leadership expertise, and a love for turning complex problems into elegant, high-impact solutions. Thanks to Pavel Bavtra and Helena Bright for making this episode!
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Why UX? 53# Sidse Bordal
Sidse is a design thinker, researcher, and educator with a deep fascination for the mechanics of creativity under pressure. With a PhD that unpacked how ideas emerge in uncertain design spaces, and a Postdoc focused on real-world business development through design sprints, she brings both academic depth and hands-on experience. Sidse thrives on helping teams move past habitual thinking, navigate uncertainty, and use design strategically to shape meaningful, sustainable change. Read Sidse's PHD here: https://explorativeinnovation.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/unfuzzing-design-how-progress-is-made-towards-unknown-goals-1.pdf Thanks to Pavel Bavtra and Helena Bright for making this episode!
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Why UX? 52# Emilie Ava Møllenbach
Emilie is a strategic force at the intersection of sustainability, technology, and design. With nearly 20 years of experience — and a Ph.D. in Human-Computer Interaction — she’s led innovation across platforms like Issuu and MobilePay. Now as Director of Digital and Sustainable Innovation at FORCE Technology, Emilie champions user-centric solutions that tackle complex challenges through IoT, digital production, and sustainable strategy. Expect insights on leading with purpose, aligning diverse teams, and designing for real-world impact. Thanks to Pavel Bavtra and Helena Bright for making this episode!
WHY UX? is a podcast about the everyday heroes of UX design. We'll be talking to the women and men doing the work. We'll be covering their past, how did they find their path to UX design? Their present, what do they do on a daily basis? Their future, what are they expecting UX to look like in the future and what will it mean to them?
The podcast interviewees will nominate who we'll be interviewing next, so we expect it to be some interesting people with vastly different backgrounds. One of the beauties of the UX profession.
The podcast is focusing on UX designers located in Copenhagen, Denmark, to expand the community awareness.
South Africa