Storytelling to Present UX Work

"Once upon a time, there was a young professional that really wanted to become a better story teller, more than anything else. Every day, he searched for a way to improve his skills. One day, his mentor suggested that he attend the NN/g Virtual UX Conference, which he did. Because of this, he enrolled in Storytelling to Present UX Work, with Rachel. Because of that, he learned about Story Construction and the Story Spine Template. Until finally, he could replicate it with ease. And ever since then, he recommends it highly!"

Ricardo Salabarria, Booz Allen Hamilton, Kansas City, MO USA

"While the concepts are not hard to understand, there is actually quite a lot of content to cover over the 7 hours. I would suggest for anyone considering this course to try to take it during the day rather than at the end of the day (time zone wise) because I personally felt pretty lethargic towards the end of the course."

Boyang Chew, Delivery Hero SE, Berlin, Germany

"It was really good. I would definitely recommend it to everyone, not just people in ur, ux, ui roles. Everyone should know how to best present their work."

Lada, Avast, London

"It can improve your communication skills so it's a good complement to other seminars."

Felipe Heredia, Bankia, Madrid, Spain

"This course is so interesting as a ux designer who has to present a lot and it's an added value for your soft skills in connection with your ux skills."

Erhan Lammar, Movify, Mechelen Belgium

"I would recommend this course. I don't think many of us spend enough time thinking about _how_ we're presenting research findings and communicating decisions. This course helped me to better understand and appreciate how powerful stories are as a means of communication."

Dan Miloch, Auto-Owners Insurance Company, Lansing, Michigan

"This was a great session. I feel more comfortable with creating a compelling story that addresses the users' needs."

Tiffany Allen-Hampton, Ounce of Prevention Fund

"Rockstar! Super engaging, smart and funny speaker. Content and exercises were all relevant to any product or process type. Highly recommend!"

Rachel Thomas, C&E

"Perfect Course! Rachel is one of the best teachers I've had throughout my career. She is well-rounded, puts things in a great perspective. Her storytelling course helped me better communicate user needs to a variety of audiences."

Jenneke Heerink, Careerbuilder

"The class has given me much more than I asked for. It was great learning all the lessons by doing. The activities helped me take the first steps into a very interesting, engaging and exciting future even before even stepping out of the class. The course was totally aligned with my desire and vision of telling compelling stories to build relationships, influence buy-in, have more engaging and exciting conversations and most importantly, help the team move forward together, united in a resolve to help the users meet their needs in the best way possible. You were amazing, Rachel. Thank you so much! :)"

Praveen Bandaru, Cognizant, Edinburgh

"I love all the mixed in exercises really helps the material stick."

Christopher Whittingmore

"I have really struggled with crafting stories for UX work in the past and found it difficult to tie user research to product goals or business value in a compelling way. This course included specific, realistic advice and real-world examples, as well as the opportunity to practice the skills needed to focus a product team on solving a human problem, rather than releasing a list of features. What I learned in this storytelling course will help me to consistently structure my stories and reinforce the user's voice in every presentation, prototype walk-through, research scenario or hallway discussion in the future. I can't recommend it enough!"

Claire Regan, Dell

"This course is to the point and brings a clear path on how to present your story to stakeholders and clients."

Oussama Benbila,Ottawa

"Great course, we all listen extra to stories and it's important to know how to tell one!"

Max Lindroos, King, Stockholm

"I learned so much in the storytelling class that I can apply in my every day work! Highly recommend!"

Meagan Tonge, ADTRAN

"Using the Pixar template for storytelling made everything "click". This new format allowed me to remove my personal biases and communicate objectively about my design process. I'll be using this at work!"

Allie Fleming, Square

"Thank you so much for such a FUN workshop — even though it was all day it didn't feel like it at all; passed by fast. I really enjoyed getting into different groups for each exercise. Cheers!"

Jia Hui Jessican Huang, Hulu

"Rachel did a fantastic job framing the audience and human behaviors, which enables me to tell a better story."

Brad McDougall, Midmark Corporation

"Loved that you "forced" us to use what we were just taught. Good job drawing out participation even though the class was nearly dead at the beginning."

Coman Heiselt, TechSmith

"I liked how Rachel had us switch partners throughout the day. It was a great breakdown of the storytelling process, giving a variety of methods and reasons behind them to choose to utilize where suitable in our projects."

Jason Cozy, Product Ops

"Great session, inspiring speaker and useful content!"

Yuriy, Epam Systems Inc.

"I really like storytelling and believe in its power — so for me really enjoyable."

Sonal Ladua, Product Manager

"Didn't know what to expect. It was great!"

Tudor Whiteley, OCAS

"This is really a course with great value and added a lot to my knowledge. A must in any NNg conference."

Nelson Delicado, Nos inovation

"Very well structured course that nailed down all the points that as UX specialists we need to address when presenting ideas/solutions to specific audiences."

Natalie Massone, RBI/ICIS

"Do it! This course helps affirm how you should be presenting and talking to ALL stakeholders to get buy-in."

Christian Chesher, IBM

"This was excellent, really opened my eyes to the importance of storytelling in UX, I will definitely be taking what I learnt here today to my place of work."

Daniel Todd, NCFE

"I liked the fact that the course combined and structured information about storytelling. If I to go through that on my own, it would be much harder."

Adrianne Biernacka, Demant Technology Centre

"Amazing structure of the content, good speaker and fun!"

Mercedes Cepeda Zaragoza, Airsource

"Great session! This was my first N/N conference and it was fantastic. I’m happy that the event wasn’t canceled and that N/N moved this event online. Many thanks to Rachel and Therese for making this course engaging and very informative. Amazing slides, Rachel!"

Mihai Marin, LV=

"I loved how interactive it was, I was never bored and it didn't feel like an all day course."

Nectar Shakir, CB Insights, New York City

"Rachel is a great instructor! This is the second course I've had with her (one in person, one remote) and she's able to adapt seamlessly regardless of the environment. Thank you for the great information, can't wait to apply it!"

Ruth Yeh, Capital One, Chicago

"Storytelling was the perfect way to end a week of courses! I loved Rachel's emphasis on creativity and tying in creativity when thinking about UX practices. I feel like I have a better understanding of how to present information; how to turn data into compelling stories, how to connect to the audience, and how to use visuals in a powerful way. It was both practical and fun, so thank you!"

Ghezal Hamidi, Global Affairs Canada

"I have taken several classes with Rachel. She is very engaging and I've learned a lot in her courses. She does a good job of getting everyone to participate, but also making everyone feel comfortable. While sharing your own story was intimidating at first, the way Rachel sets up the course makes the task much easier that I imagined."

Elyse Girard, University of Virginia, Charlottessville

"Rachel is an engaging presenter who shared so much knowledge and supplied many resources that I can use in my future presentations. The activities were fun and a great way to practise what we were learning."

Lani Raukawa Field, Signify Ltd, Wellington, Aotearoa, New Zealand

"I gained quite a lot from this course, walking away with templates and knowing, how I will construct a story for my next presentation."

Kerstin Manninger, trigo GmbH, Vienna, Austria

"I recommend this course to people who have difficulty telling a logical and convincing story that is easy to remember. Rachel Krause knows how to tell you how a story becomes memorable in an energetic and fun way. She practices what she preaches."

Jeroen Straatman, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

"I think this course is uniquely suited to professionals who really need to be influencers. Having the opportunity to reinforce the value of UX among our colleagues and stakeholders is pretty invaluable."

Candace Belako, UPMC Health Plan, Pittsburgh, United States

"This is a great course that introduces participants to the idea of using story when communicating UX research. It also provides some great templates to help create stories that will stick with stakeholders and influence product design."

Rob Vanasco, Regions, St. Petersburg, FL USA

"This class was useful and helped reinforce the techniques I have been using when creating presentations for various stakeholders. Rachel knows her craft and knows how to connect to the audience in a friendly manor."

Daniel, PSCU, St. Petersburg, FL

"Consider how it applies to everything you do - storytelling makes life in general better - take the tools and use them with your in-laws!"

Sarah Ratcliffe, Applied Systems, Chicago

"Understanding why and when to use storytelling and its effectivness it's very important for UX professional. This course covers the tatctis and ways of applying them."

Stevy Georgiadi, Architechts, Athens, Greece

"This is a great place to start if you're tired of UX/HF not being listened to. We learned some great tactics to generate compelling stories that appeal to multiple audience types, and will help propel our findings and ideas."

Hayley Staten, Cerner, Kansas City, USA

"I really benefitted from the breakout sessions and working through the exercises. I left the course with a game plan on how to bring storytelling to various roles within my organization. I feel that I can now better communicate the user stories and pain points as well as what I am recommending from a UX perspective that will resonate with non-UXers. The speaker was relatable and taught information in an easy to comprehend way. I would definitely recommend this course to other UX professionals wishing to up their storytelling skills."

Elissa Folk, Westfield Group, Wadsworth, USA

"Take this course! Storytelling is such a big part of our job as UX professionals. This course gave me more confidence on how to tell stories, gave great framework on different approaches to storytelling, how to best tailor stories to specific audiences, and how to create the most impact. It ties in well with the Generating Big Ideas with Design Thinking course! Thank you Rachel :)"

Cass Koller, Portland, USA

"It removes the guess work and insecurities around what to share and how."

Jessica, Balsamiq, Bologna, Italy

"I thought it was great! I do feel like storytelling still seems abstract until you practice and learn, so this will be an evolving skillset."

Jennifer Day, Navigating Cancer, Seattle, USA

"The Best teacher ever! Mucho con demasiado."

Melisa, Bancolombia, Medellin, Colombia

"This was my favorite of all the classes I took at NNG this week! Engaging speaker, interesting exercises, fun group to work with."

Emily Oskay, Nutrien, Loveland, CO, USA

"This is an incredible course that teaches you how to utilize storytelling techniques when presenting information. While there are UX specific considerations, I learnt things that I can use in other scenarios as well. Plus, the instructor, Rachel made this class really engaging and fun. Strongly recommended!"

Vishal Shah, Biogen, Luterbach, Switzerland

"Highly recomment for anyone even not in UX to be honest. Storytelling is a very important skill & this class definitely covered it all. My favorite was the story templates & activity about it. I do wish we practiced more on the magic & mountain one but time is limited."

Jessica Dee, SAP, Palo Alto, USA

"I'm a UX strategist and a copywriter and although I already knew some of the tactics and frameworks explained by Rachel, in 7 hours she guided us on an extremely practical journey giving us tools and vision that can be implemented immediately. In addition, she gave us a lot of food for thought and also fun and stimulating group exercises."

Edoardo Bianchi, Host Consulting Srl, Como, Italy

"Take it, it's will help you explain concepts and gain buy-in from Leadership to Engineers."

Ryan J Roy, Boca Raton

"The class was really inspiring, Rachel kept me interested the whole time, and I found so much knowledge in her presentation. Choosing this topic was the best decision I made as I felt really stuck when it comes to communicating with my stakeholders and developers - I felt nobody wanted to listen about users perspective anymore, and now I know I can change that. And what's even more important, I have so many tools to do it! Can't wait to start work tomorrow!"

Magdalena Tkacz, Gdańsk, Poland

"This class is great for getting the fundamentals of storytelling and storyboarding, and even presenting UX to stakeholders. It will give you a fresh perspective, and new ideas to explore and try when doing storytelling on your own."

Stephanie A Rose, LogicMonitor, Santa Barbara

"I learned many new techniques on telling stories that generate emotion and that stories make connection to ideas and to us as humanity. My breakout group was great - the best of all the classes that I have taken. I really liked the workbook; templates I can use in the future and practice with. I also really enjoyed the storytelling exercise based on birthdate, etc. It was a lot of fun. I would recommend this class. It's a connector of the other courses I have taken. Thank you for providing this course."

Trisha Fahrenthold, Insperity, Houston, USA

"I loved this course and the instructor and would definitely recommend to anyone that is looking to build their story-telling skills."

Shalini Rao, AbbVie, Chicago, IL, USA

"I would recommend the course; it really helped me structure my thoughts and I know where to start now! Next time I wont lose so much time!"

Marigabrielle, Zug, Switzerland

"I was able to learn a lot about things that I wouldn't normally be able to get formal training on. Storytelling and presenting are considered "soft skills" but I'm very glad that this course put tremendous importance on it."

Emi Oda, Glidewell Dental, Irvine, CA, USA

"This virtual course on storytelling is an invaluable guide to those in the UX field. Storytelling is no longer a daunting task when you follow the psychology and structure provided by attending this course. The step-by-step guides will enable you to build an emotional connection with your audience and make your voice heard. If you need to tell a story in a compelling manner this course will show you the way!"

Ken Hughes, Office for National Statistics (ONS), Cardiff, UK

"I like how we've put together, sharing experiences. The material and template definitely going to help me with my upcoming tasks. I like the tips provided as well, I think that's very helpful. Really enjoyed this class, would recommend it for everyone who wants to brush up on their presentation skills."

Risa, IBM, Malaysia

"TAKE IT! Nuff said. So many helpful tools and tricks to help sell your process and project."

Halie Wickiser, Eleven Peppers Studios, Baltimore, USA

"The structured methods delivered by the speaker help me to gain self-confidence when writing design statements to executives. Good material and references."

Sandra Merino, Univision Communications, Miami, USA

"This is a great class for anyone looking to improve their communication skills when it comes to presenting UX Research and decisioning."

Mike F, Blue Ridge Dynamics, Ashburn, VA, USA

"I'd tell people who might be interested in this course that it provides a solid foundation to storytelling – provides the necessary information to get you started. As a long time practitioner of UX, I still found this course to be beneficial, as it not only reinforced what I know, but also provided me with some additional things I'm able to take away. There wasn't anything to dislike, and I think my previous comment provides all that I liked!"

Randy Stephens, Atlanta, United States

"TAKE THAT CLASS! It's absolutely worth the money!!!"

Z.Nadine, Audi, Germany

"It's fantastic! You did such a great job of presenting this course. Kept me engaged the whole time and it wasn't boring at all."

Iuliana Ladewig, GCC, Houston, USA

"I really enjoyed it - I worried at first that it was going to be for designers as it sits in the designer specialism but in the end it is aimed at both."

Alison Hawkesworth, Office For National Statistics, Newport, Wales, UK

"I'd definitely recommend doing it, it's great to be able to learn about different story templates. I'm very much looking forward to implementing them in my day to day work and improving storytelling as a skill!"

Fenella Astley, 93digital, London, UK

"Great course to learn techniques to better engage stakeholders."

Patrick Pan, Glidewell, Irvine, CA, USA

"I am so excited to take these learnings back to my team. The Story Spine method is great. Storytelling is a skill that all UX teams need to have. Rachel presented it in a way that was easy to understand and approachable. I left feeling confident that I could teach my team how to do this in our org. She was a skilled facilitator, not letting us get stuck in one activity for too long, and giving us the right amount of time to practice the skills she was sharing."

Molly Wilvich, Moz, Seattle, WA

"Great information on how to craft your story and tell the narrative in a way that resonates with your audience!"

Rachelle Caparroso, USAA, Austin, TX USA

"I definitely benefited and would recommend it. I liked how relatable the instructor was."

Gray Lee, Fearless, Baltimore

"Highly recommended!"

Emad Khawajah, Jawwy from stc, Riyadh

"Great quality stuff that you can immediately apply to your craft to get a team and stakeholders engagement to a different level."

Jan Kubec, McKinsey & Co., Prague, Czech Republic

"If you take any NNg course in 2021, it is Storytelling with Rachel!"

Christopher Butler, Accenture, Stavanger, Norway

"Excellent course!"

Tad Blake-Weber, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston, USA

"TAKE. IT. NOW. No but seriously, so much useful knowledge. Both holistic general rule of thumbs, as well as tangible and usable artifacts (templates, tips, etc.). Useful for anyone who wants to improve their presentation technique, as well as improving the way you deal with data and collaborate with others. And also how to actually sell your design, which is so important to get your will through."

Andreas Andersson, Volvo Car Corporation, Gothenburg, Sweden

"Yes, I would recommend this course. I liked that the presenter had really good examples to pair with their teachings."

Marlainna Sweetman, Stretto, Irvine

"This is my favorite course from this conference so far! Instructor was relatable, well-spoken, and engaging. The content is so applicable to my own work and life. I really liked the activities from both the group and also the independent perspective. As a designer with a creative writing background, I appreciate using storytelling as a way to communicate in the UX arena. I can't wait to share these ideas with my team. Thank you!"

Audra Harvey, Baltimore

"This course was so great. Honestly, I enjoyed every minute. Rachel was super professional and giving specific suggestions, checklists, and tools to use. You could tell that it was a course was made by a UX storyteller."

Maia Swenson, Volvo Car Corporation, Göteborg, Sweden

"If you are struggling to bring stakeholders along in your UX practice or get the group to understand where the real user is at with data, this class is so helpful! We have a lot of competing interests, a lot of non-users that think they know what the user wants and these storytelling methods are going to be so helpful to guiding them on the right path."

Sara, WWW, Rockford, USA

"Great practical course that covers a lot of ground, and provides valuable tools I'm certain I'll be using for years to come."

Antonio Perez-Cajina, Minneapolis USA

"I would highly recommend this course. It's informational and inspirational. I like the amount of breakout room session we had and it feels perfect amount of time for our individual discussion."

Pam Lee, Happity Inc., Cold Spring, NY. United States

"Every NNG course levels me up by miles. They are the gold standard for keeping UX skills at their peak. After 11 NNG classes, and 3 with her, I can say confidently that Rachel is at the top of the presenter group. She is so clear, so systematic, and yet so human and lovely. She laughs easily, her examples resonate, she anticipates all our questions, she doesn't talk too fast, she doesn't make herself the focus of the material. She treats every comment like gold. The exercises make a meaningful difference in my learning. I could listen to her for days."

Alison Ruge, Colorado CodeCraft, Denver USA

"I would definitely recommend the course. I now have a much better understanding of the audience and how to engage them through a well told and structured story."

Jan-Erik Behrendt, VRR AöR, Witten, Germany

"This is a class for every level and every area of specialization. Great insights that you can even apply to your day-to-day interactions."

Ariadna De la Rosa, Independent, Atlanta, GA - USA

"This is valuable and the simple story templates and practice is worth the money for this course."

Karl S., USAA, San Antonio, TX

"Great way to learn methods to actually tell memorable, compelling stories in a corporate environment to make sure your ideas resonate."

Keith Faber, Wings Financial Credit Union, Minneapolis, USA

"The course was amazing! The slides were beautifully crafted and told a complete story from start to finish."

Alan Cho, O3 World, Philadelphia, USA

"I can't wait to apply the storytelling templates to my work routine. Also, thanks to this training, I got new ideas to improve our processes. It was inspiring."

Sercan Er, Garanti BBVA Technology, Istanbul, Turkey

"DEFINITELY TAKE THIS COURSE!!! I thoroughly loved it and I'm pumped to implement my learnings!"

Kayla Lindke, TaxSlayer, Atlanta, GA

"Please take it, no matter what hat you are wearing in UX world, UXR, UXD, UXW, or even outside of UX world for now. You will benefit a lot from this class, from theory, best practices, tangible examples, and group activities. Rachel is a wonderful teacher and a brilliant speaker with amazing personality. You will learn a lot from her beyond the content of the course by observing how she handled challenges (e.g. tech glitch) and improvise when needed with grace and wisdom - a truly incredible learning experience."

Yingdi Qi, Google, San Jose

"This has been a really good complement to the last two courses I took this week. (Human Mind and Usability + Measuring ROI of UX). No matter what courses people take, this a good complement to any topic because we always need to share out information in a way that is emotionally compelling and memorable."

Teresa Demel, Adobe, Seattle, WA

"It was very informational. I love that Rachel shared some templates she uses to clean up her research findings."

Fiorella Galvez, CareFirst, VA United States

"If you are a UXer take the course! The course provides practical methods that you can immediately put into practice."

Krista Kostuch, TSYS, Atlanta, Ga US

"I loved all the examples provided. Rachel presented the material in a digestible manner which makes it way to apply to your work environment."

Lindsey Sawade, Neudesic, Gilbert, USA

"I would highly recommend this course to my peers. As someone who is already in the UX field, this class felt like it met my skill level and gave me tools to push myself to the next level. I feel like I'm leaving this course with a mountain of easy actionable items that I can start implementing in my day to day role and I'm excited to see how they improve my workflow."

Eleni Trapp, Penn Interactive, Philadelphia

"Learn how to craft a compelling story, backed by real data, that engages your audience and can help increase stakeholder buy-in. Build your confidence in the public speaking space by getting real-world tools to help you become a better speaker."

Sierra Johnson, USAA, San Antonio, TX

"I like how Rachel was able to convert concepts of storytelling and translating it in actual UX work or presentation."

Candice Mae Goh, Research & Development, Cebu City, Philippines

"Very engaging, high quality course with lots of workshops that show you results immediately. At the end of the course, you feel armed and ready to apply all the knowledge, and are eager to share it with your co-workers! Break rooms were super fun, and helped connect with new people in a virtual space."

Alina, Digital Turbine