60 Seconds with WITS Northeast Speaker — Meghan Kelly
Meghan Kelly is a Senior UX Specialist at Elsevier. Her session at WITS Northeast is Little Squares, Big Impact: Using Post-It Notes to Step Up Your Problem-Solving Skills.
Why is speaking at WITS important to you?
I’m so excited to be speaking at WITS — it’s my first real conference talk! Both our personal and professional lives can be so busy and complicated, especially as women working in technology. As a woman, I think it’s important to share strategies and examples from our lives that might be able to help someone else who is underrepresented in technology to navigate a similar situation, have less stress, or find a new way of thinking.
What inspires you?
I’m inspired when I see people take action. Anyone can watch things happen, but to recognize an opportunity to create change — whether it’s for yourself or for others or it’s big or small — that takes courage. Getting out of your comfort zone is a challenge and I really admire it. It makes me want to go out and do something.
Most useful article you’ve read in the last month
When you were a kid what was your dream job?
There were so many jobs I wanted to have — at one point or another I definitely remember wanting to be an author, an architect, or an engineer. Looking back, I think I was most drawn to careers that involved creative problem solving, so UX was perfect for me.
Tell us something about your session.
My session will cover strategies for problem solving using post-it notes, which can help with any role in technology, but can also have an immense impact in our personal lives as well. With how intertwined our personal and professional lives can be, I’m excited to be able to offer concrete strategies that help in multiple parts of someone’s life.
What other session/speaker are you excited to see (optional).
As a UX Designer, I’m especially looking forward to Andrea Goulet’s “Empathy is a Technical Skill.”
Register here to see Meghan and the other amazing women in tech speaking at WITS Northeast in Philadelphia on April 23 and 24, 2020.
