Our Founder Nicole Dessain is a popular conference speaker, interactive workshop facilitator, and insightful panelist on the topic of design thinking at the intersection of strategy, innovation, culture, and talent.
Don’t get too comfortable – Nicole always surprises with a creative twist!
Speaking Sample
Speaker Bio
Nicole Dessain is the Founder and Chief Employee Experience Designer at talent.imperative inc, an employee experience design consultancy, and the Co-Founder of DisruptHR Chicago.
Over the course of her 20-year Human Resources career, Nicole has worked with companies like Accenture, Cisco, Comcast, Mercedes-Benz, BASF, UNIQLO and Walgreens.
After she discovered design thinking while collaborating on a client project, Nicole became a student of the method and got certified by IDEO U and LUMA Institute. She is a SESP Lecturer at Northwestern University’s Master’s in Learning and Organizational Change Program which explores how design thinking might be applied to innovation in organizational effectiveness. Nicole has been a guest lecturer at the Kellogg School of Management and at DePaul University’s Master’s in Human Resources program.
Nicole's creative superpower is "connecting the dots" which she applies to her passion for bringing design thinking to the world of Human Resources through the HR.Hackathon Alliance.
Nicole has been quoted in the Chicago Tribune, HR Magazine, Training Industry Magazine, Workforce Magazine, and Talent Management Magazine. She has presented to live and virtual audiences at The Conference Board, ATD, ISPI, DisruptHR, SHRM, TLNT, ERE, and SourceCon.
Nicole runs her own podcast, “Talent Tales”, where she features leaders who have pioneered design thinking in the field of Human Resources. She is currently conducting research for her first book which will focus on applying design thinking in the field of Human Resources.
Audience And Event Organizer Testimonials
“Nicole was our opening keynote at the Staffing Management Association of Seattle Symposium and she was a great way to start our day! Nicole was well received by our audience, receiving high marks for the delivery of her message. Attendees felt that they were able to take away ideas that would be useful to them in their roles, meeting a goal that we ask our speakers to strive for! Nicole was responsive and easy to work with in preparation for our event. She is confident, poised, and knowledgeable, and I personally look forward to more learning from her in the future!”
Speaking Topics
SELECT PAST EVENTS
Association of Change Management Professionals Midwest: Workshop “Design Thinking Meets Change Management”
HR.Hackathon Alliance Panel Moderator: Design Thinking Meets Org Design
HR.Hackathon Chicago: Workshop Facilitator
The Chord Podcast: How HR Can Shape a Future of Work Strategy
Workshops Work Podcast: Transforming HR with Design Thinking
Global Supply Chain Leaders’ Conference (Internal): Keynote & Panelist “New Leadership, New Working Models”
People Business Podcast: “Design Thinking with Nicole Dessain”
Talent:Unfiltered Podcast: “The Hybrid Employee Experience”
The Conference Board: Workshop “Prototyping and Building Agility in HR”
The Intersection Podcast: “Reason to Hope - The Power of Design Thinking in DEI”
Learning Tech Talks: “Solving Business Problems by Hacking People Problems”
#HRvsVirus Virtual Hackathon - Organizer & Facilititator
The Experience Designers Podcast: “Turning HR Into Design Thinking Superheroes”
HR DesignCast: “Creativity in HR and Building HR Community”
TechRecruit Midwest - Workshop “Design Thinking for Talent Acquisition”
The BLT and Tea Podcast: “Nicole Dessain - Design Thinking and Humanity”
SIOP I/O Shaken & Stirred: “Hacking HR – Dr. Seuss Style!”
Staffing Management Association of Seattle (SMA) Annual Conference: Keynote “Recruiting Relationships Rebooted”
Employee Engagement Awards: Panelist “Driving Culture in the Workplace”
Chicago SHRM Annual Conference: Speaker “Using People Analytics to Fuel Performance”
ISPI Performance Improvement Conference: Speaker “Big Data, People, and Performance: Myths and Must Dos”