Kate Axelsson on User Research, Letting Go of Control, and Feelings

This week's episode features Kate Axelsson…

Kate is at User Experience Researcher at Microsoft, TEDx speaker (she gave a talk about comedy when she was 19), and a passionate, curious creative who loves understanding how things work and isn't afraid to be a newbie or be seen trying. She seeks to infuse her work with joy and make wholehearted, authentic connections. As a self-proclaimed multipotentialite who wants to be a dozen things when I grow up, she pulls from her improv training, striving to “yes and” my way through life. She lives by the principle of paying it forward and loves mentoring those seeking to break into UX Research.

Her first taste of improv was at a 3-week performing arts camp in 5th grade. The acting/improv week was a huge turning point and made her want more. She spent summers watching "Whose Line is it Anyway?" and in high school tried out for the "Impulse Improv Team" and did that for 3 years. In college she took comedy courses, tried stand-up comedy, started a weekly improv group and studied improv and comedy writing at The Second City. She completed her senior thesis exploring comedy and social impact.

In this episode we discuss…

• Why Kate started taking improv classes
• How taking improv classes from a young age shaped Kate’s life from grade school through life after college
• The benefits of taking improv classes early in life
• How improv fueled Kate’s self-awareness and revealed her relationship with control and insecurity
• Improv as a way to practice letting go of control
• Improv as movement therapy, a moving meditation
• Improv as a way to make what we read in books actionable, practice skills we want to learn, and a way to become less embarrassed in life
• The value of improvisational skills in user research
• The power of naming a feeling
• Why we don’t need to fix everything and improv as the best place to break things
• The value of discomfort
• Feelings, and how improv helps us express them and react to them
• Kate’s research on comedy and social impact
• Comedy as a vehicle for truth speaking
• Kate’s tattoo
• The power of laughing
• Improv as an empathy builder and how to use it to strengthen empathy for different levels of power

Plus, we do an improv scene that was probably only entertaining to us 😆

From Kate, when asked how improv has improved her life offstage, “It's taught me to trust myself! I feel prepared to engage with strangers, put myself out there, present at work, etc. because I know I have my improv skills to fall back on. Quick thinking and recovery have come in handy in life! It's also reminded me that I don't need to control everything; I've noticed in my scenes I want to be "at the wheel" steering the scene, when really it's okay to be on the same plane as everyone else. Not all of life can (or should!) be controlled so being okay with being *in* it is key.”

Connect with Kate on Instagram @kateaxelsson

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