In this episode, we sit down with Taylor Gurian, Director of User Experience at Nebo, to explore her journey across marketing, customer insights, and UX leadership. Taylor shares practical guidance on building a career in UX, why non-traditional backgrounds are an advantage, and how real-world experience shapes strong designers.

Discussion points -

Walk us through your journey from architecture to marketing to UX and how each chapter shaped where you are today. 1:56

How do you use your marketing background in your day-to-day UX work? 10:19

Rapid fire round 13:43

Do you think defining product requirements should be part of a UX designer’s role, or should a business analyst handle that before the design process begins? 17:57

How is AI changing the way UX designers work, and what is your approach to using it responsibly? 21:16

How is your team at Nebo currently adopting AI tools, and what has the experience been like so far? 23:23

What advice would you give to someone trying to break into UX today when entry level jobs are harder to find than ever? 32:33

Show notes -

Use your past experience as a superpower. Whether you were a nurse, a marketer or anything else, you can always find your differentiator in what you did before.

AI should do boring work for creative people, not creative things for boring people. Let it handle the grunt work, so you have more time and space for the creative stuff.

Think of AI as your eager intern. It wants to move fast, it has a few ideas for you, but you always need to adjust and modify its work because you are the expert, not it.

If you're trying to respond to human problems, try to stay away from AI. We, as humans helping other humans, must stay human no matter where efficiency takes us.

The traditional UX path doesn't really exist, and it doesn't need to. What makes you unique is your differentiator, and that is what stands out when everything else looks the same.

Get experience doing work with real people. Even if it never goes live, the interaction with a real human is what builds your portfolio and your instincts at the same time.

Taylor’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taylorgurian/

Company’s website: https://www.neboagency.com/

Human Centered UX in the Age of AI with Taylor Gurian, S7, Ep. 1