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SAP Design is the core division at SAP that designs, develops, and implements great user experiences for SAP products and solutions through SAP Fiori, SAP’s user-centered design language.

On September 17, 2018, we, at the UX Enablement group (a team of user researchers, designers, and design educators) at SAP Design in Palo Alto, United States, hosted a Bay area meet-up event in partnership with Hexagon UX. Hexagon is a community of women and non-binary individuals in UX who support each other by sharing stories and fostering growth at all stages of our careers. These values are in line with SAP’s work ethic which is heavily focused on diversity and inclusiveness, and a growth mindset while applying design thinking methods for innovation. Therefore, the idea of hosting this meet up at SAP Labs was conceived.

The event was attended by people from various roles in the UX space across industries, for e.g. UX Designers, UX researchers, writers, content strategists, product managers etc. The theme of the event was “Emerging You”, designed around an experience to empower attendees to be themselves, grow, thrive, and navigate today’s tech space. It started with a ‘Give and Get Cards- String Activity’ where attendees could write on these cards a)things that they desired or would like to acquire through this event, for e.g. a new connection, and b)things they would like to offer, for e.g. advice., and then pin them all up on strings for others to see.

Then, there was a panel session, where speakers representing a wide variety of backgrounds and expertise touched upon a variety of topics such as diversity, early talent, working moms, peer-support, mentorship, work-life balance etc. that are relevant and interesting for our everyday lives.

Following that, the audience worked together in groups on a fun little Design Thinking activity where they broke down challenges from the topics that were discussed in the panel into ideas and solutions. Finally, the evening concluded with networking, dining, and the exchange of Give and Get cards.
Meet-ups like this serve as a catalyst and provide a safe and friendly environment for opening conversations about sensitive issues around personal growth and identity, sharing personal journeys, exchanging ideas, and fostering a community that empowers under-represented minorities and women in tech. This was a very positive experience for us at SAP Design. We learned a lot and look forward to hosting many more such events.

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