Nicole "PxL VxN" Stephan Smith
Bringing design thinking & creativity to the technical thinkers for clarity and faster delivery: Video Game Executive Producer Creating neuro-inclusive Fortune 500 teams. "PxL Vxn"
Portland, Oregon, United States
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Nicole "Pixel Vixen" Smith is a creative agile production & team development leader with 15+ years speaking, training, and coaching global tech and game teams through the evolving landscape of hybrid delivery and design thinking in games applied anywhere. With roots in AAA multiplayer games publishing, enterprise agile coaching, and live-service operations, Nicole specializes in hands-on partnerships to create customized Agile approaches aligning creative, technical, and organizational goals.
Her work focusing on frequent delivery for user feedback, neuro-inclusive facilitation, and leadership psychological safety has scaled teams' product goals into pixel-sized improvements while building strong team-to-leader feedback loops. Whether facilitating cross-functional alignment or mentoring producers and product managers through ambiguity, Nicole brings clarity, empathy, and a deep belief in meeting teams where they are around the globe...all with some fun nerdy jokes and visualization techniques mixed in.
Nicole holds several IC-Agile and Scrum certifications and is currently completing her Expert-level coaching certification from IC-Agile. Nicole has spoken at several Agile20xx conferences, LEAN Agile Scotland, Global Scrum Gathering Cape Town South Africa, and beyond, receiving high reviews each time.
Nicole mentors aspiring video game producers, artists, product managers, and program managers in her spare time while teaching game, publishing, and creative production strategies in the evenings.
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Powerboosting From our Past Through Map-Drawing
Guilt. Shame. Fear. Self-criticism. Our past never truly leaves us. Yet, we help others move forward while often leaving ourselves behind. What would it look like if you could revisit your own past through a map, story, or video game?
Imagine you’ve stumbled upon a room with three moments in your past facing you, each as their own large, green pipe. Which pipe and moment do you choose to jump into and revisit and why?
Are you equipped for the journey?
Join this interactive session to draw your own map using new tools from a video game Executive Producer, to re-design a game-level or story from your past that you’re proud of.
All levels of drawing, storytellers, and non-gamers are welcome and appreciated! Arrive curious, leave with fun, new “powerboosts” to help yourself and teams reframe their own life moments and communication.
“From Game Over to Game On! Designing Games & Teams That Thrive on Failure”
Despite our bias to avoiding failure, it’s one of the most powerful teachers in real life and in games. In this 75-minute fun workshop, we’ll turn that dreaded “game over” screen into a tool to level up—whether you’re an Agile pro or just learning what “iteration” means.
Whether navigating a tough problem or a tough level in your favorite game, this workshop will give you tools to turn “game over” into “game on!” by…FAILING!
Using simple game design principles, we’ll learn 5 ways to build failure into our lives as a tool for success. Through interactive activities, you’ll design your own failure-positive game, while discovering how Agile methods can turn obstacles into opportunities.
Join for a fun, hands-on session where failure is celebrated, and you walk away with usable tools for life, work, and play. Plus, there might be some doodling involved—no gaming experience needed!
Oodles of Doodles: Contain, Explain, and Align Complex Ideas with Simple Drawings
Ever find yourself frustrated by repeating the same thing after a meeting or scrum event? Do you or your teams get stuck in excessive ideation? Would you like to listen better and help others also engage with the topics being discussed?
* If so, this session is for you! *
With the constant overwhelm of discussions with big ideas, complex options, and countless meeting notes and action items, where to put all of it? AND in a way that people will remember and actually engage with?
Learn how to transform and innovate your meetings, facilitation, engagement and retention, and critical decisions beyond a ten-page notes document by creating your own doodle book to include a broader range of learning styles for increased efficacy.
Join this fun, interactive session (for all agile and creative skill-levels) for new ways to re-engage teams, reinvent your meetings based on learning styles, and reduce repetition through an easy visual vocabulary of sketch thinking to capture big ideas with simple drawings.
This session is like Bob Ross finding a Blues Clues notebook - drawing for the non-drawers in a safe space with no mistakes, just happy little trees of creativity. Leave with a doodle-book of visual shortcuts and revised meeting templates to use immediately with your newfound creativity!
Regional Scrum Gathering® Cape Town 2024 Sessionize Event
Nicole "PxL VxN" Stephan Smith
Bringing design thinking & creativity to the technical thinkers for clarity and faster delivery: Video Game Executive Producer Creating neuro-inclusive Fortune 500 teams. "PxL Vxn"
Portland, Oregon, United States
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