Krys Blackwood – Medium

Krys Blackwood

The other side of layoffs: navigating survivor’s guilt

Yesterday, my beloved NASA JPL laid off 570 hard-working, brilliant, good people. I’m grateful to say I wasn’t one of them, and neither…

7 min readFeb 8, 2024

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Deep Space Network antennas at Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex in Canberra Australia. The antenna in the foreground is pointed straight up at the sky. Two background antennas are pointed in different directions.

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Krys Blackwood

Layoffs don’t have to be the end of the world

Gather round, whippersnappers, it’s story time.

8 min readJan 9, 2024

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A journey map showing my happiness level as my career progressed, with a low point during the dot-com bubble burst in 2001 and a high point now, as I’m so lucky to be at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

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Krys Blackwood

The Interns are Coming

Summer is here. And despite the title of my story, the interns are too.

12 min readJun 8, 2022

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Interns looking at screens in mission control.

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Krys Blackwood

Hiring is Like Getting Hitched

Here’s how we do it in the Human Centered Design group at NASA JPL.

8 min readApr 4, 2022

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Hiring is Like Getting Hitched

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Krys Blackwood

Do you need a degree to be a designer?

The year was 1999. We were on the cusp of a millennium, when arbitrary not-round numbers were about to become arbitrary round numbers. I…

9 min readFeb 4, 2022

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Do you need a degree to be a designer?

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Krys Blackwood

Standups with Meaning

I’m a big fan of Agile methodology. I love the idea that you share every piece of your work with your peers and stakeholders as soon as…

6 min readNov 18, 2021

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Standups with Meaning

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Krys Blackwood
in
Bootcamp

It is actually rocket science: design at NASA’s JPL

Nestled in the hills just north of Los Angeles is a magical place. People of all ages and genders come together in a park-like setting to…

8 min readDec 17, 2020

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Photograph of JPL from above. A sprawling complex of medium-sized buildings with trees and mountains in the background.

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Krys Blackwood

Krys Blackwood

Principal user experience designer & technical group lead of Human Centered Design group at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 27 yrs in UX. Opinons my own.

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