IxDF Africa

The talk will explore how early-career designers can find their feet while navigating ambiguity, pressure, and imposter syndrome. Rooted in real stories from many South African UX professionals, the session will share simple, practical tools to help you feel more grounded, build confidence, and work better with your team. You’ll walk away with ideas for handling feedback, managing stakeholder dynamics, and making a difference – even when you're still finding your voice.

About the speakers:
Vicka Petrishko and Caitie Boeyens
Design Entrepreneurs and Recovering Imposters

Vicka is the founder of Leanseed, a young company specialising in human-centred business consulting. She works with teams and organisations to improve their effectiveness and create meaningful, impactful outcomes. Her career spans 22 years in web, digital, eLearning, user experience, systems, process, and business design.

Caitie is a multidisciplinary designer with a background in product design, project management, and software development. After years of managing junior designers and developers, she made the call to shift back into hands-on design work, focusing on UX design.

Vicka and Caitie collaborate on multiple projects and are passionate about helping new designers find their feet, build confidence, and grow the soft skills that make a real difference in the workplace. They’ll share what they’ve learned from working across disciplines and industries – and what they wish they’d known when they were starting out.