Lacey Picazo, Champion for Human Factors in Tech
Lacey is a CEO and Speaker, uncovering how psychology impacts the success of products, business, culture, and individual potential.
Hi, I’m Lacey!
I’m the CEO of ZoCo, a product and experience design studio obsessing over human behavior and how the experiences we have influence what we do.
As a former designer and researcher turned into a multi-time founder, I’ve realized all success comes down to understanding people and responding to meet them where they are. My deep fascination across my career has been on thriving cultures, human-systems, emotional intelligence, how the best teams work, and how leaders meet their potential.
I use my experience in research to match patterns between psychology and technology, applying this knowledge through experiments in our team’s culture (which has been nationally recognized), within the client teams we serve, and in my own evolving perspective helping fellow execs navigate their world.
Topics
Lacey Speaks About
Human Factors in Tech
Learn what it means to truly understand people and what’s behind their behavior in an age of tech advances (see our AI research), as we lose connection and as teams struggle to collaborate effectively.
Entrepreneurship
Building a business is an aspiration for many, but founders can easily end up in roles they despise. How do we understand these patterns and build businesses that are both valuable and energizing?
Treating Culture like a Product
The same principles that inform bringing a product to market are those that bolster a strong culture and united team. Lacey shares how we can apply product principles to hiring and managing people.
Leadership & Mental Health
Lacey shares her journey and principles like introspection, identifying your mental chatter, challenging assumptions, and leaning into curiosity to understand if the stories we tell ourselves are true.
Measuring Impact and Proving Value
Teams are facing scrutiny to prove value, and those who have built a culture for measurement and know how to champion that story to their most senior stakeholders are finding success. How do they do it?
Product, Design, and Research
And of course, Lacey speaks on all things amplifying product, design, and UXR—from best practices, patterns in evolving roles, career paths, business-minded designers, leveraging AI, and more.
Human Factors in Tech
Entrepreneurship
Treating Culture like a Product
Leadership and Mental Health
Measuring Impact and Proving Value
Product, Design, and Research
Lacey has been honored by:
Lacey speaks for product and tech conferences, executive leadership groups, top universities, corporate giants, and internal teams.
Select Events
Women in Product
NYPC
CIO Tomorrow
CDO Tech Summit
Techstars
UXDX
OSU Center for Entrepreneurship Keynote: Link
IxDA
Women in Digital National Conference
Women in Technology International (WITI)
WITCON (Women in Tech Conference)
OhioX Tech Summit
Making Midwest
Select Podcasts
Betting on Yourself: Link
CDO GPSec: Human Factors in AI: Link
That Worked: Link
UX Banter: Link
Northcoast Ventures: Link
CMD-Z: Link
614 Startups: Link
Women of Influence: Link
The Creative’s Journal: Link
Products for People: Human Experience in Tech: Link
Products for People: Bringing the Customer into Corporate Innovation: Link
Why work with Lacey?
Real-world experience
Lacey is a 2x founder and CEO, actively working with product and design teams. This enables a daily test kitchen for real-time anecdotes, constant learning, and what's working now.
Human Storytelling
Lacey isn't prone to sharing stuffy, high-level frameworks. Her stories are memorable, relatable, and bring the concepts to life for others to apply to their own challenges.
Curation & Empathy
Lacey's point of view is shaped by her daily exposure to diverse teams outside of her own company. She is able to customize her message to a variety of audiences.
Energy & Commitment
Lacey is committed to ensuring any engagement she takes on is successful. She'll engage fully with organizers and give it her all. NPS surveys confirm, Lacey consistently delivers.
As seen on James Clear's Newsletter, 3-2-1...
WORD AROUND TOWN
Kudos and Endorsements
THANK YOU for the session yesterday. The team found the content very valuable. I heard throughout the day as we did our quarterly planning sessions people make reference to your presentation. The phrase “you heard Lacey mention this morning…” was very common. I am already getting requests for you to return. :) You had a very positive impact on the attendees yesterday.
Danny Allred
Conversational AI Leader, Nationwide
You are an incredibly influential and admired leader. Your journey building ZoCo is inspiring. I first saw you present at the seminal OhioX EdTech conference. The way you told the ZoCo story — your words and your presentation — totally changed how we build our own presentations and narratives at Dolr. I've never mentioned this to you before and I'm ashamed I haven't because I'm so grateful to you for teaching me what GREAT storytelling looks and sounds like. I still refer back to my emotions during different phases of that presentation when I'm building presentations. Thank you!!
Naveed Iqbal
CEO of Dolr
Without a doubt, Lacey Picazo is an outstanding public speaker. So many entrepreneurs look to convey too many points in a given public speaking opportunity, Lacey is much more refined. She understands her audience, she communicates the key takeaways that she wants the audience to remember, and tells a story within the communication to make it memorable. By keeping the information succinct and memorable, Lacey would be an outstanding addition to a conference based around design, IT, or entrepreneurship
Steve Gruetter
Director of Strategy, Expedient
From an event organizer’s perspective, Lacey was top-notch. She was collaborative, communicative, and committed to ensuring that her engagement with RTRX delivered on the vision we shaped together. I, without reservation, recommend Lacey as she will elevate your programming and attendee experience
Suraj Hinduja
Managing Director of RTRX
Ideas & Writing from Lacey
10 Years of ZoCo
ZoCo Design is TEN. My oh my—how the years have flown by. As ZoCo's founder...
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My First Keynote
My first keynote deserves an explanation. Because the day before I was asked to speak...
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Employees with a Values Fit
Uncertainty continues to be a stressor for businesses, where the retention of our...
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The Stories I Tell Myself
Writing makes me uneasy. This isn’t like anxiety resulting in sweaty palms or a jolt of...
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If you’re interested in working with Lacey for your event, fill out the Speaker Request Form below.
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