Useful, Broken, Beautiful: Ikigai, Kintsugi and sustainable work
Thursday, May 28
12:25 - 12:55
What if breakage wasn’t failure? Using Ikigai and Kintsugi, this talk explores how meaning, fragility and imperfection can improve teamwork and be normalized - especially in fast-moving, tech-driven environments.
Tech culture often celebrates speed, perfection and constant delivery. But humans don’t work like machines.
Drawing inspiration from Ikigai and Kintsugi, this talk explores how meaning, limits, and even “breakage” might become strengths at work.
Without technical deep dives, we’ll connect these concepts to how tech teams work: iterating, learning from mistakes and valuing sustainability over burnout. A reflective but practical talk for anyone who wants to work more peacefully - not just faster.
Giulia Scalaberni
Giulia began her journey as a web dev, moved to data analyst and today she’s a product manager of a BI tool in an IT healthcare company, leading remote Scrum teams with members from 8 different cultures.
She’s relentlessly people‑centric, fascinated by how diverse cultures interact and always reading and exploring differences to make teamwork more “human”.
When she’s not shaping product strategy or pondering team dynamics, you’ll find her at concerts imagining the tour management behind the scenes, or with a plane ticket already booked — Osaka and Lisbon are her places of the heart.
She’s hopelessly obsessed with bubble tea, loves kangaroos and shares honest storytelling and practical insights that anyone can steal and use tomorrow.