Welcome! I’m a Senior Product Researcher & Growth Strategist with 15 years of UX and Digital Marketing experience at startups, nonprofits, midsized and large, publicly-traded companies.
In a nutshell, I help ensure products and services are useful, useable, and actually get used.
I do this by creating mixed-method research protocols, collecting data, and analyzing it to make thoughtful recommendations across the entire product development life cycle. My deliverables have included conceptual frameworks, service blueprints, prioritized UX/UI recommendations, and product team playbooks.
My goal is to create more intentional human experiences through a deep understanding of the contexts and people we serve.
Say hello on LinkedIn!
Key traits
Proactive
I take a highly proactive approach to problem-solving and information gathering to drive all of my projects forward.
Two years after joining IBM, I sent a video petition to the General Manager of Design, led an org-wide panel discussion, and wrote an article all advocating for Product Managers to partner more closely with UX Researchers across the entire product development life cycle (PDLC), rather than merely after launch. Less than a year later, IBM introduced a major initiative around the importance of leveraging user research across the PDLC. IBM’s “Product Excellence Office” was formed, and their leadership invited me to instruct at “Product Management Academy”—a new program designed to up-skill IBM Product Managers with a strong emphasis on the value of UX Research across the PDLC.
Strategic
I’m a big picture thinker and adept at zooming in and out to gain holistic understanding—always balancing the grand plan with a healthy respect for curveballs. I enjoy immersing myself in a new product domain, problem space, or user group, yet am keenly aware of (and actively ensuring my work aligns to) the overarching business strategy.
Collaborative
Silo-busting is essential to my approach, and it extends beyond teamwork: I actively seek opportunities to challenge boundaries, reshape team dynamics and foster innovation by engaging colleagues across departments.
Analytical
One aspect of my work that I especially enjoy is synthesizing complex data from a variety of sources—usually a combination of behavioral analytics, market research, and qualitative and quantitative data from a variety of sources. This ability to translate raw data into actionable recommendations is one of my magic ingredients for driving innovative decision-making.
Articulate
No matter how stellar your work is, if it’s not delivered in a clear and compelling way, you won’t get the outcomes you want. I take tremendous care in how I communicate verbally, orally, and in written form to increase understanding, garner stakeholder buy-in, and drive meaningful outcomes.
Presenting the Path to value playbook to a panel of Design executives + the entire Design org at IBM’s Quarterly Design Review
Teaching Advanced Design Thinking and User Research to graduate students at the University of Texas at Austin
Site visit with Jen Spatz to better understand our target users (System Administrators)
Katy Oldfield, Tucker Adelman, and myself presenting our final playback at IBM in Austin, TX
Learning about the importance of Accessibility in product design — these goggles simulate a common visual impairment
Our data wall for IBM Patterns Design & UX Research Bootcamp in Austin, TX
Marketing photoshoot with fellow IBMers
Leading a session on how to turn problems into possibilities with Design Thinking @ the 2023 Texas Library Conference
Leading a discussion on how UX research fits into the product development lifecycle at IBM Product Management Academy in San Jose, CA
IBM Corporate Strategy invited our team to HQ to share why—out of ~23,000 teams—CEO Arvind Krishna selected our watsonx solution as having exemplified the best use of, and greatest possible impact for, IBM
Stakeholder kickoff at IBM in Austin, TX
Leading a discussion on how UX researchers can be a product leader’s greatest ally at IBM Product Management Academy in Armonk, NY
Teaching Advanced Design Thinking + User Research to graduate students at the University of Texas at Austin
Facilitating a team workshop at IBM in Austin, TX
Sharing collaboration and user-centered design best practices with IBM's Corporate Strategy team at HQ in Armonk, NY
NYC premiere of Modernism, Inc featuring IBM’s GM of Design, Katrina Alcorn
Contextual inquiry with a NATIVE guest in Austin, Texas
Site visit to better understand our target users (System Administrators)
Final playback prep with Delicia Li and Katy Oldfield
IBM Design HQ in Austin, Texas
Hashing it out at the IBM Design HQ in Austin, TX
Having fun at IBM
I led a session on how to turn problems into possibilities with Design Thinking @ the 2023 Texas Library Conference
Workshop participants at my session on how to turn problems into possibilities with Design Thinking @ the 2023 Texas Library Conference