EXPERIENCE SUMMARY  

Accomplished User Experience Product and Design Researcher with over 20 years of experience for mobile, tablet, web, and application design. Conducts generative and summative research and manage all stages of user-centered design process. Develops research programs to inform business strategies. Manages and train junior and mid-career researchers.

Selected Clients include: Hess, McKesson, Morgan Stanley, GlaxoSmithKline, Aetna, Time Warner Cable, The College Board, Thomson Reuters, Advance Publications, CBS, JPMorgan, Bank of America, BusinessWeek Online, CIGNA, American Express, Pfizer, Dept. of Homeland Security, and Eli Lilly.

Recent interviews:

EXPERIENCE

FACEBOOK / WhatsApp (Jan 2018 – Present)                     UX Design Research 

  • Lead researcher for WhatsApp April 2019 – present
    • Lead for foundational 6-month research project to determine monetization strategy for WhatsApp business messaging. Included 2 quant surveys in 21 countries (17 languages) and 4 months qual field research in 9 countries (200+ participants)
    • Research findings set the strategic vision, defined people problems, and prioritized business objectives for multi-year Eng/PM/PMM/UXr work in the Business pillar
    • Managed team of over 85 UXr and vendor partners
  • Lead researcher for Ads Emerging Markets Jan 2018 – March 2019
    • Responsible for all research efforts for group; set goals and strategy for team; determine research roadmap
    • Primarily qualitative research (+light quant) exploratory/generative to set product roadmap for team (Facebook Lite, WhatsApp, Ads Manager, Light Weight Interface)
    • Contributed to increase of $300MM annual advertiser spend for emerging markets
    • Conduct primary research in emerging markets with cross-functional teammates
    • Manage vendor selection process and in-country vendors (project managers, moderators, interpreters, logistics)
    • Conduct summative research for in-progress designs and existing products (including scalable unmoderated remote in non-English languages in Africa, Middle East, Asia, LATAM)
    • Spearhead and chair monthly cross-organization Trust Research group with more than 90 internal researchers
  • Facilitate round-table research learning group focused on developing quant survey skills for qual researchers
  • Teach internal continuing education courses: Intro to UserZoom, Research in Practice, Researcher Safety Workshop
  • Mentor early-career researchers; founding member of Vendor Quality Task Force

INDEPENDENT CONSULTANT (Feb 2010 – Jan 2018)                                             User Research & Experience Design

  • Managing researcher for global segmentation and personas project (quant & qual, 9 countries)
  • Managing researcher for Millennials exploratory research
  • Managing researcher for product concepts and early-stage products
  • Managing researcher for European Union digital engagement (6 countries)
  • Establish protocols and research methods; evaluate new methodologies and determine efficacy
  • Director, Sr Researcher to establish a best-in-class research group for hardware & software products; responsibilities including training junior staff, establishing repeatable processes and procedures, developing deliverables templates and standards, building external vendor list and manage vendors; manage all stages of projects and day-to-day efforts; work closely with internal teams (product, content, development)
  • Director, Project manager, analyst, and UX SME for content management implementation
  • Director, Lead researcher and experience designer for home healthcare clinical documentation application
  • Director, Lead researcher and experience designer for pharmacy medication dispensing automated machine
  • Provided short-term interaction design for subscription horse racing and wagering website
  • UX researcher and designer for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 custom implementation for private insurance brokerage
  • Lead UX researcher and designer for content management system

NEW YORK CODE + DESIGN ACADEMY  (Feb – Jun 2016)                                         Instructor (Part-time)

  • Evening UX/UI 101 Course
  • Taught 2 cycles of 8-week introduction to UX course; created lectures, homework, curriculum that culminated in full life-cycle UX projects

DIRECTV (Feb 2009 – Feb 2010)                                                                                      Principle Usability Architect

  • Lead researcher and experience designer for 9 DIRECTV Latin American websites; Agile development environment
  • Designed MiDIRECTV, a secure self-service online bill-pay and account management website
  • Designed DIRECTV mobile DVR scheduler and DIRECTV Sports portal

ENTERPRISE Car Rental (Jan 2008 –Nov 2008)                                                             Lead Usability Architect

  • Managed and performed daily usability and research analysis efforts for full life-cycle application development projects; develop UCD process and methodology
  • Conducted primary market and user research
  • Consulted with senior-level business owners to assess near and long-term needs; provide expert strategic guidance

PHARMERICA/Kindred (Nov 2006 –Nov 2007)                                                           Sr. Business Analyst

  • Managed corporate-wide (all lines of business) scoping and planning for post-merger integration application transitions
  • Consultant on pharmacy division data conversion and replacement of prescription filling and billing system for institutional pharmacies utilizing EDI (electronic data interchange) standards

BE SQUARED CONSULTING (2004-2006, Principle)

CBS Television Network                                                                   Manager, UX & Business Analysis

  • Consulted on replacement of 20+ year old mainframe television sales traffic and planning system for media company; business process re-engineering, CRM software selection, training development, and change management, requirements gathering, business process reviews, SOX compliance
  • Business process improvement: evaluated effectiveness, efficiency, and adaptability of existing sales and marketing processes as it related to new applications. Performed gap analysis, created best practices recommendations, produced deliverables (use cases, workflows, functional specs, wireframes, GUI style guide)
  • Managed team of 5; scoped project work effort, developed approach and research methods, project plans, budget and resource planning, managed day-to-day engagement

JPMORGANCHASE                                                                                                              Release Manager & UX SME

  • Handled all aspects of release management (using CMM) for enterprise-wise and client facing tier-3 pre-trade and post-trade investment research portal that manages 80+ upstream/downstream data feeds; ensured the successful planning, control, and execution of all software changes into production, disaster recovery, and UAT environments; directly managed complex releases across multiple teams across multiple time zones
  • Formalized and documented application release workflow and methodology process for Operate, AD, and LoBs; organized compliance activities for application; UX SME for CAN system

MORGAN STANLEY                                                                                                                 Senior User Experience Designer

  • Consulted on enterprise-wide Knowledge Management and Content Management project across all business lines to offer single-point access to proprietary content via a Google-like search
  • Performed first ever one-on-one usability testing within Morgan Stanley

DELOITTE CONSULTING (2000-2003)                                                                               SENIOR CONSULTANT

CIGNA, User Experience Design

  • Performed expert evaluation and led redesign effort of a global B2C website
  • Facilitated JAD sessions with development, business, and executive teams
  • Devised key business plan for stakeholders with change management initiatives to gain enterprise-wide buy-in for usability improvement

BANK OF AMERICA, User Experience Design and IT Strategy

  • Managed team of 6 visual designers, information architects, and developers for front-end development of a $40MM B2B financial exchange to perform eMarketplace integration
  • Designed UI and user requirements for B2C payment system for e-Marketplace integration

ELI LILLY,  Business Process Automation and IT Strategy

  • Managed functional team of 6 in gathering requirements for targeting and delivering information in context for Pharmaceutical’s most comprehensive multi-brand, interactive platform for physicians
  • Identified key analytics, market segmentations, and implicit and explicit personalization rules for primary user needs; wrote use cases (UML); created scope-change process
  • Worked with client’s knowledge management team to revise their metadata management strategy for tracking and tagging content (based on Dublin Core)

PFIZER, Business Analysis, Project Management

  • Managed global content management project (RUP) that involved cross-functional team from communications, process, strategy, and technology. Developed SOW, project approach, risks, schedule, and budget
  • Directly produced web-based and traditional courseware for business users; conducted classroom training for world-wide deployment; conducted train-the-trainer sessions

ENJEWEL.COM (2000,  Digital Asset Manager

NEW YORK TIMES DIGITAL (1999), Graduate Marketing Associate – Intern

HEARST CASTLE (1996-1998), Tour Guide

Expertise:

User Research

  • contextual inquiry
  • observational studies
  • field studies
  • recruiting screeners
  • moderator guides
  • usability testing (lab & field, remote & in person)
  • A/B & multivariate testing
  • participatory design
  • in-person & remote interviews
  • online moderated blogs
  • stakeholder interviews
  • card sorts
  • surveys & questionnaires
  • online moderated blogs
  • focus groups
  • web analytics
  • personas & segmentation
  • expert reviews
  • Agile Zero sprint research
  • business analysis
  • content inventory and analysis; mapping
  • mentor, manage, and coach junior staff
  • develop and implement repeatable processes
  • project management

Experience Design

  • participatory design
  • parallel design
  • JAD
  • user scenarios
  • task, work, and process flows
  • journey mapping
  • conceptual wireframes
  • detailed wireframes
  • project management
  • develop and implement repeatable processes
  • experience design documentation/annotated wireframes
  • data visualizations
  • requirements documents
  • use cases
  • functional specification
  • mobile and tablet design (iOS and Android)
  • SAAS
  • application/product design
  • mentor, manage, and coach junior and mid-career researchers

SYSTEM EXPERIENCE

Design and UX Testing tools: Fireworks and InDesign, Visio, OmniGraffle, Camtasia Studio, Morae, Treejack and Optimal Sort, Survey Monkey, UserZoom, Sketch, InVision

Software/Technologies: Replicon, FrameworkLTC Pharmacy, WebSphere, Plumtree, Vignette, E.piphany Real-Time, Documentum, Commerce One, Siebel, NIC Commerce, DocStar, Eudora, Rational Suite,  Interwoven Team Site, Oracle, WebTrends, Vantive, Peregrine, Nagios, InstantDemo, Caliber RM, SharePoint, MS Dynamics CRM, Jira, KanBan, Drupal, WordPress

SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS/PRESENTATIONS

2019 BetterUX, London UK, invited speaker, ‘Democratizing UX Research’

2018 RE/SEARCH 2018 SF, Facebook internal research conference, 2 panel discussions: ‘Trust’, ‘Saying no to research requests’

2018 UX Insider, Bournemouth UK, invited speaker, ‘Research in Emerging Markets, an insiders’ view’

2012 UXPA (formerly UPA) International Conference Speaker “Reading Body language during Usability Testing – A Quick Guide” (updated for 2012)

2011 TED Project Advisor, ‘The Future of the Book’

2011 UPA International Conference, Education Co-Chair; Speaker “Reading Body language during Usability Testing – A Quick Guide”

2010 UPA International Conference, Experienced Practitioner Co-Chair

2009 UPA Conference, Panels Co-Chair

2008 UPA, Idea Market Talk “Back-end Usability”

2002-2006 UX Talks – New York University, School of Professional Studies Master’s Program

EDUCATION

New York University Masters of Science, Business and Technology (Web Publishing)

University of California, Santa Cruz Bachelor of Arts, English Literature

MEMBERSHIP/TRAINING

Member – Usability Professionals Association

Member – NYC Usability Professionals Assoc.

Member – IxDA, Interaction Design Association

Member – Web Producers Organization

Human Factors International: Putting Research into Practice

Quantitative Analysis for Usability

Human Factors International: User Centered Analysis

IBM: Content Management

IBM: WebSphere

Nielsen Norman Group: eCommerce Usability

Nielsen Norman Group: User Testing

Deloitte Consulting Training: Strategic Sourcing

Edward Tufte: Presenting Data and Information

UC Berkeley: Cognitive Psychology

Alberto Cairo: Infographics & Data Visualization

New York University: Statistics for Business

FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Spanish – Advanced Conversation; Intermediate Business