Informed research strategies that highlight the user-voice at every point in the iterative development process.

I believe that relationships are the foundation for success in any environment, including the relationships created between the user and new technology in their homes and workplaces. I lead design with a desire to form authentic relationships with users and to deepen that relationship throughout the iterative design process. I build awareness of our users and empathy for their struggles across organizations by bringing the target market to life. My approach to strategic research equips designers to create better experiences, developers to appreciate the minute details, and leaders to prioritize the tradeoffs that deliver successful products to an eagerly waiting audience.

10+

Users Per Iteration

100s

Hours Engaging Users

Creating Connection to the User

Product teams that truly understand their target users and the user problems that they aim to solve are more dedicated to delivering high quality solutions. I believe that great researchers have the power to not only inform product teams about the characteristics of a target user but the ability to actually bring the user to life in the hearts and minds of the team.

I have created thick personas for several projects that encouraged cross-functional teams to reference the persona by name as if the users were real people on the product team.  Developers associated a face and a name to the experience they were creating. Designers felt empathy for the struggles of a specific person in their mind as they weighed pros and cons of design tradeoffs. Product leaders thought of the user as they made trade-offs on features and ship timeframes. 

Thick personas are informed by multiple rounds of mixed methods research and require the participation of a large sample of representative users to accurately represent their target. When delivered in a highly visual and emotionally charged manner, the personas "stick" with product teams who become eager to make a difference in the lives of these fictitious representations.

A sample of a thick persona brought to life for the product team through imagery and meaningful connection. 

Directing Strategic Decision Making

As the design leader in product development processes, I believe it is my responsibility to not only provide my design insight but to also provide strategic direction as informed by users. As a result of the innovative nature of my work, conceptualizing products of the future and iterating to v1.0 launches, I have created novel approaches to gathering user insight. 

As part of the Luca team at Adobe, I created a lighthouse program in which I fostered deep relationships with rolling waves of users from our earliest conceptual ideas through to Luca launch. These users initially provided deep understanding of their existing workflows and pain points but soon began interacting with prototypes of our conceptual ideas which highlighted opportunities for major pivots in our product direction. The Luca product that launched was distinctly different from our earliest concepts and yet was highly effective in meeting the needs of our target market. Luca was a great example of the power of the user voice in the strategic decision making of an innovative product launch. 

A screenshot of an early Luca authoring environment prototype as provided for lighthouse users to evaluate.

Defining Research Approach

One of the great challenges when working with teams that embrace the value of research is the realization that there are never enough researchers to meet the desired demand. As a leader in strategic research, I develop approaches to address research goals by considering methodologies, necessary researcher involvement, and timeframe to produce the desired impact. 

I have assembled teams to meet research goals through the thoughtful acquisition of research tooling, addition of temporary vendors, mentoring of junior researchers, and careful consideration of the most impactful approaches to use at any point in time. 

A presentation illustrating the team and methods available for meeting research goals for the product.

Communicating the Value of Research

Research is only valuable if it is meaningfully embraced by teams and strategic decision makers. To ensure that my team's research is impactful, I advocate for research to have a seat at the table throughout the development process. I also strive to communicate research plans, invitations to activities, and results in a manner that makes it simple to take away key findings at a glance. I mentor researchers on strategies to analyze and condense research results into reports with easily consumed top-line action items. 

A presentation illustrating the team and methods available for meeting research goals for the product.

CASE STUDY | ADOBE SPARK / EXPRESS

Project: As part of an innovation team (Design | Engineering | Product), conceptualize a strategy for bringing the non-creative user into the Adobe customer base. 

Role: As the Design representative in the innovation triad, ideate on key opportunities for Adobe in the non-designer workflow. Enable rapid pivots and iterative implementation by creating strategies to bring the voice of the customer into the process. 

Process: The project used a design, engineering, product triad to conceptualize, prototype, and rapidly drive a validated product to implementation. To effectively provide design insight in this new area for Adobe, I drove the following key initiatives: 

• Ethnographic-style studies to understand the non-designer users 
• Facilitation of design-led brainstorming sessions and coordination of design challenges to identify opportunities
• Creation and management of a lighthouse program which identified key partners and fostered deep relationships with each as a means of gathering insights along the development process
• Collaborated with the Design | Engineering | Product triad to rapidly pivot and iterate on the product concept
• Up-leveled user insights to executive team to build buy-in and funding for the continued effort

Results: The Lighthouse Program concluded with deep engagement of the recruited users and 100% reporting plans to begin using the launched tool upon release. Project Luca launched as Adobe's first offering enabling the non-designer to create beautiful long-form content. 

Detailed case study available upon request.

RÉSUMÉ

CONNECT

CONTACT