Lead UX Researcher, Segmentation
Indeed / Remote
January 2020 – present
An opportunity arose in early 2020 to return to my individual contributor roots and join a small, scrappy, startup-like team within Indeed’s Job Seeker organization as the sole researcher to help drive forward initiatives around making sure both sides of our marketplace - job seekers and employers - have what they need to navigate searching and hiring. Since then we’ve:
Grown the Segmentation research team from 1 to 3
Created repeatable frameworks for research activities for our most common use cases
Established and embraced a multi-pronged research strategy that incorporates quantitative & qualitative research, tactical & generative, moderated & unmoderated, etc.
Delivered tangible value to our product teams including recommendations on what to move forward with and what to sunset
UX Research Manager, SMB
Indeed / Austin, TX
April 2019 – April 2020
After a restructure at Indeed, I moved to the SMB User Experience team to manage 8 qualitative researchers and 2 research operations coordinators, and continue to elevate the research practice. As a team we have:
Identified and defined processes to enhance partnerships between researchers and stakeholders
Contributed to both tactical and strategic product initiatives to better support our employers
Defined success metrics for improving both practice and product
UX Research Manager, Tools & Startups
Indeed / Austin, TX
October 2018 – April 2019
In July of 2018 I began to build a research team to support Indeed’s various internal tools and smaller startup products that live outside the primary indeed.com domain. In 8 months, I:
Grew a research practice from 1 (me) to 7
Helped develop a framework for introducing research as a discipline to already-established product teams
Coached UX researchers new to the Indeed space
Facilitated cross-product collaboration to help product teams meet business goals together
Fostered a culture of collaboration and communication across cross-functional teams
Sr. UX Researcher, Startups
Indeed / Austin, TX
April 2018 – October 2018
After a year on the Employer team, I moved over to work on a focused startup product dedicated to solving one of our employers’ biggest pain points. During this time, I:
Developed a strategic partnership with Design, Product, and Engineering leads to drive business goals
Created a research cadence to match the startup model’s super quick concept-tweak-concept-tweak flow
Performed multiple research methodologies dependent upon the research questions and the time constraints
UX Researcher, SMB Employer
Indeed / Austin, TX
April 2017 – April 2018
I joined Indeed when UX was still a small, tight-knit team. Now it’s a large, tight-knit team. Focusing on the experiences of our small & medium business employers, I worked to:
Analyze employers’ needs, goals, drives, and behaviors
Get product teams the results they need at a pace they can get behind
Champion employers’ needs and wants
Drive business goals to meet employers’ goals
Perform multiple research methodologies, including concept testing, contextual inquiries, competitive analyses, heuristic evaluations, small-scale surveys, and, of course, usability tests
Sr. User Researcher
Expero Inc. / Austin, TX
December 2014 – present
As Sr. User Researcher with a firm specializing in custom software, graph solutions, product discovery, architecture & development, and UX design, I am tasked with being the end-user's champion. Defining user audiences in complex domains, prioritizing features and roadmaps, and validating usefulness and usability of custom software are a few of my key responsibilities as the voice of the user.
Conduct stakeholder interviews, contextual inquiries, site audits, and usability tests
Analyze users’ needs, goals, drives, and behaviors; write user personas and user stories
Synthesize user experience research to inform design of complex custom softwares
Adapt user research practices for an agile environment
Collaborate with cross-disciplinary teams to ensure end-user goals are met
Develop strategic and tactical improvements to user research processes and practices
Write industry-specific blog posts
Manage company blog as well as Twitter and LinkedIn pages
Sr. UX Researcher
Design For Use / Austin, TX
August 2013 – November 2014
RESEARCH
Developed strategic and tactical improvements to user research processes and practices
Managed user research intern
Conducted stakeholder interviews, contextual inquiries, site audits, and usability tests
Analyzed users’ needs, goals, drives, and behaviors; wrote user profiles and journeys
Synthesized user experience research to inform design of Web sites, platforms, and systems
Recommended content management strategy best practices
MARKETING
Wrote monthly UX blog
Managed social media
Managed and deployed quarterly newsletter
User Experience Researcher
Design For Use / Austin, TX
February 2012 – August 2013
Conducted stakeholder interviews, contextual inquiries, site audits, and usability tests
Analyzed users’ needs, goals, drives, and behaviors; write user profiles and journeys
Synthesized user experience research to inform design of Web sites, platforms, and systems
Copy Editor
Words As Words / Brooklyn, NY & Austin, TX
August 2008 – August 2017
Copy edit and proofread fiction and nonfiction titles for a variety of publishing companies and imprints
Write cover copy for Berkley and NAL (Penguin Group)
Manage schedule comprised of ten or more projects simultaneously
Assistant Production Editor
Penguin Group (USA) / New York, NY
August 2006 – August 2008
Copy edited, proofread, fact-checked fiction and nonfiction manuscripts and book covers for accuracy and consistency of style
Monitored 9-month production schedules for 3 imprints, avg. 25 titles/month; consistently followed up with 8 departments at all stages to meet monthly and seasonal deadline
Editorial Assistant
Pearson Prentice Hall / Upper Saddle River, NJ
September 2005 – August 2006
Assisted with the development of each college-level textbook, including contract agreements, cover and interior photo research, and manuscript production preparation
Coordinated long-term review projects, focus groups, and hiring of freelancers
Supported and sustained the first audio study guide, VangoNotes
ESL Teacher
Istituto Americano / Florence, Italy
August 2004 – July 2005
Developed curriculum and taught English at all levels to native Italian speakers (ages 15–55) in a private school
Created, administered, and graded exams and writing assignments, regularly tracking and communicating students’ progress