Product Leadership Research | Discovery + Big Bets
Evaluating product discovery for big bets with “why now” data clarity
Successful companies evaluate CX barriers as ripe opportunities, connecting trending feedback with employee feasibility workshops in prioritizing big bets with executive storytelling.
Value, Delivered
Knowing where to invest is challenging. Research can be both powerful and dangerous if the analysis is not thorough: systems, business, market. I weave insights into storytelling that gives confidence in direction to invest in or avoid investing with consequences.
Research is validation over guessing. I lead investigative research where business teams connect with customer goals, establishing facts over fictional assumptions. I have supported teams with research team leadership to confidently move toward building new products and services. Conveying the voice of your customers with employee tactical success for business clarity is my value.
This includes connecting qualitative and quantitative analysis scorecards and frameworks origininating in 2012 with Accenture’s first-ever center-of-excellence research practice, prior to the Fjord acquisition.
Quantitative Research studies including surveys and prototype testing
Qualitative Research studies
Dendrogram Card Sorting, pathing for navigation branch success testing
A/B/n Testing Studies; Correlational Studies
Content Strategy comprehension and UX testing success methodologies
Brand Messaging Research, including empathy and trust relationships
Field Ethnographic and Longitudinal Studies
Analytical Marketing and CX Performance Measurement
Multichannel Communications Strategy Evaluations
Segmentation Analytics and Persona Strategy
Policy & Process Design Impacts
Collaborative outcomes
Caterpillar: Directed global process research across acquired BUs — fed a B2B quoting lift of +38% on a $6.9B pipeline.
Prudential: Led qual + quant research and persona strategy behind a $27MM transformation of a $1.55T-AUM business; unified 30+ sites into one architecture.
Vanguard: Led competitive financial + SEO research insights that drove a 26% performance lift; integrated two ADP/Wisely products into one design.
United Airlines: Field research + 9 airport agent workshops drove change management and measurable CX lift that unlocked agent adoption of new apps.
A Place for Mom: VoC persona research that defined exactly what to prioritize in a new digital self-service tied to call-center support.
Practiced leadership: Stood up Accenture’s first research Center-of-excellence best-practices (2012, pre-Fjord); led 73+ design-thinking workshops, 9 at airports.
KPIs in case studies
“It is wiser to find out than suppose.”
— Mark Twain
Featured Case Studies
Caterpillar
Salesforce Global Unification Discovery & Alignment
Featured Case Study : Business Research
When customer success required product process collaboration.
Challenge
Global acquired business units with fragmented operations created complex organizational sales cycles with role ownership and process discrepancies across the sales cycle.
Company
Caterpillar
Goal
Strategic Customer Success to unify a single SFMC PMLC platform from global process research.
Nuveen
0-1 system in 4 months
Featured Case Study: TIAA Product Ops
To forecast what’s ahead, you build flexible systems now
Challenge
Upon looking at a 12-month roadmap having just joined the company within a month, my one priority as Head of Design was immediately clear to no one but myself: deploy a new design system with only 2% of TIAA’s system budget, enough for only two design consultants while migrating and upskilling my design team into Figma in parellel.
Client
TIAA and Nuveen (Enterprise)
Goal
Build a 0-1 design system to deploy in only four months with a micro team and then scale to second version.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
— Albert Einstein
Secondary Case Studies
Prudential
CX modernization with business transformation
Secondary Case Study : VoC Personas
When investment behaviors required emotional relationships.
Challenge
Since people have different financial associations and knowledge levels with money, it influences how they navigate their life goals with traditional investment products. We needed to unify an experience that worked for many different investors.
Company
Prudential
Goal
Integrate 30+ marketing/vanity sites into a unified responsive site to align customer, business, and advisor experiences with persona user-driven research.
United Airlines
Airport Vision Modernization Service Design
Secondary Case Study: Service Design Physical + Digital
When CX design requires thinking beyond the digital.
Challenge
To meet evolving customer experiences as a brand differentiator, employee experiences much change and adapt with them. How do we create a vision of the future with a pragmatic roadmap that remove legacy hardware?
Company
United Airlines
Goal
Showcase an augmented reality experience to evaluate what is possible in future concepts of a gate experience.
A Place For Mom
Self-serve Site Transformation Strategy
Secondary Case Study : VoC Personas
When knowing what to build required market research.
Challenge
A call center sales organization identified that younger customers preferred digital self-service while still wanting call center support in their journey.
Company
A Place for Mom
Goal
Research that defines what exactly to prioritize in a new digital self-service connected to call center support.
Tertiary Case Studies
Dow Chemical
Site Brand Heuristics Transformation Strategy
Tertiary Case Study : Competitive and Brand Research
When differentiation required competitive analysis.
Challenge
Dow needed to overhaul its entire site for responsive design with actionable guidance in planning. They tasked me with conducting in-depth analysis and user research on brand recognition, heuristics, and best-in-class trends.
Company
Dow Chemical
Goal
Deliver reports on competitive best-in-class brand sites, UX research testing analysis, heuristic scoring with recommendations.
Duke Energy
Acquisition & Regulated Integration Transformation
Tertiary Case Study : User Research
When a product integration required user research.
Challenge
Post-acquisition by Duke Energy, integrate two utility websites with three verticals of customer website, in-store point-of-sale, and customer care, with various stakeholders and municipality regulations that limited offers and services.
Company
Duke Energy
Goal
Create a site-wide integrated storefront and first-ever customer care site from user pattern search research.
75%
of customers say they lose trust in an organization after a poor in-product experience.
71%
of customers say they place less trust in an organization after a poor customer service experience.
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Research I lead
I connect quantitative scale, severity, or volume with qualitative fidelity and reasoning behind your customer goals and pain points. This includes:
Case Study Evaluations
UX Usability Research and Heuristics
Brand Messaging Research
Correlational Studies
Longitudinal Studies
A/B Testing Studies
VoC/E Considerations