Experience

Sparksoft Corporation

• United States
• IT Services and IT Consulting
• 100 - 200 Employee

• Lead UX Researcher / HCD SME

  • Apr 2023 - Oct 2023

  • Applied HCD perspectives to explore a diverse range of user behaviors, attitudes, and mindsets to develop a deep understanding of emerging needs for the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Enterprise Portal System (EPS) project. • Processed legacy research materials such as personas and user flows, synthesized new insights, and prepared updated HCD processes and frameworks for the creation of novel products, services, and business models. • Mentored and guided the activities… Show more • Applied HCD perspectives to explore a diverse range of user behaviors, attitudes, and mindsets to develop a deep understanding of emerging needs for the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Enterprise Portal System (EPS) project. • Processed legacy research materials such as personas and user flows, synthesized new insights, and prepared updated HCD processes and frameworks for the creation of novel products, services, and business models. • Mentored and guided the activities of a researcher, UX designer, and UX developer to address customer requirements, service requests, and incident tickets within a SAFe Agile framework. Planned research and design activities using Jira in large-scale Program Increment (PI) planning events and conducted activities in 2-week sprint structure. Developed structured reporting for documenting activities and results in Confluence. • Conducted a small scale inclusive design investigation of the EPS site using JAWS screen-reading and Dragon Dictate dictation technologies. Increased awareness of accessibility gaps on the Portal site. Developed and helped quickly deploy a solution within a single sprint. • Examined legacy data analytics across the EPS user interface in support of CMS’ transition from Google Analytics (GA) to Adobe Customer Journey Analytics (CJA). Created a measurement framework and recommended revised event tagging to collect key user behavior metrics better oriented to EPS goals. Show less



Huge

• United States
• Business Consulting and Services
• 500 - 600 Employee

• Principal Researcher

  • Apr 2021 - Feb 2023

  Washington DC-Baltimore Area • Pioneered a new career path at Huge focused on exploring and mastering multiple research methodologies and tools, providing craft-level mentorship across the Huge Research team, and introducing training, education, and learning opportunities to team members on a regular cadence. • Held office hours twice weekly to provide a safe space to team members to raise questions and debate research goals, methodologies, and data visualization. Championed story-telling techniques to improve… Show more • Pioneered a new career path at Huge focused on exploring and mastering multiple research methodologies and tools, providing craft-level mentorship across the Huge Research team, and introducing training, education, and learning opportunities to team members on a regular cadence. • Held office hours twice weekly to provide a safe space to team members to raise questions and debate research goals, methodologies, and data visualization. Championed story-telling techniques to improve colleagues' presentations to internal teams, stakeholders, and clients. • Managed teams of researchers, designers, and strategists in achieving project goals. Planned and moderated market research projects using a variety of methodologies, including segmentation, focus groups, bulletin boards, quantitative surveys, ethnographies, tracking studies, and usability testing. • Tested innovative user experience designs with target audiences across various mobile, desktop, voice, and physical interfaces to determine whether designs met established usability standards, user needs, and business goals. Advised clients and project teams on analyzing, interpreting, and prioritizing consumer insight. • Expanded personal expertise in market research projects into quantitative-focused methods including concept resonance and conjoint analysis.

• Research Lead

  • Jul 2016 - Apr 2021

  Washington DC-Baltimore Area • Worked as an individual contributor across multiple project streams, with an emphasis in civic design work for Federal clients in healthcare and grants management sectors. Performed research projects across multiple commercial domains including shipping & logistics, quick service restaurants, hospitality, travel, banking, entertainment, communications, business-to-business, automotive, recreational vehicles, fashion, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, apparel, home improvement, and consumer goods… Show more • Worked as an individual contributor across multiple project streams, with an emphasis in civic design work for Federal clients in healthcare and grants management sectors. Performed research projects across multiple commercial domains including shipping & logistics, quick service restaurants, hospitality, travel, banking, entertainment, communications, business-to-business, automotive, recreational vehicles, fashion, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, apparel, home improvement, and consumer goods. • Served as the primary HCD expert / UX researcher across multi-year contracts with CMS on the Quality Payment Program (QPP) and Internet Quality Improvement and Evaluation System (iQIES) projects. Conducted additional research activities for the Website Data Discoverability & Stakeholder Engagement (WWDSE), Care Choice Experience (CCXP), and the Claims Data to Part D (AB2D) API projects. Researched, documented, and contributed to the design and usability testing of the main submission and feedback user experiences, business intelligence (BI) dashboards and data visualizations for CMS employees involved in analytics and reporting, and internal/external reporting interfaces.



AT&T

• United States
• Telecommunications
• 700 & Above Employee

• Professional - User Experience Research (formerly Senior Technical Architect)

  • May 2014 - Jul 2016

  Greater Atlanta Area • Improved usability through multiple formal studies examining customers' behavior with Axure and iRise prototypes and production-grade web pages on desktop, tablet, and mobile/smartphone devices. • Developed and administered usability-focused surveys in UserZoom related to customers' interaction with AT&T’s web pages and myAT&T mobile application. • Conducted customer collaboration sessions to gauge interests, preferences, and needs related to home network management and personalized… Show more • Improved usability through multiple formal studies examining customers' behavior with Axure and iRise prototypes and production-grade web pages on desktop, tablet, and mobile/smartphone devices. • Developed and administered usability-focused surveys in UserZoom related to customers' interaction with AT&T’s web pages and myAT&T mobile application. • Conducted customer collaboration sessions to gauge interests, preferences, and needs related to home network management and personalized video services. • Coordinated usability expertise reviews of creative assets to assess potential human factors and usability gaps prior to usability testing and deployment. • Delivered detailed study results and recommendations to key stakeholders, business leads, Agile development teams, and usability colleagues. • Managed laboratory hardware and software resources to support colleagues’ usability testing efforts. Show less



SA Technologies, Inc.

• United States
• Software Development
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Senior Research Associate

  • Dec 2011 - Feb 2014

  Marietta, GA • Promoted to Senior Research Associate due to excellent performance as a primary investigator and writing successful proposals • Submitted Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) proposals, statements of work, and white papers to secure contracts with funding agencies. Transitioned successful work products into future contract opportunities. Instrumental in closing over 17 contracts valued at more than $3 million. • Managed teams in research and design of user interfaces… Show more • Promoted to Senior Research Associate due to excellent performance as a primary investigator and writing successful proposals • Submitted Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) proposals, statements of work, and white papers to secure contracts with funding agencies. Transitioned successful work products into future contract opportunities. Instrumental in closing over 17 contracts valued at more than $3 million. • Managed teams in research and design of user interfaces, decision-support tools, and training programs for military, government, and industrial customers with concentration in the electric power systems field. • Supervised and participated in multiple simultaneous projects, successfully meeting budgets and milestones. At peak capacity, led 5 concurrent projects as a primary investigator, directing the activities of multiple researchers and designers, while contributing expertise to as many as 13 different projects at a time. • Directly designed user interfaces for mobile screens, console-level displays, large group displays, and video wall applications following human factors and situation awareness design principles. Collaborated on storyboards, wireframes, paper and electronic prototypes, user specifications, style guides, and graphics. • Modeled users’ cognitive processes using fuzzy cognitive mapping techniques. Produced algorithm-based tools for decision-support based on user models.

• Research Associate III

  • Apr 2008 - Dec 2011

  Marietta, GA • Promoted to Research Associate III due to excellent performance as a primary investigator and writing successful proposals • Supervised and directed small teams (2-5 members) of researchers and interns in assessments of clients’ situation awareness requirements, human factors gaps, and usability needs. • Developed user and technical specifications and produced solution designs based on analysis results. • Conducted user-based experimental studies in accordance with Institutional… Show more • Promoted to Research Associate III due to excellent performance as a primary investigator and writing successful proposals • Supervised and directed small teams (2-5 members) of researchers and interns in assessments of clients’ situation awareness requirements, human factors gaps, and usability needs. • Developed user and technical specifications and produced solution designs based on analysis results. • Conducted user-based experimental studies in accordance with Institutional Review Board procedures. Served as reviewer on company’s accredited internal IRB. • Measured quantitative and qualitative user performance metrics including objective and subjective measures of situation awareness and workload.

• Research Associate II

  • Jul 2006 - Apr 2008

  Marietta, GA • Derived user requirements by applying formative research methodologies in situation awareness such as goal-directed task analysis and ethnographic observations of subject matter experts. • Directly designed user interface screens in accordance with human factors and situation awareness design principles, contributing to content, layout, navigation, interaction flow, and information management. • Collaborated on storyboarding, paper and electronic prototyping, user specifications, and… Show more • Derived user requirements by applying formative research methodologies in situation awareness such as goal-directed task analysis and ethnographic observations of subject matter experts. • Directly designed user interface screens in accordance with human factors and situation awareness design principles, contributing to content, layout, navigation, interaction flow, and information management. • Collaborated on storyboarding, paper and electronic prototyping, user specifications, and graphical design. • Utilized feedback from colleagues, management, and end users to redesign user interfaces to map more closely to operational needs.