Research & Innovation
I have worked at the nexus of user research, market research, and innovation for many years. I work across both qualitative and quantitative domains to understand consumer needs and market fit/sizing.
I get to see inside people's fridges as part of my job.
New products, new markets
I’m a managing director of audience insights at The New York Times. Over the course of my seven years at The Times I have focused on our non-news, experimental products group. (I think of it as R&D with a P&L.) I've helped NYT Cooking and Games grow into robust businesses, and helped launch both NYT Parenting and NYT en Español. I also led research efforts for an ambitious global growth initiative, bringing journalists and product teams on in-depth, ethnographic research forays in 10 countries.
For the past three years I've embedded on the NYT Cooking team, working closely with product, design, brand, and marketing. I co-developed the strategic audience framework that the business has used as the foundation for all product and marketing work in the years since.
Cooking is a fascinating subject area, as it touches on health, money, community, skill development, and joy. I've felt so honored to learn from so many of our users (and potential users) about their lives both in and out of the kitchen.
Hybrid Insights is “an approach that integrates quantitative research into human-centered design. Hybrid insights allow us to embed stories in the data, bringing the data to life.”
- Creative Confidence by Tom & David Kelley
Human-centered design & innovation
Over four years at innovation consultancy IDEO, I led human-centered research projects that brought me into the field to learn from consumers on six continents. Some fun examples: I helped design an (award-winning!) "fruit cup for adults" with Del Monte, helped people learn to fly with AOPA, and helped Samsung communicate with consumers about the inner workings of their devices. I also led research for the redesign of the packaging for Windows 8.
I led many, many design thinking workshops over these years and also co-built "Hybrid Insights," IDEO's first quant/qual (mixed methods) research unit.
"On-stage" at a panel event
Recently seen and heard here:
Sharing random facts about myself at Meeting: Juliette Melton
Chatting about user research at The New York Times on Dollars to Donuts
Talking about research practice at Smart Design’s "Smart Panel" on Qualitative Research at Scale"
Writing on How We Used Design Research to Launch NYT en Español
Opining on design and research in How We Built NYT Parenting