Orchestrated all guest facing product research while partnering with product developers to ensure they had actionable insights to confidently design products for the launch of Target’s $2 billion dollar owned brand, Good & GatherExecuted all aspects of research and strategy development for 15+ innovation projects for Target’s food & beverage business and resulted in the development of 50+ new-to-market product offeringsCoached leaders within product design, sourcing, branding, creative, and packaging teams on the benefits of human centered research, which heavily influenced the development of a cross-functional product innovation team Mentored fellow researchers on best practices around storytelling, research design, influencing up, facilitation techniques, white space opportunities, segmentation/persona development and product design strategiesPartnered with brand management and product design to influence buy-in of executive leadership on a new process on how to design brands with empathy and understanding of guest’s needs at its coreCreated a product insights podcast series at the height of the pandemic that allowed team members the flexibility to listen, learn and activate on the rapidly shifting behaviors of guests Successfully pivoted from traditional to virtual research methodologies quickly and effectively at the beginning of the pandemicCollaborated with cross-functional teams to conduct longitudinal and foundational research on a strategic segment of F&B guests that identified a 5year/$180M opportunityIdentified and managed new research vendors to expand the capabilities available to the product insights research team

Conducted research with in-store team members and the UX design team for a leading electronics retailer on proprietary technology usage among in-store team members that increased adoption rate by 30%Fostered relationships with numerous clients that resulted in five new business leads and developed partnerships with research vendors that introduced new research capabilities Facilitated a Southeast Asian food trend workshop that included local chefs, key creative & strategy team members followed by an ideation session that generated 175 novel concepts Created multiple consumer-centric messaging strategies for a leading CPG company’s communication pipeline by developing and leading ideation sessions with knowledge experts, agency partners and consumersClients: General Mills, Kohls, Cargill, Best Buy, Kraft

Designed a research plan to gather insights for consumers suffering from hearing lossHelped inform the UX design team to create a refurbished website for Starkey HearingAids that accounts for the unique needs of consumers with hear loss

I joined the Ignite 360 team when it was a 6mo old startup qualitative research firm. Threeyears later, I had become their top requested researcher ($700,000 in repeat business),managed 45% ($1.3MM) of their total project revenue stream, and was recognized as thethought leader for designing creative research methods for innovation projects. Developed a scenario map for the Starbucks UK Innovation team that identified opportunity areas and beverage trends to target for their beverage innovation pipelineRevealed unmet consumer needs for Chex cereals after identifying strong behavioral differences within their demographically similar target consumer set Enabled a leading CPG enterprise to facilitate intimate conversations with target consumers by designing a custom-designed board game, titled Lifeology Facilitated briefing session with key stakeholders and executives to align on project objectives while receiving buy-in on research methodologies and project logisticsDesigned methodologies and conducted research involving contextual inquires, ethnographies and workshops to resulted in a redesign of 3M’s water softening unitsCreated and presented deliverables to key stakeholders in the form of reports, videos, storyboards, presentations and workshopsCLIENTS: General Mills US & Canada (The Entire Cereal Portfolio, Yoplait, Totino’s,Nature Valley, Green Giant); Starbucks US & UK; Hershey’s; 3M.

Identified a logistical cost savings (3MM) for Nature Valley by digitally trackinghundreds of chocolate-covered granola bars through distributionReceived two “Outstanding Service” awards after successfully implementing a newsoftware program that allowed for a more integrated laboratory experienceAchieved a 60/40 taste preference for Fiber1 bars through consumer driven productimprovementsIncreased internal revenue stream by 185% by providing confidential stability expertiseto external CPG corporations