Ben listens to users, and then is a voice for the customer. His manager wrote, “Ben is one of the preeminent experts in user research at IBM, and is often sought out by teams to provide reliable, cutting edge insights into customers. He is always quick to share his expertise across IBM. Feedback from teams is uniformly positive-- they appreciate his deep experience, quick turn-around on high quality work and friendly, easy-going personality.”Ben has completed 100s of research studies covering a breadth of methodologies and topics, and has created successful enterprise programs for generative and evaluative research utilizing A/B testing, moderated and unmoderated usability, and voice of the customer feedback systems. His motto, “Data rules!”, expresses his dedication to data science and continuous improvement as keys to the pursuit of truly knowing the customer, and his leadership in agile practice pushes the balance of research and product delivery into the lifecycle of business.Dubbed research “Sensei” by an IBM GM shows Ben’s heart to share knowledge with an ability to do so. He has written and taught collage/grad courses in aspects of UX, HF, and digital commerce. He also envisioned and lead development of a User Research Library, offering access to research studies across IBM.Ben graduated Summa Cum Laude, is board certified both as a User Experience Professional and in Human Factors, and just for fun, has earned multiple international medals singing barbershop. He strives for excellence in everything he does.SpecialtiesThinking outside the box. Leadership, management, communication, collaboration. Agile. Training, mentoring. User centered design, contextual inquiry, usability, strategy, information architecture, UX design, interviews, focus groups, surveys, sentiment analysis, journey mapping, mental models, heuristic reviews, expert reviews, storyboarding, design workshops, card / tree sorting, wire framing, design, prototyping, data analysis