David Lessard Email & Phone Number

Richmond, Virginia Area

Design Lead & Strategist (2019-present)• Leading a multi-disciplinary team, planned, designed, and cultivated multiple payments features from discovery to conception through testing to production (e.g. RTFA animation, payment confidence, series/instance, payment options) while planning future state vision and high-level strategy for Payments/AutoPay area. During tenure raised AutoPay enrollment rates from 12% to 16%. Ensured adherence to accessibility standards for international payment… Show more Design Lead & Strategist (2019-present)• Leading a multi-disciplinary team, planned, designed, and cultivated multiple payments features from discovery to conception through testing to production (e.g. RTFA animation, payment confidence, series/instance, payment options) while planning future state vision and high-level strategy for Payments/AutoPay area. During tenure raised AutoPay enrollment rates from 12% to 16%. Ensured adherence to accessibility standards for international payment flow redesign.• Selected as designer for our initial COVID digital forbearance response. Built relationships with product/business partners and designed initial prototypes; collaborated with parallel team to ensure holistic experience.• As designer for Recoveries (end-stage Collections), designed and iterated on a phased-feature internal digital recoveries experience for a potential annual savings of $70-100M (in production Q1/Q2 2021).• Chaired Associate Council of 24 cross-LOB associates in collecting and synthesizing associate insights and needs, directly reporting to head of Design.User Experience Researcher (2015-2019)• Planned and executed dozens of long-term research agendas and hundreds of individual research projects (50+ per year) using converging, quantitative and qualitative methods, ranging from in-home generative research to ad-hoc guerilla testing to remote usability tests throughout the full iterative design cycle for both customer-facing (consumers/business) and associate-facing end users.• In addition to managing full-stack research for priority teams, served as go-to research consultant for team of 60+ designers as Practice Lead.• Formalized research practice by creating templates, patterns, and documentation and launched a research repository. Developed, taught User Research 101 class; mentored junior researchers, coached other designers. Show less

Salt Lake City, Ut

Graduate Researcher• Proposed, designed and executed 5 multi-year projects featuring 26 separate experiments examining the interaction between human perception and technology• Composed designs and implemented strict procedures adhering to human-subject regulations• Executed studies and analyzed data for 500+ participants using a variety of statistical analyses• Created database models and wrote data queries and scripts• Integrated new technology into research design such… Show more Graduate Researcher• Proposed, designed and executed 5 multi-year projects featuring 26 separate experiments examining the interaction between human perception and technology• Composed designs and implemented strict procedures adhering to human-subject regulations• Executed studies and analyzed data for 500+ participants using a variety of statistical analyses• Created database models and wrote data queries and scripts• Integrated new technology into research design such as physiological sensors (e.g. galvanic skin resistance sensor) and virtual reality equipment (full body motion capture using WorldViz PPT tracking and MotionBuilder, head mounted displays such as nVisor SX60)• Wrote manuscripts for publication in international journals and conference submission• Mentored, trained, and managed 26 undergraduate research assistants (up to 6 at a time), counseling several into graduate school or employment within the field• Fully funded (12 semesters) with stipend and tuition reimbursement via grants and assistantships • NSF Graduate Research Fellowship 2012 Honorable Mention Instructor• Taught three upper-level undergraduate courses, developing content, readings, and assignments • Managed 10 semester-long group projects resulting in publication-ready articles• Awarded University of Utah University Teaching Assistantship (2014; University grant awarding one year funding to develop and teach Psychology of Film class) Show less

Honolulu, Hi

• Developed software program integrating EEG and eye-tracking with time-coded experiment• Collected comprehensive marketplace evaluation for competing products• Created procedure and assembled sensor suite for actigraphy-based DOD PTSD study• Contributed to software and algorithm bug testing; identified major bug in shipped product

Charlottesville, Virginia Area

• Performed studies and helped design follow-ups• Methods used included EEG, motion tracking, behavioral measures, and E-prime inputs• Initiated and completed study on distance perception resulting in first-author publication

Minneapolis, Mn

• Investigated object identification and delineation at a variety of acuity levels, with a focus on low-vision conditions • Developed Matlab program to run experiment, integrating LabelMe annotation tool

Nashville, Tn

• Designed and completed experiment investigating the effect of feedback on the object-position paradigm in the context of human-robot interaction

Charlottesville, Va

• Performed child psychology study on object individuation in nine-month olds• Scored data using frame-by-frame eye tracking analysis program

Washington, Dc

• Implemented robotic receptionist with voice capabilities• Integrated large undocumented code repository with sensors (e.g. LADAR) and other hardware (e.g. pan/tilt motor)

Ms (2013), Cognitive Psychology

Ba, Cognitive Science And Psychology

Activities and Societies: Wesley Foundation, Blueprint Leadership Program, Shakespeare on the Lawn, Undergraduate Research, Virginia.