Kate Larson Email & Phone Number

Langley, Washington, United States

https://goodcheer.org/

Langley, Washington, United States

Remote - Seattle, Wa

Executed a pragmatic research strategy to investigate customer pain points and unmet needs, socialized findings, and influenced outcomes. Leveraged usage analytics and insights from qualitative interviews to map customer journeys, defined feature requirements, and guided new designs. Collaborated across the organization to build processes that facilitated user feedback throughout the product life cycle to impact growth and retention.

Developed in-app content, knowledge base articles, and video tutorials to enable Celigo users to automate business processes effectively following best practices. Facilitated customer/partner interactions in the community forums, implemented community badges, and launched an incentive program to drive growth. Collaborated globally with product managers, engineers, and other stakeholders to deliver accurate, thorough documentation to support each product release.

Phoenix, Arizona, United States

Provided insights into users' needs and behaviors using a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods. Worked with clients' internal teams to develop research-driven roadmaps, perform competitive analysis, test designs and prototypes with users, and offered a spectrum of other services to support development teams. Clients included:• Healthcare Technology: Vilocity Interactive (AMBA project) – Directed quantitative and qualitative research with retired teachers (50-75 years old) to better understand their needs when enrolling forsupplemental dental and vision policies on web and mobile platforms. Created design mockupsbased on key insights and worked with the client to implement changes.• Non-profit Career Services: Goodwill Industries – Identified critical accessibility issues thatcould impede users with visual impairments from effectively using a career web site to find andapply for jobs.• Education Technology: Kryterion, Inc. – Performed qualitative user research for multiple areas across a complex web assessment application. Created a prioritized backlog targeting low-cost, high-value user experience improvements.• Education Technology: Schola, Inc. – Using a combination of Google Analytics and qualitativeuser research, determined which points in a workflow were failing and how best to meetpreviously unidentified user needs. Prioritized and re-worked a large backlog to deliver criticalfunctionality to market faster.• Financial Services: Soaren Management – Directed contextual inquiry, interviews, andquantitative research to investigate internal user needs and behaviors, designed and testedprototypes, and developed a prioritized backlog to help the company greatly improve call centermetrics.

Phoenix, Arizona Area

[Worked in division that was sold in 2019 and now operates as Transact Campus Inc.]Collaborated with product managers and development teams in a multifaceted role that combined requirements gathering, user experience design, backlog grooming, and project management. Analyzed requirements, identified use cases and interactions, designed user interfaces following the Ultra design standards, wrote user stories, and worked closely with development teams to deliver SaaS products. Took initiative to go beyond my role to learn from others at Blackboard conducting user research and usability testing.

Scottsdale, Az

Collaborated with internal and external stakeholders to drive the next generation of InEight’s cloud and mobile solutions. Ensured solutions delivered data on key performance indicators reliably in dashboards and embedded reporting that allowed for custom visualization and analysis. Served as a customer advocate and leader working with Agile teams to build and deliver high quality solutions on time.

Phoenix, Arizona Area

Responsible for leading and growing a team of business analysts while continuing to fulfill duties described below.

Phoenix, Arizona Area

Worked with product managers and other stakeholders to gain clear understanding of customer needs. Analyzed information and software products, created mockups, and wrote user stories to communicate requirements and acceptance criteria. Sized user stories to fit within an iteration and actively engaged with multiple, global Agile development teams to maintain customer focus through development, testing, and delivery. Used expert-level communication skills to resolve issues quickly.Tools: VersionOne, Mantis (defect tracking), Visio, Microsoft Office suite, and various workplace meeting and collaboration tools

Phoenix, Arizona Area

Created and managed content for complex enterprise middleware products as part of a global, shared service Technical Publications team. Worked with multiple global R&D teams, product managers, and other stakeholders to deliver release notes, online Help systems, PDF documentation, video content, and more to meet customers' needs.

Phoenix, Arizona Area

Delivered numerous custom documentation solutions as an independent consultant managing my own business under Docs-to-You, LLC. Clients:LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell, inData Corporation, Michaels & Associates (Dow Jones, Universal Technical Institute, Pegasus, Apollo/University of Phoenix), and PetSmart.Deliverables:Online Help systems (RoboHelp or Flare), video tutorials (Captivate), PDF/printed user guides, installation guides, developer documentation (FrameMaker/Word/Acrobat), as well as properly formatted and cited submissions to academic research journals.