C U R R E N TWorking with a phenomenal portfolio of clients at the agency I co-founded: https://www.velocityave.com/ and sharing on: https://mayaelise.substack.com/C A R E E R S U M M A R YBuilding stellar, nimble, collaborative teams - I joined Google’s incubator Area 120 as the lead researcher with no headcount and no budget. In three years, I worked with over 58 products. My team became a cornerstone of the program with 10 UXRs, plus 10 vendor UXDs who transformed Minimum Viable Products to Minimum Lovable Products while influencing the incubator’s thesis and the investment strategy of our partners. Taking risks while establishing scalable processes - At Gannett, I led qualitative field research for 14 media outlets such as USA Today, The Bold Italic, and The Indy Star. As part of the corporate team, I experienced the challenge of being an internal consultant. Without funding it was difficult for local papers to apply research insights to their portfolio of products. I launched a weekly Product Jam to lower the barrier to innovation and managed a pilot lean product program which secured funding from our C-suite for two products.From entrepreneur to UXR - In 2010, during the financial crisis, I co-founded a startup to create streams of revenue for artists. My business became an opportunity to test and iterate methods and apply the learnings. I attribute my scrappy, creative approach to these roots.Aligning business strategy to user needs - I've gravitated towards industries (media, crowdfunding, digital transformation, advertising) where markets outgrew the business model. In my experience, I saw each industry make assumptions and lose touch with understanding consumers and customers. I believe that a strong investment in foundational research enables products to evolve with users.