Building the UXR function @ Coursedog

Leading UX research at the forefront of educational innovation. At the Center for Academic Innovation, we harness cutting-edge technologies such as Generative AI (GenAI), extended reality (XR), and bespoke EdTech platforms to transform higher education and lifelong learning.Own end-to-end user research while managing a team of research fellows, emphasizing lean research operations and strong stakeholder partnerships. I direct the full spectrum of user research activities, managing a dedicated team of research fellows, with a focus on streamlined research operations and empathy-led stakeholder partnerships.I’ve had the privilege of enabling user-centric transformations across eight distinct product teams, establishing robust systems that integrate user research into strategic product decision-making.I spearheaded a shift to atomic research and built a user insights hub, amassing over 500 key insights within a year. This strategic initiative facilitates systematic review and informs strategic actions across projects, enhancing our capacity for user-centered decision-making.I also lead inclusive research initiatives, ensuring our research participants reflect the demographic, cognitive, and contextual diversity of U-M students, including spearheading accessibility studies for people with disabilities (PwD).

Conducted product research for a novel learning and teaching platform that synthesizes crowdsourced knowledge into a large-scale knowledge graph (now pivoted with a focus on AI-driven learning). Led UXR interns as UX Research Community Lead in investigating the sociotechnical dynamics of the platform’s emerging online communities. Co-authored ACM Collective Intelligence conference paper: designed qualitative research methods and conducted/analyzed 30 semi-structured interviews. Resulted in first published study on 1Cademy’s innovative design and utility for large-scale, collaborative notetaking.

I conducted semi-structured user interviews and affinity analysis to initiate the UX discovery phase. I also summarized and presented HCI and computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) literature to the team.I was promoted to a lead intern role at the end of my summer internship.

Uncovered pain points and mental models related to the wayfinding experience of visiting Ann Arbor’s parks by facilitating a remote design charrette with 8 participants. Our team then developed an affinity wall and presented 7 recommendations to our client.

Recommended 6 steps to address HR department’s data reporting process inefficiencies by conducting 8 remote interviews and observations with 3 stakeholder groups.

Delivered an award-winning project to the Immigration Advocates Network, the nation’s largest network of nonprofit and pro bono legal advocates working on behalf of immigrants’ rights. I collaborated with a four-person team to conduct foundational research on information and resource-sharing among immigration advocates. Our initial research included requirements gathering, comparative analysis, surveys, interviews, user personas and scenarios. We prototyped and usability tested a community platform to address user needs identified from our study.The project won the Best Project Award (sponsored by Autodesk) at the University of Michigan School of Information Spring 2020 Student Expo.

Working in the Aggression Research Program (PIs: Rowell Huesmann and Eric Dubow), I conducted structured interviews and assisted in the recruitment and contact management of 200+ participants for a longitudinal study on the determinants of gun violence.In this role, I became the sole interview lead at the undergraduate level and assisted in training other undergraduate research assistants.