Sheri Panabaker is a Director of User Research - Core Services Engineering at Microsoft. She possess expertise in human computer interaction, ethnography, human factors, heuristic analysis, field studies and 33 more skills. Colleagues describe her as "Sheri has extensive experience and demonstrated excellence in digital transformation, both for enterprise employee UX and consumer facing product making. She leverages her expertise in Design Thinking to champion the approach, shape the product making process, and galvanize multi-disciplinary teams to align on what matters most and drive a UX Strategy for optimal end user experiences. She puts people at the center of digital transformation – understanding what they think, do, use, and feel – to ground innovation in what is meaningful and relevant. Sheri understands the value of a mixed method approach and can go deep into both quantitative and qualitative data to uncover actionable insights. As a people manager and leader, Sheri embraces a growth mindset and empowers her team to learn and grow by offering perspective and the opportunities to help them achieve their goals. She helps her team navigate complexity, models resilience, and drives the clarity that helps teams thrive." and "I had the opportunity to work on Sheri’s team for almost three years as we were growing a new UX Studio within the Core Services Engineering organization at Microsoft. I can honestly say I grew as a UX leader and professional more in those three years than at any other time in my career. Sheri truly understands how to develop a research team that has a meaningful, strategic impact on product through crisp articulation of insights and defined approaches to tracking and measuring product success. Sheri is passionate about the discipline of research and recognizes the importance of marrying user research insights, instrumentation data and other listening channels to have a synthesized point of view and “source of truth” on a given experience. As a result, Sheri and her team are sought after to inform the roadmap as trusted customer and product experts. Sheri is exceptionally skilled at forming relationships with other disciplines through her clear communication style, deep understanding of the product development process and genuine passion for the user. Sheri balances empathy for the customer with an understanding of the complexity of building software/hardware. As a result, she works with technical leaders to make decisions that are good for the user, while also accounting for existing product capabilities. Finally, Sheri is a kind and supportive manager who is invested in the growth of the individuals on her team. For me personally, Sheri’s belief in my ability, gave me the confidence to take on increasing responsibility. Sheri was always there to talk through hard problems and offer advice, while also giving me the autonomy to make decisions and learn on my own. While I know longer work for Sheri, she is still a close mentor and I hope we get to work together again! "