About

About me

Curious by nature, creative problem solver, empathetic listener, insight finder, devoted father and husband

West coast native

Born in Portland, raised in Los Angeles, and living in the PNW. The West coast is full of family, friends, and colleagues as well as a whole host of outdoor activities. I enjoy hiking, biking, and sailing in addition to those indoor activities like board games, video games, and cooking.

I’ve spent six of my eight years of user research bouncing from tech company to tech company in the Seattle area before moving into a remote senior researcher role with Handshake in 2022. During this time, I have been able to work with some of the greatest teams of researchers and practice some unique methods of research on emerging technologies, as well as hone my skills in some of the classics like user interviews and surveys. I really enjoy discovering new insights that can help a business better understand their users, it feels just like finding a missing jigsaw puzzle piece.

Mixed methods researcher

I believe in the fact that data is powerful, but without the correct interpretation, it can lead to the wrong conclusions. We can’t be satisfied with learning what is happening, we also must know why it is happening if we plan to shape user behavior.

Education

Master of Science

Human Computer Interaction

Bachelor of Arts

Psychology

Experience

2022-2024

Gathered user insights through moderated and unmoderated
user interviews to gain user knowledge and generate new features and inform
multiple product roadmaps
Developed eight employer user archetypes after several rounds of research including interviews, thematic analysis, surveying, and cluster analysis. This led to business segments being able to focus their efforts on known employer types, with some overlap between small and enterprise employer users.
Conducted ethnographic interviews, observation, and field notes at multiple career fairs across the country driving changes to the career services product offering and generating new concepts for maximizing efficiency.
Created and analyzed survey results from large samples (2000+) of college students to benchmark job search satisfaction and understand priorities when evaluating job posts. This research enabled us to redesign the summary search cards by including salary and location information, and reordering the content displayed on the full detail page so job seekers can find information quicker.
Trained product designers on best practices for evaluative user research, including employer tools like usertesting.com to exponentially increase the amount of impact my work had at Handshake.

2020-2022

Pioneered remote hardware research protocols for Meta during the pandemic on some of the latest AR technology. This allowed my team to complete multiple research assignments for a team that had previously not conducted a single user session.
Presented attention-grabbing insights to designers and engineers to drive changes to product plans. This most notably included a thermal sensitivity study that led to a dramatic and contentious redesign based on information about how quickly users could become uncomfortable or even injured.
Established an opt-in internal database of employees, willing to participate in hardware research, based on physical dimensions that could be utilized for all future Meta hardware research needs while maintaining the secrecy of avoiding an external panel of participants.
Trained other UXRs on physical dimensions to recruit for when conducting AR/VR hardware research to increase the percentage of the population represented in a given sample.

2019-2020

Led user research efforts for a variety of hardware products including the AR headset IVAS created in partnership with the Department of Defense. This included field studies with hardware prototypes aimed at evaluating the current concept while also providing a program goal through quantifiable results.
Utilized methods including IMU tracking, electromyography, user interviews, surveys, and A/B testing to drive design decisions leading to a production headset and a $21.9 billion contract.
Established a method to test the clearance for ears in over-the-ear headphones utilizing liquid makeup transfer and our previously created database of 3D scanned heads to recruit individuals in the 95^th percentile of protruding ears.
Trained user research associates on best practices for landmarking, anthropometry, palpation and 3D scanning.

2018-2019

Co-led hardware and OOBE testing for the Valve Index VR system. Leading to the addition of an adapter for smaller heads, solidifying support for a greater range of face shapes, and clarity in the setup guide and fit guides for first time users.
Utilized past knowledge of head mounted devices to recommend a heavier device that was more balanced in order to increase user comfort and the duration of use. After using wheel weights to demonstrate the effectiveness of this method to a group of stakeholders, I received buy-in to make the changes.
Ran moderated A/B tests of Valve Index Controllers (Knuckles) to determine manufacturing tolerances of pressure sensitivities between a pair of controllers.
Became an expert in VR content to develop a protocol for benchmarking satisfaction and comfort with competitor VR headsets. This provided the team the ability to understand how our product compared to the other options currently available to users and ultimately drive the release of the VR headset once they had gained enough confidence that our product was superior.

2016-2018

Assisted in the collection of anthropometric data from over 600 people using both analog and 3D scanning methods.
Served as the primary study conductor and analyst for multiple projects involving Hololens 2, Microsoft ergo keyboard, Surface headphones, Surface earbuds, and more.
Established a library of comfort ratings and muscle strain measurements using EMG sensors and motion capture for head-mounted displays that will continue to drive long term program goals for ergonomics.

2015-2016

Moderated lab of 20+ participants to gather data on experiences with Xbox games and Microsoft software
Managed participant check-in, bouncing, and gratuities.