Chelsea

About Chelsea

I’ve always been drawn to the messy questions, the ones where a team isn’t sure what’s wrong, just that something isn’t working. A lot of my work starts there: growth stalling, a product not quite landing, or a space that’s still undefined. Over the past 10+ years, I’ve led research across companies, and I’ve built research practices from scratch, stood up full programs, and partnered closely with product, design, and data to figure out what’s actually driving user behavior—and what to do about it. A big part of my work is going beyond what users say and getting to what’s really happening underneath: the tradeoffs, the friction, the moments where things break down. That’s especially been true in areas like trust & safety and other sensitive user experiences, where the signals aren’t always obvious but the impact is huge. I utilize both quantitative and qualitative methods to get to the crux of what I need to know. I tend to get pulled into- figuring out why growth has plateaued- shaping 0→1 products and go-to-market strategy - identifying new segments and opportunities - bringing clarity to complex, ambiguous problem spaces I’ve also spent a lot of time making research more accessible within teams—training designers and PMs, building frameworks, and creating systems that allow research to scale beyond a single function. Teams I work with usually say I help them see things differently—connecting dots, cutting through noise, and creating those “a-ha” moments that actually change direction. At the end of the day, I care about helping teams make better decisions—grounded in real behavior, not assumptions—and building products that genuinely work for the people using them.

Experience

1. Head of Research (Product & Design)

   Headspace

   Jun 2025 — Present · Austin, TX, US

Education

• University of California, Merced

  Master’s Degree, Political Science

  2013 — 2016

• UC Merced

  Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Cognitive Science

  2011 — 2013

• University of California, Merced

  Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Political Science, Political Pyschology

  2013 — 2018

Skills

• English
• Teaching English as a Second Language
• Microsoft Office
• R
• Microsoft Excel
• Academia
• Powerpoint
• Academic Writing
• Languages
• Social Media
• Translation
• Stata
• Social Networking
• Political Science
• Statistics
• Linguistics
• Qualitative Research
• Literature
• Optimization
• Research
• Japanese
• University Teaching
• Public Speaking
• Data Analysis