Darcey Merriam

About Darcey Merriam

I am an experienced leader who thrives on leveraging organizational and systems thinking to effectively influence change, define and execute strategic plans, and develop frameworks and metrics for increased transparency and success. While at Adobe, I have held a variety of leadership roles in market and user research: always building, experimenting, and partnering. I began at Adobe as the first research manager brought on to work with the newly consolidated design team. In my first few years, I helped build the team to 25+ researchers, planned and implemented processes and infrastructure, and evangelized the potential for research. During this time, I personally lead the research on the first Creative Suite. A significant impact of my approach, was to help break down the silos of the individual product teams and focus on the overall Suite experience from the user’s perspective. When I later joined the Adobe Marketing Insights Organization (MIO), I was part of an experienced team focused on strategic research. Our projects spanned across Adobe and beyond. The projects I enjoyed most involved driving complex cross-BU initiatives by providing contexts and constructs to facilitate decision making. Most recently, I led a small group of high-caliber primary researchers who collaborated with strategy and innovation teams to explore new opportunities for Adobe. My team focused on nimble and responsive early exploratory work, spanning qualitative and quantitative research. Leveraging my team’s quantitative expertise, we were able to experiment with integrating research and analytics in both marketing and product contexts. My active-engagement philosophy, and emphasis on maximizing value and providing access to the research process, made our team a consistently sought-out partner. Throughout my career, I have excelled in understanding and navigating complex organizations and situations to work collaboratively and get things done.

Experience

1. Director, Design Research and Strategy

   Adobe

   Feb 2019 — Present

Education

• The University of Texas at Arlington

  MPA

• The University of Texas at Arlington

  Master of Public Administration - MPA

• University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business

  Center for Responsible Business -- CSR Certificate Program

  2008 — 2008

• Cornell University

  BS, Engineering

• Presidio Graduate School

  Executive Certificate in Sustainable Management

  2010 — 2011