Laura D.

About Laura D.

I\'m a mixed-methods researcher with a decade of experience built advocating for users of products, policy, and services. These days I lead strategic product research and support teams to scale, standardize and enrich their research insights to improve the customer experience across digital and physical touchpoints. I\'m a methods nerd and particularly enjoy mentoring junior UXRs to build their research toolkit. My insights have been used to improve usability, find product-market fit, support behavior change, create more inclusive organizational cultures, and set gender equity goals. I have a passion for social impact, ethics, and DEI in design research. Skills: IDIs, practical ethnography, contextual inquiry, quantitative research, design thinking, workshop facilitation, project management, ideation, storyboarding, wire-framing, prototyping, journey mapping, service blueprinting, experience strategy, evaluation, usability studies, accessibility, heuristic evaluation.

Experience

1. Lead Ux Researcher

   The Home Depot

   Nov 2022 — Present

   Online UX team - Develop designer-led training to resolve uneven practice in concept, iterative, and usability testing- Lead research to address data gaps and surface the plethora of negative interactions derived from \'feature factory\' testing and an absence of research into the live user experience- Lead strategic research studies to identify growth opportunities in untapped customer needs- Coach junior UXRs and engineering interns in research methods- Build UX maturity by setting standards for usability testing, supporting designers with checklists, templates and tools when studies do not meet the bar required- Introduce prioritization process for research requests based on measures of research and business impact.

Education

• Bentley University - McCallum Graduate School of Business

  MS Human Factors in Information Design, Distinction

• Columbia University

  MPA - Economic and Political Development 4.0 GPA

• King's College London

  Master of Research Methods, Distinction

• University of Bath

  BA(Hons), European Studies and Modern Languages, First Class 1:1

• The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

  MPA Economic and Political Development, Distinction