Derek Debellis

About Derek Debellis

I’m deeply intrigued by how people can collaborate, feel fulfilled, and thrive together. My curiosity is around the social, cultural, and technical conditions that shape teamwork—and how digital technologies and AI can either support or disrupt them. I build research infrastructure, design frameworks for evaluating AI systems, and lead Google’s DORA research, all with the aim of helping teams work well and enjoy the process. Outside of research, I love hiking, making silly music, getting confused by philosophy, and spending time with my family & crows.

Experience

1. Staff Quantitative Ux Researcher

   Google

   Sep 2020 — Present · US

   Led and co-authored Google’s DORA State of DevOps reports (2022–2025), expanding the field’s understanding of culture, process, and individual well-being as drivers of performance. Evolved the research to cover AI adoption—showing when it helps collaboration, not just whether it does.* Built a research infrastructure that scaled insights across teams, combining a high-quality longitudinal panel, archival probing, and qualitative follow-up. Enabled teams to contribute their questions and leverage results, delivering quality insights quickly and cost-effectively.* Developed a machine learning model to predict retention and score account health, giving teams actionable visibility into customer relationships.* Created a holistic AI system metrics framework, balancing performance with fairness, trust, team well-being and long-term viability.* Designed Bayesian state-space models for financial and product performance, surfacing seasonal patterns and inflection points that informed strategic decisions.* Provided external presence and thought leadership through contributions to Google Cloud’s, Google Research’s, DORA’s, and Google’s Keyword blogs; featured on industry podcasts; and presented at webinars and industry events.

Education

• University of Vermont

  Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, Experimental Psychology

• Lehigh University

  Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Psychology, Philosophy (minor)

  2009 — 2011

Skills

• Teaching
• Public Speaking
• Reaction Time Data
• Qualitative Research
• Limesurvey
• Outlook
• Research
• Data Analysis
• Userzoom
• Social Media
• English
• Cluster Analysis
• Quantitative Research
• Photoshop
• Survey Methodology
• Conjoint Analysis
• Powerpoint
• Microsoft Excel
• Scientific Writing
• Experimental Design
• Microsoft Office
• Windows
• Structural Equation Modeling
• R
• Confirmatory Factor Analysis
• Social Psychology
• Data Visualization
• Google Apps
• Microsoft Word
• Ggplot
• Statistics
• Data Cleaning
• Spss
• Maxdiff
• Psychology
• Mplus
• Amazon Mechanical Turk