Franci Steinmuller McFarland

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

SKILLS

ABOUT FRANCI STEINMULLER MCFARLAND

OVERVIEWI am a passionate observer of human behavior, interested in applying technology to benefit society and environment. I began my career working on educational software for kids and adults. Later I moved to Silicon Valley and helped launch a new campus for Carnegie Mellon University; while there I helped create, teach, and manage hybrid e-learning graduate programs in computer science. Ultimately I segued into the private sector to focus on user experience in industry. I have worked on B2B and consumer products for desktop, mobile, and web software - and for consumer electronics such as gaming consoles, television remote controls and set top boxes, streaming devices, wearables, AR/VR, and a smart pen. My work spans a number of industries including education, entertainment, creative arts, real estate, streaming video, fashion, social media, & fintech. In the course of this time, I have managed employees, taught classes, published articles, & presented papers at conferences on topics in education, design, research, & tech. In my spare time I volunteer with groups representing both professional and other personal interests.STRENGTHS* Advocating for user experiences that are personalized, trustworthy, and context-aware.* Collaborating with cross-functional teams to build institutional knowledge and develop efficiencies at scale. SKILLS* I am a qualitative-leaning, mixed-methods researcher producing deliverables such as: experience maps, user journeys, contextual inquiry studies, value proposition and concept tests, design workshops, rolling research programs, heuristic analyses, unmoderated and moderated usability tests, surveys, A/B testing, human factors research, requirements gathering for analytics and dashboard designs, and analysis of engagement / conversion metrics.* Statistics background: While I am more qualitative focused these days, I have taken advanced courses in statistical methods during undergrad and grad school (e.g. using Matlab, APL, Stata, SPSS, & Systat). I do regularly design and analyze surveys (e.g. using Qualtrics and Survey Monkey) and have fun exploring and representing data in Excel (e.g. using pivot graphs, xlookup, basic stats, etc). I am also currently reacquainting myself with SPSS and enjoying a casual exploration of R. Hope to play around soon with Tableau and Python!