Kate Pazoles

Head of Product User Research @Twilio

Boulder, CO, US

Lead strategic mixed-methods research practice for all three Twilio product pillars with a remote global team of seven mid-to-senior level researchers.Evolving user research from tactical feature validation to strategic product discovery and market research that influences GTM and product direction.Advise executives on customer insights and influence strategic product investments, improving roadmap alignment with customer needs and opportunities. Ensure researchers are partnering cross-functionally with product, design and engineering leaders to develop research roadmaps that support business goals and guide strategic decision making, including identifying opportunities for innovation and expansion of TAM.Strengthening relationships among cross-functional leaders to regularly share perspectives on customer insights and build a unified view of customers’ needs. Maintaining a high-retention culture through multiple organizational changes through transparency and a focus on career development and fulfillment.Establishing practices to accelerate research while maintaining a high standard of rigor, including a quarterly project intake and roadmapping approach that has increased research velocity by 50%.Scaling research infrastructure, including AI integrations, for broader socialization and adoption of research insights into discovery workflows. Procured an AI enabled analysis and repository tool to surface existing knowledge efficiently, saving research, design, and product teams up to 100 hours a month. Leading democratization initiatives, including a company-wide implementation of resources, training, and documentation for a new product development lifecycle. A proof of concept demonstrating that new tooling reduced the time needed to incorporate customer research by 70%.

The George Washington University

Masters, International Affairs

Cornell University

Bachelors of Science, Policy Analysis and Management