Rachel Kangas

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

SKILLS

ABOUT RACHEL KANGAS

I began my career journey as a mechanical engineer with a deep curiosity about how the physical world works. After witnessing many physical and digital user experience issues firsthand as an engineering student and a test engineer at Audi, I wanted to fix everything! I knew I could make products better and more usable for humans. Cue a master’s degree in Human Centered Design & Engineering and discovering the UX research field. Now, as a UX researcher, I’m great at qualitative research, building and running programs from scratch (I’ve done it in two different roles!), balancing constraints, quickly learning new skills, and engaging stakeholders. I\'ve worked in tech, the automotive industry, and design consulting, developing user insights and recommendations that influenced the design and direction of physical and digital concepts in in-vehicle infotainment, virtual and mixed reality, and physical accessibility. Along the way, I’ve learned to be a more effective researcher by communicating relentlessly and asking clarifying questions early and often. I lean on my engineering background to approach new projects with a systems thinking mindset; I always try to understand the underlying structures and dynamics before jumping to solutions. One of my core research philosophies is to remember that people make decisions and have thinking styles based on their life experiences, and not just as users of the product, feature, or concept I am studying.