I'm a mixed methods user research manager with over 15 years of primary research experience across multiple sectors. My work is driven by 3 values: curiosity, creativity, and connection.
Like studying a complex situation, I leverage curiosity to ask who, what, when, where, and why to clarify our team’s largest questions.
I take no method too seriously. My plan with each study is to get better and stretch my research skills to find creative solutions.
To build an impactful research presence, I connect with cross-functional partners to build energy towards shared goals and connect the company to customers.
Every researcher can grow to their potential with clear goals, freedom over the process, and accountability for high quality work.
Core Principles:
Discussed a full-sensory research museum.
Chatted with Ashley about developing trust.
Discussed transforming options into research.
I'm an explorer and experimentalist.
Outside of work, you can find me surfing, shopping, or on the water with my family. We explore new activities and experiment with new foods.
Over my career, I've been a professional photographer and ebay entrepreneur. With each life experience, I explore new paths and experiment with new methods.
325-665-9467
Contact me for more information about by work and opportunities to join your team!
I've collaborated 60+ research projects and drove product strategy with cross-functional teams that resulted in a 245% growth in Net Promoter Score (NPS) for high-revenue customers and supporting the passing of a bill in Brazil to make data ownership a human right.
Tool to simplify trading setup for novices. Increased upgrades by 14%. Researched user needs & evaluated design iterations.
New account to prevent restriction. Reduced churn by 1k/week. Uncovered churn mechanism & advocated to prioritize launch.
Powerful chart to improve analysis capabilities. Increased trade volume by 3x. Identified core need and led design sprint for early concepts.
Led a cross-functional team of 58 to create a user research conference. Team retention was 95%.
Created active user panel to use for rapid research that became Robinhood's 1st customer community.
Built digital and in-person research lab to increase stakeholder engagement in research.
Project: AI investing analysis tool
Role: Target customer analysis + prompt Engineer.
Result: Won Peoples Choice Award!
Project: Financial fitness tracker.
Role: User research and prototyper. Result: Invited to present for engineering all-hands
Project: Create custom NFTs
Role: Built community launch strategy to roll out to customers
Result: Created over 200 NFTs
You were one of the first researchers I talked to at Robinhood, and I always loved the innovative/ creative/thoughtful approach you took to sharing your work! You were a true "culture carrier."
– Joyce, Research Team Member
I’ve worked closely with Chris at Robinhood for ~18 months and found him to be a highly talented researcher that goes above and beyond to deeply understand customers, advocate for them internally across a wide range of project types, and most importantly, drive business results.
– Mike, Corporate Strategy Team
I've served in a number of roles from leading strategic research with cross functional stakeholders to managing and mentoring dozens of researchers.
McNair Scholars Program
Managed undergraduate research program to empower students to enter elite graduate programs.
Ohio State University
Managed a remote research team, analyzed social network data in R, & implemented a psychology lab.
IU School of Philanthropy
Co-led a national mixed-methods study on religious finances to shape consulting strategy.
Stratos Innovation Group
Conducted participatory design research to create journey maps that shaped clients' GTM strategy
Robinhood
Drove product & design strategy through power trader research to increase revenue & prevent churn
DrumWave
Built the DrumWave Research Labs to conduct mixed methods research on data ownership and AI.
[2023] IdeoU Cultivating Creative Collaborations
[2023] Learners Research Leaders Summit
[2022] Noam Segal Missing Foundations of UXR
[2021] Learners UXR Conference Group Lead
[2018] OSU Hierarchical linear modeling (R)
[2016/2017] - Duke Social Network and Health Fellowship - Network Analysis in R
[2015/2016] UK Gatton School of Business Intermediate/Advanced Social Network Analysis
I take an rigorous but experimental approach to research. My work is grounded in my values of curiosity, connection, and creativity.
During the curiosity phase, expect to discuss the project in depth to clearly understand the goals and requirements. The aim is to answer the who, what, when, where, and why.
Connection to the customer and each other is imperative. We align commit during this phase to a research plan that fits within the timeline to help us create with confidence.
In the creation phase, we start building the design or scoping the project while we align on what a customer needs and how we can meet that need.
Cultivate curiosity about customer needs to maximize impact.
Why does this product/feature need to exist?
Who are the team and customer?
What do we know and unmet needs exist?
When is the best time to launch and hear from the customer?
Where will we conduct the study?
Cultivate strong connections to align on high priority goals.
Company Vision Connect our goals to the company/team vision.
Cross-XFN Stakeholders Align on hypotheses, priorities, and timing.
Research Team Check with leads to see if resources exist to succeed.
Good research empowers teams to create better plans and fresh ideas.
Experiment with new tools to build on classic methods.
Deliver foundational insights fast before creating a nuanced report.
Socialize with novel modes of engagement to tell great stories.
Discovery hypotheses and goals of cross-functional teams.
Research into the existing data and form questions to explore.
Creating a Plan that aligns the study to roadmap priorities and timing expectations.
Analyze data rigorously using theme coding, affinity mapping, or predictive statistics.
Design study elements that captures behavioral and emotional data.
Socialize the findings robust visualization and impactful storytelling.
Curiosity
Connection
Creativity
Be curious about what connects users brains to their hearts.
Why are power customers leaving?
Who chooses to leave and who choose to stay?
What do we know about their needs and graduation patterns?
When in their journey do they decide to leave?
Where are they going?
Curious about why power users leave and how to make them stay.
Why are power customers leaving?
Who chooses to leave and who choose to stay?
What do we know about their needs and graduation patterns?
When in their journey do they decide to leave?
Where are they going and why?
Aligned on how to reduce churn among power customers.
Company Vision expanded from everyday people to power users.
Cross-XFN Stakeholders aligned goals and helped with analysis.
Research Team wanted to leverage new diary study software.
removed for privacy
4-week break-up letter study with journey map interviews.
Break-up letter 90-second video describing why they left and what happened (n=51).
Journey Map of positive and negative experiences that drove decision to leave (n=10).
Collaborated with team to analyze data on core needs and pain points
Break-up letter Reviewed all videos for features, core needs and key phrase.
Journey Map Theme coded interviews and affinity mapped digital journey maps.
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Experimented with short-form video in "break-up letter" study.
Delivered product strategy and in-depth analysis of tipping points.
Socialized with "TikTalk to Customer" series to emphasis pain points and Journey Map gif to show emotional reaction patterns.
Dear Robinhood,
I thought you would be the key to changing my life...but, when I was struggling it felt like Robinhood cared more about the business.
Across my career as user researcher, I've conducted over 60 studies including 500+ interviews, dozens of focus groups, and 15,000+ surveys. I selected the cases below to reflect the breadth and depth.
Problem: Business is losing market share among younger cohorts
Stakeholders: co-founder/chief creative officer, lead designer, & product managers.
How can we meaningfully grow the Gen Z cohort as a part of our long-term customer base?
How are concerns around money different for those starting their working lives?
To what extent would the design concept feel intuitive and drive saving behavior?
Expand beyond Midwest into other regions of the U.S.
Conduct a follow-up survey to test hypotheses broadly
Provide full functioning prototypes for product testing
Problem: Business wants to integrate new technology to grow customers
Stakeholders: VP of business strategy, methodological consultants, and lead researchers.
How will introducing a new technology potentially increase North American market share?
What do people with diabetes currently do to fulfill their unmet needs?
What design elements could make living with diabetes mores simple?
Expand sample size to 12 to further develop archetypes
Integrate family members into journey mapping
Integrate live streaming for questions from stakeholders
Problem: Competitors for high revenue users offer more features & assets
Stakeholders: c-suite, general manager, designers, product managers, data scientists
What is the market share for advanced trading assets and who are the core competitors?
How should we design the roadmap to build for and attract advanced traders?
What user behaviors are most common on different types of devices?
The first component of the survey assessed the amount of active traders who were currently trading a variety of new assets that the company was considering.
The primary component was a max/diff assessment of the 15 most important product features for advanced trading. Lists were sourced from internal experts and chatGPT.
The foundation component measured motivations to trade specific assets, device usage, competitor pain points, and other demographic factors used to create segments.
Run survey in trader forums to increase response rate of specific asset types
Offer higher referral incentive to increase respondent driven sampling
Increase specificity around advanced tooling needs
Problem: active traders were graduating to more advanced platforms
Stakeholders: lead product manager, designers, content strategists, engineers and data scientists.
Why are so many customers churning to other platforms and how can we convince them to stay?
How can we innovate on our existing advanced product to keep them from graduating?
What design elements are missing from a simple approach to advanced trading?
Mixed-methods approach to determining the highest opportunity user needs.
Projective tools allows users to communicate through creating their journey or mapping their needs.
It is a change from a user-centered design process to that of participatory experiences. It is a shift in attitude from designing for users to one of designing with users.
– Liz Sanders,
Maketools/OSU Design
Conduct more in-depth screening to prevent low-quality interviews
Launch jobs-to-be-done after interviews to assess opportunity for all needs
Engage upper level leadership in planning
Problem: company pivoted to focus on power customers but didn't know them
Stakeholders: ceo, chief product officer, legal/compliance, designers, biz ops, finance, head of marketing
Who are our power customers and how do they perceive our brand, products, and community?
What core unmet needs exist for the top 1% power traders?
How will the most active customers react to our newest designs and features?
Who are they?
What do they want?
How do they trade?
Why do they connect?
What do they think of us?
Engage with legal and compliance early in the process
Include more low-fidelity, early concept for upcoming work
Choose more central location to better manage travel
Problem: company needed regulatory support to launch products in Brazil
Stakeholders: ceo, head of global marketing, chief creative officer, lead legal council, business strategy
What are Brazilians' perspectives on data ownership and monetization?
How can we understand the unmet needs of different customer personas?
What language can we leverage to introduce our product to business partners and their customers?
Record across multiple regions in Brazil
Include more age and socioeconomic diversity
Hire professional video editors storyboard the documentary