FRANCI MCFARLAND

Phone: 650-***-**** // acxhhz@r.postjobfree.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/francimcfarland

STRENGTHS

Empowering design of successful technologies through the lens of empathy, enjoyment, strategy & skill

Creating product ecosystems that offer a highly personalized, context-aware user experience

Human-Computer Interaction; User-Centered & Learner-Centered Design; Information Architecture; Mental Models; Product Ideation; Concept Testing; Agile User Experience Research Methods; Ethnographic Research; Cognitive Task Analysis; Requirements Gathering

WORK HISTORY

Principal User Experience Researcher April 2016 – September 2016 Evernote – Redwood City, CA

Operate as sole researcher for entire portfolio of B2B and B2C products serving XXXm user base

Identify opportunities to optimize monetization flows; mitigate negative reaction from users (first increase in prices in 8 years) and help team surpass revenue expectations

Design and execute research roadmap for new product areas

Collaborate with internal stakeholders in charge of user communities and forums, to source research participants and drive engagement

Sr. User Experience Researcher 2 Jan 2015 – February 2016 LinkedIn, Inc. – Sunnyvale, CA

Evangelize a user centered design process for understanding how best to add value, demonstrate ROI, and drive engagement with our B2C and B2B monetized products (serving job seekers and professionals responsible for sales, online marketing, and hiring)

Promote a smooth user experience across devices when transitioning from a free to paid subscription

Design and conduct lab studies, home visits, remote interviews, and lightweight surveys to better understand the mindset, needs, and pain points of our members using paid products

Contribute to new products via concept testing, exploring the competitor landscape, and identifying core use cases, needs and pain points

Sr. Design Researcher July 2011 – Jan 2015

Ericsson, Inc. – Mediaroom, Mountain View, CA (after acquisition by Ericsson in September 2013) Microsoft, Inc. – Mediaroom, Interactive Entertainment Business Unit, Mountain View, CA

R&D and current product research for user experience; focused on the next generation TV experience including innovations in Cloud Services, Unified Search & Discovery, Personalization, Recommendations, and Targeted Advertising

Lead efforts to help the design, development, test and product management teams bridge the gap between current software products and 3-year vision

Focus on creating a smooth, context-aware, personalized experience for users as they move across a broad range of devices (e.g. television, web, 10-inch and 7-inch tablets, phones) and operating systems (e.g. web, Android, iOS, Windows 8, and proprietary systems for IPTV set-top boxes)

Collaborate on design of a reference application for developers to introduce TV and streaming video apps (i.e. Netflix, Comcast Xfinity, ESPN, etc.) to the Xbox gaming console using a common HIG / design framework

(previously known as Metro); support custom design of premiere YouTube and Hulu apps

Conduct research for the XBox UI to support multiple input devices (e.g. TV remote control, gaming controller, and voice & gesture control via XBox Kinect)

Manager, User Experience Research Nov. 2008 – July 2011 Move, Inc., Campbell, CA

Manager Highlights:

Supervise a team of researchers, providing direction, vision, mentorship and motivation to deliver high quality design research that helps the business succeed through user success and satisfaction; select and manage outside vendors

Lead the creation of best practices for designing internal qualitative and quantitative user experience research, and integrating these methods with the analytics and multivariate testing teams Franci McFarland resume continued

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Identify the core user experience research questions for the business, articulate research vision, methodology, findings and recommendations to project stakeholders as well as throughout the company; continually refine, validate, and communicate what we know about the users of our products

Foster and support a collaborative, innovative culture, working together with leaders from the product, sales, marketing, engineering, research, and business teams

Oversee and conduct user experience research across multiple projects simultaneously; prioritize resources that are in greater demand than capacity based on an understanding of business priorities and customer value Sr. User Experience Researcher Highlights (to Jan. 2011):

Design and perform competitive analyses, heuristic reviews, and remote- and lab-based usability studies

Lead contextual inquiry into customer (B2C and B2B) needs and pain points with online advertising products and SaaS-based CRM software to prospect and manage leads

Lead concept testing of a web-based control panel application for customers to manage online B2C advertising products and use interactive data reporting tools to track ROI

Lead design of customer personas intended to aid product design and management, and evangelize the voice of the customer corporate-wide

Contribute insights for the launch and continued development of an iPhone application rated 3.5 stars in the App Store with more than 2 million downloads in its first 12 months, showcased by CNN-Money as one of their must-have apps

Optimize the OpinionLab user feedback form on the company’s websites to improve quantity and quality of user feedback; identify process and requirements for daily monitoring and executive reporting on user feedback data; create a custom keyword taxonomy and custom graphical reports to improve efficiency and quality of analysis

Help design Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey to monitor customer satisfaction with products over time

Improve research infrastructure and processes: e.g. create project roadmap; co-design Wiki pages for the intranet; draft annual research budget; scope requirements for design of the usability lab Associate Director of Educational Programs & Acting Assistant Professor Aug. 2002 – July 2004 Carnegie Mellon University – Silicon Valley Campus, Mountain View, CA

● Help launch new satellite campus offering graduate-degrees from the School of Computer Science

● Study the user experience of a unique hybrid curricula (i.e. students work in teams to solve realistic problems; they meet partly in person and partly via online/e-learning collaboration tools)

● Co-design and teach in the Learning Sciences graduate program pertaining to the design of educational software and e-learning systems (i.e. cover topics such as teaching and learning, cognitive science, interaction design, and user experience research)

● Support faculty as they learn to integrate e-learning technology into their instruction and curricula

● Facilitate monthly discussion groups to help industry mentors work successfully with teams of students

● Contribute to creation of marketing materials and speaker series User Experience Research and Educational Technology Consultant 2001 – 2011 Independent contractor (and sub-contractor through Sliced Bread Design, MetaCourse, HybridMedia, & Branchlogic), San Francisco Bay Area

Highlights:

PlayFirst, Inc. - Usability and playability studies to test features and game complexity for new versions of popular, web-based, single- and multi-player "casual” games (i.e. Diner Dash and Wedding Dash)

LucasArts - Usability and playability studies to test features and game complexity in a new Nintendo Wii game introducing novel gesture commands (i.e. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed)

LeapFrog Enterprises - Concept test a mobile “edutainment” consumer electronics product (i.e. a “smart pen” called The Fly) to recommend hardware and software design specifications that best meet the interests and needs of children in multiple target age-groups

Hewlett-Packard Development Co. and the Exploratorium Museum of Science, Art and Human Perception in San Francisco, CA – Concept test how museum visitors could use a mobile handheld computer utilizing RFID technology to provide contextually relevant, location-aware information to enrich interaction with exhibits on the museum floor

Flixster.com - Interviews and usability studies of a social media website for movie fans to improve user engagement across target age groups

Adobe Systems, Inc. - Contextual inquiry and remote- and lab-based usability studies to gather requirements and test new features in Photoshop and Dreamweaver software; and separately to improve workflow in Help Center and software registration routines for the entire Creative Suite Franci McFarland resume continued

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Intuit, Inc. - Usability studies, interviews and journey mapping for Quicken and Quickbooks consumer and small-business software to identify contextually relevant opportunities to cross-sell and up-sell products; and separately to improve task workflow during the software activation process

NetApp - Online card sort and survey to improve information architecture for B2B website

Visa, Inc. - Usability research and ethnographic interviews to improve information architecture and explore branding strategy for their B2B website

Research Assistant, Teaching Assistant, and Project Manager Sep. 1997 – Sep. 2001 Northwestern University - The BGuILE Project, Evanston, IL.

● Design educational software and curricula for middle school and high school science classrooms

● Conduct qualitative studies of classroom implementations, studying children’s use of the software environments to develop their scientific knowledge

● Share in project management duties for the research project, including evaluations for purchase of audio-visual equipment and computer software, web site design, file server management, software testing, technical writing, and training and supervision of junior research assistants

● Design cataloging system and FileMaker Pro database for managing project data (including developing a unique system for tracking hundreds of hours of digitized video and audio tape recordings)

● Plan and lead hands-on interactive workshop sessions to prepare teachers to implement technology-enhanced units into their curricula

Manager of User Services June, 1994 – Sept. 1996

University of Chicago - Social Sciences & Public Policy Computing Center, Chicago, IL.

● Supervise staff and direct the educational, networking and technical support services at a research computing center serving the needs of 1500+ graduate students, faculty and researchers in the Social Sciences Division, the Harris School of Public Policy, and the National Opinion Research Center (NORC)

● Specialize in support of data analysis using statistical software for Macintosh, DOS, Windows and UNIX machines (employing time sharing on a distributed computing system); manage mini-course offerings; oversee technical writing; design and build website

● Support faculty learning to integrate instructional technologies into their curricula Technical Representative Oct., 1990 – Dec., 1993

SYSTAT, Inc., Evanston, IL.

● Assist clients using statistical analysis and visualization software for Macintosh, DOS, and Windows

● Write tutorials and technical documentation; create FAQ repository for common trouble-shooting tips; work with Quality Assurance team to pinpoint bugs and beta-test new products; represent company at national tradeshow

VOLUNTEERING

Industry Coach and Judge for Final Presentations - CS247 - HCI Design Studio Stanford University

Advanced design course focused on rapid design prototyping and critique for interactive technology; taught by Professor Michael Bernstein

Paired with the student team within a design studio led by Julie Stanford (Principal and Founder at Sliced Bread Design)

Met with team several times to provide coaching and feedback on their research and evolving design

At the end of the course, acted as a judge evaluating the final presentations from several student teams Co-Leader, Design Research Jan. 2011 - present

Co-Director, Mentoring Program Nov. 2001 – Sep. 2004 BayCHI - ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (CHI), San Francisco Bay Area Chapter

Create speaker events several times a year, including selection of topics and speakers

Design Research BOF: Lead this affinity group to bring together design professionals who are interested in all types of research with users throughout the product development lifecycle

Mentoring Program: Lead this professional development program to support new design professionals

Member of the BayCHI Steering Committee

PUBLICATIONS

NOTE: These publications list my maiden name - Steinmuller Franci McFarland resume continued

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Reiser, B.J., Spillane, J.P., Steinmuller, F., Sorsa, D., Carney, K., & Kyza, E. (2000). Investigating the Mutual Adaptation Process in Teachers’ Design of Technology-Infused Curricula . In B. Fishman & S. O'Connor-Divelbiss (Eds.), P roceedings of the Fourth International Conference of the Learning Sciences . New Jersey; Lawrence Erlbaum Associates

Reiser, B.J., Tabak, I., Sandoval, W.A., Smith, B.K., Steinmuller, F., Leone, A.J. (2001) B GuILE: Strategic and Conceptual Scaffolds for Scientific Inquiry in Biology Classrooms . S.M. Carver & D. Klahr (Eds.), Cognition and instruction: Twenty-five years of progress. New Jersey; Lawrence Erlbaum Associates

Editorial Assistant - Roger C. Schank, (2004) Making Minds Less Well Educated Than Our Own. New Jersey; Lawrence Erlbaum Associates

Editorial Assistant - Roger C. Schank, (1999) Dynamic Memory Revisited. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press

PRESENTATIONS

NOTE: These publications list my maiden name - Steinmuller

Steinmuller, F., Golan, R., & Reiser, B. Constructing and Arguing with Student-Generated Representations as a Means to Develop Skills for Computer-Based Inquiry . P re-conference workshop at Computer-supported Collaborative Learning (1999)

Reiser, B. J., Tabak, I., Sandoval, W. A., & Steinmuller, F. T eaching Evolutionary Reasoning and Argumentation . T wentieth Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (1998)

Tabak, I., Sandoval, W. A., Smith, B. K., Steinmuller, F., & Reiser, B. J. BGuILE: F acilitating Reflection as a Vehicle Toward Local and Global Understanding . A merican Educational Research Association (1998) PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

Workshop participant 2013

“W hy-Finding: Exploring Logic and Emotion for Real-World Product Strategy ”; Kelly Goto, GotoMedia; User Experience Professionals Association

Workshop participant (2010)

“Slide:ology” - improving presentations through better visual communication style ; D uarte Design Workshop participant (2009)

Creating and Using Personas ; Tamara Adlin & John Pruitt; U sability Week - Nielsen Norman Group (NN/G) Competitively Awarded Training Participant ( 2000) Special Workshops on Methodology; T he International Conference on the Learning Sciences

“Design Experiments” ; Paul Cobb, Vanderbilt University & Ron Marx, University of Michigan

“Log File Analysis” ; Mark Guzdial, Georgia Institute of Technology & Carl Berger, University of Michigan Peer Reviewer (2000)

Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association

The International Conference on the Learning Sciences EDUCATION

Ph.D. candidate, Learning Sciences, School of Education & Social Policy, Northwestern University

Completed all coursework, qualifying exam, and fieldwork towards Ph.D. Exited “All But Dissertation” (ABD) to pursue related career opportunities

Highlights - Foundations in Cognitive Science, Natural Language Processing, Interface Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Design of Learning Environments, Problem-Based Learning, Communities of Learners, Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methods

The BGuILE Project – research project led by Prof. Brian J. Reiser; design educational software and curriculum for use in public school science classrooms

M.A., Learning Sciences, School of Education & Social Policy, Northwestern University

Institute for the Learning Sciences – research project with Prof. Roger C. Schank; design software to teach history to elementary and middle school children

The COVIS Project – research project with Prof. Louis Gomez; formative evaluation of an online, collaborative, social learning environment for public school science teachers B.A., Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences, Northwestern University

Honors Program: Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences (MMSS) – completed all coursework Franci McFarland resume continued

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Related courses: Cognitive Psychology; Developmental Psychology; Cognitive Modeling; Psychology of Thinking; Cognition, Learning & Instruction; Psychopathology in Literature and Film

Institute for the Learning Sciences - independent study with Roger C. Schank; design software to teach math, reading and writing skills to elementary school students PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

BayCHI (2001-Present)

Bay Area chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction American Educational Research Association (AERA 1997-2001) Division C, Curriculum & Instruction

Special Interest Group in Advanced Technologies for Learning Special Interest Group in Education, Science and Technology Special Interest Group in Informal Learning Environments Center for Learning Technologies in Urban Schools (LeTUS 2000-2001) Northwestern University

Task Force on Student Learning

The Dalton School

New York City, NY

Alumna

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