Sr. UX Researcher

Scott Confer

Greater Chicagoland • 219-***-**** • *******@*****.*** • linkedin.com/in/sconfer • https://bit.ly/confer24 Staff UX Researcher, Customer Workflows

BACKGROUND

SKILLS

ATTRIBUTES

TOOLS

WORKSHOPS: Miro, IDEO Design Thinking

SURVEYS: Foresee, Survey Monkey, Google & MSFT Forms

• M.S. in Human Factors

• 10+ years experience in customer-centered research

• Expert in end-to-end research, experiments, UI design, usability evaluation, & system design

• Digital Innovation certificate from Cornell University

• Strategy & roadmapping

• Expert at mixed methods research, including selecting data collection & sampling approaches

• Ethnography & User Needs finding

• Survey design & analysis

• User segmentation & persona frameworks

• Use case development

• Discovery workshops & participatory design

• Early concept testing

• Formative & summative usability testing

• Task Analysis methods, including jobs to be done

• User journeys

• Mentoring & growing teams

• Able to work as a bridge between technical & business stakeholders

• Able to rapidly learn new domains

• Passionately curious how people think

• High analytical acumen

• Strong collaborator with Product Managers and Designers

• Peer-reviewed author & International presenter regarding UX methods; Innovative for research methods: “C.O.R.E” for requirements elicitation and Concept Car for prototyping at startups

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• Creative communicator of research results using multimedia and visual recommendations

• UX evangelist

EVALUATION: Heuristic Reviews, Cognitive Walkthrough, UserTesting.com, Optimal Suite, Card Sorting WORK EXPERIENCE

Infosys Limited Consulting 06/2018 - 02/2024

Sr. Principal

Whirlpool Corporation Digital Center Of Excellence 09/2013 - 06/2018 Benton Harbor, MI, USA

Sr. Manager

Facilitated use case design workshops for Agile process enhancement, use case definition for smart spaces

(Johnson Controls), AT&T Networks IoT use cases, Amazon Web Services joint GTM strategy, and Infosys' 10,000+ person training center in Indianapolis.

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Researched buyer personas and developed online diagnostic to rapidly assess user needs and create end-to-end sales enablement

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• Led strategic research sessions & design workshops using Miro Researched use cases & customer journeys via design workshops for AT&T, Microsoft, and Infosys' 10,000+ person training center in Indianapolis

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For a Return To Office (RTO) SaaS, integrated multiple data sources for desk usage & indoor air quality. Managed design quality (Figma) and final delivery with Agile methodologies using MSFT Azure Devops

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Researched & created service blueprint a Smart Hospital Room. Research covered entire journey from procedure scheduling, comfort controls, and care plan training.

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Managed teams and Led IoT and Smart Spaces engagements to improve experiences for both end-users and building owners

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• A.I. Chat GPT prompt engineering courses

• TOOLS: Chat GPT, Figma, MSFT Project, MSFT Azure Devops, & Miro 92% reduction in accessibility issues through evaluating Whirlpool portfolio of sites according to WCAG 2 Level AA standards

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40% YOY revenue increase within 4 weeks for national campaign May is Maytag month through usability testing and recommendations

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Led 12-month User Experience research plan developed as part of continuous improvement program for UX quality management including a Best Practices Playbook for Web and Mobile, including accessibility

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Led Governance framework for Digital Ecosystem based on the customer; Managed supplier relationships for UX tools

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• Managed & trained UX interns and staff

• Prototyped & Tested new product search & compare interaction designs TOOLS: Axure, Foresee CSAT surveys, JIRA, Survey Monkey, UserTesting.com, Optimal Suite (Tree Jack & Optimal Sort)

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Led Governance framework for Digital Ecosystem to evangelize UX; Managed supplier relationships departmental tools.

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Critical Mass (Omnicom Agency) 10/2010 - 09/2013

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Associate Director

Enservio • Evanston, Illinois, USA 04/2009 - 07/2010 Insurance SaaS startup serving B2B and B2C customers Director Of User Experience

Sears Holdings • Chicago, Illinois, USA 04/2007 - 04/2009 Sr. User Experience Manager

AT&T - e-Commerce configurator to simplify complex Wireless & U-verse products in an agile development environment that was used by millions of customers; Delivered consistent user experiences through use of Design Systems; Created novel map application designs for mobile & desktop users

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United Airlines - Improved AERO operations tool for Gate Agents, resulting in faster seating management, leading to smoother departures and connections; Conducted ethnographies of call center and airport gate agents; Created novel solutions for intelligent & efficient seat assignment in an agile environment

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Autonation.com - Led a team of 4 UXAs to overhaul Autonation.com in collaboration with Accenture Avanade. Under a compressed timeline, we conducted replatformed the eCommerce system with new designs and IA tested with Treejack to streamline the experience while integrating 13 different subsystems to benefit both client and customers

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TE Connectivity - as the principal UXA for a B2B solutions provider to high tech manufacturers, I delivered configurators and ROI enhancing projects in an Agile environment; Introduced lightweight & reusable modular wireframe system to accelerate creative, development, and client approvals

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Led Requirements, Research, Design, Evaluation, as well as coordinating of contractors for: Branding, Content development, Animation, Instructional Videos, and Visual Design

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Responsible for digital & physical customer experiences at a startup in the insurance space. $3M ARR for for startup built from scratch coordinating multiple independent contractors

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• Analyzed conversion funnel to maximize site adoption and consumer satisfaction Researched & Developed customer journey with marketing touchpoints informing the Customer Experience Map

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• Designed & tested physical mail pieces: credit card designs & card mailer mockups

• Created and managed Voice of Customer program (IDI, surveys, & contextual inquiry visits) Project lead for the creation of B2C Restore Mall website, coordinating visual design, animation, content development, and front end developers through phases with and without using the reloadable debit card we offered

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• Interactive Prototyping on desktop and mobile to facilitate concept testing

• Evangelized usability, aligning Enservio’s additional web applications used in Claim Centers

• 10-person UX team recruited and managed across multiple projects

• Adapted user experience research and design processes for an Agile development environment. 30% YOY increase in conversion achieved by our team on Sears PartsDirect through a comprehensive site redesign of a $54M business unit

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• 20% rise in conversion rate delivered by our team for MyGofer through a major site redesign Orbitz Worldwide • Chicago, Illinois, USA 03/2005 - 04/2007 Sr. Information Architect

Earlier Career Highlights

Arc Worldwide (Leo Burnett merger), CNA Insurance, Diamond Technology Partners (PWC), Neoglyphics Media, IBM, Sun Micro (Oracle)

Sr. Information Architect / Experience Planner / Cognitive Engineer / Usability Engineer EDUCATION

B.A. Psychology

University Of Michigan • Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

M.S. in Human Factors - HCI specialization

University Of Idaho

Thesis about display of data, according to user task type & their cognitive style. Patent issued for work by MyGofer team creating a recurring order system years prior to Amazon's "Subscribe

& Save"

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• $3M savings for world's 2nd largest travel agency through usability of revenue management tools

• Led the research & design of novel products and interaction models

• Researched competitor shopping recommendation models

• Planned + conducted usability tests, both high and low fidelity (e.g. lean paper and pencil method) Enhanced the UX of SaaS enterprise revenue management and hotel inventory tools through usability evaluation

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• Developed online surveys for continuous improvement

• Conducted heuristic reviews

• Researched & developed personas about hoteliers

• Developed and managed project timelines

• Developed prototypes of an SaaS enterprise hotelier portal

• Major contributor to ux department research & design processes

• Submitted patent idea 'embedded trip object' to allow affiliates to display dynamically priced itineraries Arc Worldwide: Large-scale site redesign for Cadillac.com (site intercept surveys, requirements gathering, persona creation, and usability studies); Usability testing and re-architecture for Disney MovieBeam service

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CNA Insurance: Conducted over 50 stakeholder interviews for CNA's "One Face to the Customer" initiative for CNA.com

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• Diamond/PWC: Planned & supervised buildout of usability lab with state-of-the-art portable equipment Neoglyphics: Digital agency - entire lifecycle HCD for Fortune 500 such as CNA, GM, Motorola, Sara Lee, & US Postal Service. Heuristic Reviews, Field Research, Task Analyses, & Usability Testing

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CERTIFICATIONS

Artificial Intelligence: Using AI in the UX Design Process 05/2024 LinkedIn

Digital Innovation 04/2023

Cornell University

Pragmatic Marketing

Pragmatic Institute

PUBLICATIONS

CONTRIBUTOR to 50% of Chapters in book by Glickman, C., & Kavanaugh, J.

(2022). Practical Sustainability: Circular Commerce, Smarter Spaces and Happier Humans.

02/2022

Houndstooth Publishing. Available from Amazon.

Confer, S. and Batra, S. Cognitive Ergonomics for Websites: from Concept to Realization. Also known as the “Concept Car Method to Release 0.”

Available at: bit.ly/uxconcept

CORE: Cognitive Organization for Requirements Elicitation. Presentation to Euro IA Summit

(Barcelona).

Available at: http://slidesha.re/core_reqmts

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