Nicholas Cope

User Researcher Data Analyst

Insight Strategist Lifelong Learner

ady0mb@r.postjobfree.com • Wake Forest, NC 27587

www.linkedin.com/in/copenich/ • 989-***-****

I am a dynamic, user-centric leader with extensive experience in User Research, Competitive Intelligence, Corporate Strategy, and Data Analytics who is most proud of the users I have helped throughout my career. I deliver end-to-end data-driven insights using multiple customer, user, competitive, and market research methodologies and data analytic tools, allowing product teams to develop stronger strategic visioning for their products and enhanced customer experiences, enabling sales teams to win more deals. I am adept at designing and implementing a company's overall research mission, values, and strategic goals while leading and mentoring cross-functional teams. The teams I have participated in or led have optimized domestic and international customer growth, improved customer experience for more than 100M+ users, and enhanced competitive intelligence and data-driven solution practices. Areas of Expertise

● Strategic Planning & Execution

● Corporate Roadmap Development

● Multi-Unit Operations Management

● Qualitative & Quantitative Research

● Vendor Relationship Management

● Continuous Process Improvement

● Net Promoter Score (NPS)

● User Experience Design

● Agile Project Management

● Market Research & Development

● Risk Assessment & Management

● Human-Computer Interaction

● Customer Satisfaction & Retention

● Service Design

● Technical Market Planning

● SaaS & Cloud Offerings

● Budget & Sales Forecasting

● Data Analytics

● Survey Design

● Contract Management

● Customer-driven Growth

Career Experience

Extreme Networks, Head of Customer Experience, User Research and Data Analytics 08/2021 – 08/2023

● Attained business growth with a total annual contract value of $12M by helping to grow a two-person $250K contract to a team of 20+ professionals across customer experience, research, data science, and content

● Increased sale wins through competitive intelligence by 17% and enhanced overall revenue by $50M over a fiscal year

● Tracked and managed $40M of recurring revenue by establishing a scalable research and data program

● Managed the company's overall research operations, including establishing research priorities, implementing data analytics across 12 products, defining research and market strategies, and communicating customer experience strategy across internal/external stakeholders

● Directed and mentored a team of 6 user researchers, data scientists, and competitive intelligence analysts

● Supported customer experience and success program implementation, development, and maturation for 3 new product offerings

● Developed, implemented, and maintained customer-centric strategies to increase customer acquisition, retention, and loyalty by 9 NPS points through in-app guides and user surveys

● Helped drive business growth by 16% by leveraging customer insights and aligning sales, marketing, and product development with customer needs

● Spearheaded the research strategy and roadmap development for 9 SaaS offerings, identifying growth opportunities, competitive threats, and usability issues

● Accelerated the organization to deliver user-centric and data-driven solutions by providing an end-to-end JTBD analysis which uncovered 80 user unmet needs and opportunities

● Conducted weekly qualitative and quantitative user research, market analysis, and competitive intelligence exercises, which informed stakeholders on product usability and feature creation Page 1 3

International Business Machines (IBM), Senior User Experience Researcher 08/2019 – 08/2021

● Improved the Customer Experience team's proficiency by 25%+, decreasing the time a product takes to market

● Ensured successful integration and implementation of SaaS offerings by conducting customer satisfaction surveys for existing and new customers across 3 products

● Managed and mentored a team of 3 researchers within a cross-discipline business and design team focused on enterprise asset management, predictive maintenance, and remote asset monitoring

● Served as a thought partner to executives, IT, Sales, Marketing, and Product leadership teams

● Developed and maintained professional relationships with HR, Legal, and Finance for recruiting the best talent while determining resource allocation

● Created new revenue streams by assisting with implementing and maintaining a customer advisory board containing 20 customers for organic product development

● Managed research prioritization for 4 product teams ensuring high-impact research output while influencing product decisions based on actionable insights

● Evangelized user research practices and user-centric design throughout the company while influencing the greater user research community by conducting weekly user research office hours for 100+ individuals

● Conducted both the qualitative and quantitative research for a Jobs-to-be-Done analysis that uncovered over 128 user needs and opportunities, which informed more predictive innovation based on user needs

● Planned and implemented research operation practices across 4 products to provide in-product feedback across multiple platforms

● Responsible for establishing user research practices and integration for new SaaS offerings

● Facilitated weekly stakeholder meetings throughout each research engagement to manage stakeholder expectations while successfully communicating results and next steps Fidelity Investments, Senior User Researcher

04/2017 – 08/2019

● Helped create new user-centric experiences to make products more engaging, easy to use, and profitable by collaborating with programmers, designers, content developers, information architects, and project managers

● Enhanced the user experience research practice for Fidelity Investments Health Care portfolio by generating reusable participant panels, study plans, recruitment guides, and product-specific metrics

● Conducted bi-monthly moderated and remote usability studies across 4 product teams

● Collaborated with finance, sales, product management, design, and legal to define repeatable processes for identifying and tracking services and offerings for current customers

● Engaged with external user research communities to establish and refine user research practices throughout the organization

● Planned, designed, and executed over 20 research projects, utilizing various methods like surveys, interviews, experiments, observations, and literature reviews to gather data Lenovo, User Experience Research Specialist

10/2016 – 04/2017

Education

Master of Science in Game Design focus User Research – Full Sail University, Winter Park, Florida (2016) Activities & Societies: IDGA Full Sail University GDMS Global Game Jam Bachelor of Science in Game Design – Full Sail University, Winter Park, Florida (2013) Professional Certifications

Creating a Culture of Strategy Execution, Digital Transformation, Executive Leadership, Transformational Leadership, Developing Executive Presence – LinkedIn Learning (2023) Page 2 3

Executive Program - Certificate of Advanced Studies, Competitive Intelligence & Data-Driven Decision Making – NOVA Information Management School (IMS) (2022)

Enterprise Design Thinking Co-Creator – IBM (2020) IBM Learning, INCLUDE (Leadership Academy Collection) – IBM (2020) Enterprise Design Thinking Practitioner – IBM (2019) Professional Education, Dynamic User Experience: Ajax Design & Usability – The Interaction Design Foundation

(2016)

The Ultimate Guide to Visual Perception & Design – The Interaction Design Foundation (2016) Awards Influenced by Research Insights

Red Dot Award Winner for E-commerce Design

Networking Computing Awards

● Software Product of the Year – ExtremeCloud

● 2022 Gartner Peer Insights Customers' Choice for Wired and Wireless LAN Access Infrastructure

● Global Venue Partner of the Year - Verizon & Ericsson Professional Outreach

Fireside Chat Guest Speaker - Pendo.io (2023)

Guest Lecturer – North Carolina State University & Full Sail University (2019-2022) Team Member – HBCU Pathfinder Early Professional Career Panel (2017-Current) Presenter – Triangle User Experience Professionals Association & Extreme Connect (2021) Page 3 3

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